ien Hurricane 

 Katrina hit Mississippi's Gulf 

 Coast, the strong winds pushed 

 Tom Becker's charter boat 

 near a tree top, almost 15 feet 

 off the Tchoutacabouffa River. 



To help assess the boat's 

 damage, Becker turned to 

 the Missisippi- Alabama Sea 

 Grant Consortium. 



"Sea Grant helped us get 

 our business back in order and provided 

 advice," says Becker. "It was the only place 

 I knew to go to get help with my boat. 

 Now I am back in business and have taken 

 groups out 41 times since the storm." 



Becker is just one of many charter 

 boat captains, commercial fishers, seafood 

 dealers and other constituents who were 

 helped by Mississippi- Alabama Sea Grant 

 and Louisiana Sea Grant. 



"Overnight, we went from our 

 role as educational advisors to storm 

 recovery advisors," says Dave Burrage, 

 extension professor of marine sciences 

 for the Mississippi- Alabama Sea Grant 

 Consortium. "Our constituents called us 

 about everything from where to get well 

 water tested to how to get mold off the 

 ceiling." 



Mike Liffmann, associate executive 

 director of Louisiana Sea Grant, had a similar 

 experience. "It changed my job for the rest of 

 my career," Liffmann states on the National 

 Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration 

 (NOAA) Coastal Services Center Web site. 



"It is hard to see nonpoint source pollution 

 in marinas as a priority when the marinas no 

 longer exist." 



Fishing Industry 

 Losses 



Hurricanes Katrina and Rita struck 

 the center of commercial and recreational 

 fishing along the Gulf of Mexico coast, which 

 produces 10 percent of the shrimp and 40 

 percent of the oysters consumed in the United 

 States, according to a 2005 Congressional 



agrant.org 



Research Service (CRS). 



"Initial losses to seafood production 

 from Katrina were estimated at $ 1 . 1 billion 

 for Louisiana and may exceed $200 million 

 for Alabama, exclusive of infrastructure," 

 the report says. "Mississippi's losses were 

 comparable to Alabama. Additional damages 

 from Hurricane Rita may bring Louisiana 

 losses to nearly $2 billion." 



In Orleans Parish, which includes the 

 city of New Orleans as well as several small 

 communities, Pete and Clara Gerica lost their 

 home where they also processed seafood. 

 The strong winds from Katrina destroyed 

 their large shrimp boat, small craft and 

 mullet boat. 



"Only my 21 -foot skiff survived," says 

 Pete Gerica. "My mother and dog ended up 

 in a tree across the street, and my wife held 

 onto to a floating dock. I used the boat to get 

 them out." 



