Blue Dog Nights

HOUMA — David Barrios began his fitful, start-stop career in commercial fishing when a neighbor loaned him a trawler just long enough to catch a few coolers worth of shrimp.

Since then, Barrios, 51, has spent much of his career equipping boats with nets and repairing the vessels after increasingly worse storms, he said. He stopped trawling after the 2005 hurricanes, when a telephone pole speared a pontoon on his boat. Combined with other fishing costs, it was enough to force him to finally move on.

“You can’t make it,” he said.

Though Barrios blames high fuel costs and low shrimp prices for his decision, he also says hurricanes seem to become an increasing threat to fishermen as coastal land loss worsens. And small but noticeable changes in shrimp catches he links to land loss are also becoming apparent, Barrios said, who still sells shrimp on the roadside.

“It looks like the land is just floating away. It’s not just after a hurricane,” he said. “It can be a hard rain or the tide coming up. The land is changing every day.”

Fishermen who make money on shrimp and oysters are among those most intimately aware of changes in landscape by wetland loss. Experts say the land loss could soon bring a sharp decline in shrimp populations and, some believe, their eventual end.

The wetlands are habitats to shrimp at critical points in their lives, said Martin Bourgeois, a marine fisheries biologist with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. Without them, shrimp are exposed to predators early in their development.

“Habitat loss is the single biggest loss to the fishery,” he said.

With wetlands steadily breaking up and allowing saltwater to intrude, the decline in the number shrimp fishermen catch in a season is expected to decline in coming years.

“We’ll always have commercial shrimp fisheries,” Bourgeois said. “It may not be as productive as it once was. But open water habitats can serve as habitats. Not a very promising outlook, but that’s where we are.”

Others say the situation is more dire.

The amount of shrimp caught season to season fluctuates depending on water temperatures and salt levels, making it hard to track trends, said Kerry St. Pe’, director of the Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. But the catches seem to be leveling-off.

Shrimpers can expect a sharp decrease as wetlands deteriorate and part of their habitat is destroyed, he said.

“We all know that we’re expecting to see a drastic and quick collapse once all these smaller pieces of marsh turn to open water,” St. Pe’ said. “We’ve just lost so much wetlands that it is expected to go any year now.”

Between now and the predicted collapse, some shrimpers might notice bigger catches, St. Pe’ said. Barrios, who has begun purchasing shrimp and selling it on the roadside, said and large, white shrimp are unusually plentiful in the midst of brown shrimp season.

“They’re starting to take over the brown shrimp territory,” he said.

The spike in white shrimp could be attributed to other factors, St. Pe’ said, but, on the brink of a predicted decline, shrimpers have already seen large catches.

The reason for the increases may be because as wetlands break apart, more grassy areas where shrimp can find plankton are created, St. Pe’ said.

The increased food source is only temporary as wetlands deteriorate.

“That’s one of the ironies of wetland loss,” he said. “It can actually produce more shrimp and fisheries while it is happening. But once it is gone, it will be gone.”

Many shrimpers are aware of the issue but “feel powerless when it comes to environmental factors,” he said. “It becomes so complicated to them it seems as if there is nothing they can do to stop it.”

Myron Prosperie, a fisherman who lives in Houma, said he doubts anything will be done within his lifetime to stop the wetlands from eroding into the Gulf of Mexico.

At 59, he says he has been hearing about land loss since he was a teenager. He is less worried for himself than for those just getting into the business.

“I care about it for the future, for the younger generation,” he said. “If it is something I can’t do anything about, I don’t worry about it. When I’m gone, I’m gone.”

He hasn’t noticed changes in the catches in recent years but said salt water has ruined his oysters.

As early as 2002, he noticed his oysters would pop open and die when they are about the size of a 50-cent piece.

If there’s a solution, he is ready for it.

“Maybe they have something up their sleeve,” Prosperie said. “But they are sure taking their time about it.”

Staff Writer Matthew Pleasant can be reached at 857-2202 or matthew.pleasant@houmatoday.com.