Louisiana will open applications October 19 for roughly $27 million in federal disaster assistance meant to help fishing businesses recover from the hurricanes that battered the state's coast in 2020 and 2021. Fishermen, charter captains, vessel owners, seafood dealers and processors are all in line to apply, with the state accepting submissions through January 31, 2027.
Where the Money Comes From
According to New Orleans CityBusiness, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration allocated the assistance funding, and prequalification letters outlining potential payments and the documentation applicants need were scheduled to be mailed Friday. Tyler Bosworth said NOAA approved $27 million in disaster assistance for fishing communities, and he said the funds could assist the seafood community dealing with the lingering effects of the storms, per the same report. The program is not first-come, first-served — eligible applicants will receive direct assistance payments as long as they submit applications before the deadline, and submissions will be reviewed in the order received.
The aid covers a wide swath of the industry: commercial vessel owners, fishermen, seafood dealers, charter captains and seafood processors are all eligible categories, the report notes. Vessel owners, wholesale dealers and docks, fresh product dealers, and fishermen qualify for prequalification by holding a resident commercial license in 2019, 2020 or 2021, with qualifying applicants needing corresponding saltwater seafood sales documented on department trip tickets in at least one of those years. Charter captains receive prequalification letters if they held a resident commercial charter license during that same window.
What's Inside the Prequalification Letters
The letters include eligible payment amounts for 2020 and 2021, the required application documents, and unique identification numbers applicants need to complete their submissions online, the outlet reports. Applicants must review the eligible payment amounts listed and can then accept or decline the payment, or request additional information before deciding. The state wildlife and fisheries department prepared qualifying calculation and trip ticket data summaries for each prequalified entity, and applicants may request that data before accepting an award or may appeal eligibility or payment determinations through the application portal.
Every applicant, regardless of category, must provide a current government-issued photo ID for the person named on the license or for the business's registered agent, and each entity must hold a current, valid department license for every qualifying sector at the time of application. Charter captains who did not report their activity through Louisiana's LA Creel survey must instead submit documentation of their charter fishing activity during the preceding 12 months.
Processors Face a Separate, Document-Heavy Track
Seafood processors could not be prequalified the way other sectors were, so they will instead receive separate letters explaining eligibility requirements and application procedures, according to the CityBusiness report. Processors must submit annual financial information covering any years they operated between 2016 and 2022, and that financial information must show the quantities and costs of Louisiana wild-caught crab, oysters, shrimp and saltwater finfish they purchased — seafood sourced from other states or from abroad does not count toward the payment calculations. Processors must provide CPA-certified and notarized annual financial reports, along with a current Louisiana Department of Health permit; those without a CPA may instead submit a signed, notarized affidavit containing the required financial information.
A Long Wait for an Industry Still Rebuilding
The storms behind this relief effort left deep scars. An assessment described in a seafoodsource.com report found that Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta and Ida together cost Louisiana's commercial seafood sector almost $580 million, with total damage to fisheries infrastructure estimated at $304.9 million and revenue losses across 22 coastal parishes totaling $155.3 million. The Louisiana Sea Grant and Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries report put combined losses to the state's fishing industry at $579 million. Of the infrastructure damage, Hurricane Ida accounted for the bulk of it, while Laura, Delta and Zeta together made up about 30 percent, per seafoodsource.com. Processors absorbed an estimated $99.7 million in losses and docks and dealers another $77.4 million, according to seafoodsource.com. A PBS NewsHour report found that the storms affected 8,503 individual businesses across Louisiana's coastal zone.
That same PBS reporting, published a year after Hurricane Ida made landfall, noted that Louisiana's commercial fisheries industry had not yet received federal aid tied to the storm — underscoring just how long this relief has been in the pipeline. The state's seafood industry, which PBS described as a more than $2.4 billion sector supporting about 3,000 commercial fishermen, has also weathered a 50 percent drop in commercial fishing licenses issued since Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Louisiana's wildlife and fisheries agency has moved smaller relief packages before, including $14.6 million in CARES Act assistance and an earlier $12.4 million COVID-19 assistance fund, though those were separate, smaller pools of money from the current $27 million round.
