A dozen Chenier au Tigres on the half-shell, please. I like the ring of that. Vermilion Parish is eyeing installing man-made oyster reefs at Chenier au Tigre, a barrier island below Intracoastal City that is one of the first lines of resistance from storm surges for the coastal parish. The project, reports The Advocate, was outlined to police jurors by Sherwood Gagliano, CEO of Baton Rouge-based Coastal Environments Inc.
Gagliano laid down his test reefs on Nature Conservancy marsh in Matagorda, Texas before Hurricane Ike. The steel frames hung with oyster shells in nylon sacks attracted oyster spats, the spats grew shells, the whole thing cemented together and rode out the massive storm surge with nary a dislodged oyster.
Eight months ago, there was resistance from state coastal tzar Garret Graves, who had concerns that the technology wasn’t perfected yet. Graves said the artificial reefs didn’t work to help control storm surges and that they could actually become projectiles. However, the privately owned Nature Conservancy saw so much improvement in their own property, they awarded Gagliano a $4 million grant to build reefs in Louisiana. Terrebonne Parish has gone forward with the artificial reefs, and now Vermilion Parish is a likely second setting.
Thank goodness for private business. Government grinds away at a glacial speed while the coast continues to erode, in part compromised because government permitted our natural oyster shell reefs to be dredged. Meanwhile, plucky entrepreneurs dive right in. And soon, lucky diners may be able to belly up to the oyster bar for some homegrowns. It’s a pleasure when you can have your coast restored and eat it, too.
... written by Louis Coast , July 22, 2009 - 04:01 pm
Anyone interested in coastal restoration efforts should get involved with America's WETLAND: Campaign to Save Coastal Louisiana. The foundation works to raise public awareness of the impact Louisiana’s wetland loss has on the state, nation and world and to gain support for efforts to conserve and save coastal Louisiana. They need our support!
Check out their Web site: http://www.americaswetland.com
Join their Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2218884569#/group.php?gid=10751373114
Watch fascinating videos on their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/marmillionco
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There will soon be a whole lot of shakin’ going on at Benny’s Sportshack Supplement Depot, a new concept by Opelousas native Benny Nele. Located at 2002 Johnston St., the supplement shop, smoothie bar and café, featuring hot off the press paninis and wraps, plans to open in late May.
Philip deMahy Sr., a once respected New Iberia ad exec, was sentenced May 2 to spend the next two years (he faced up to 100 years) in a state penitentiary after state and federal investigators found dozens of images depicting children engaged in lewd sexual acts on his personal computer.
This year’s Cool Town issue is all about people who are not native to South Louisiana but made a conscious decision to be here, to be among us, to participate in our culture and contribute to it.
A shelved ordinance transferring $200,000 from a northside drainage project to a south Lafayette development may not break any laws, but it stinks to high heaven.
An effort to restore a shuttered dancehall and document other vacant or razed honky-tonks could serve as a model for saving an endangered species of entertainment.
Lafayette’s gene pool has been host to a long line of eccentric characters who have blurred the lines between crazy, genius, disturbed and curiously entertaining.
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Check out their Web site:
http://www.americaswetland.com
Join their Facebook group:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2218884569#/group.php?gid=10751373114
Watch fascinating videos on their YouTube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/marmillionco