The last time the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries asked state residents to help eradicate an invasive species by putting nutria rats on the barbie, locals turned up their noses. This time they may not have so much trouble. The Houma Courier reports that giant tiger prawns, native to the western Pacific where they are widely farmed, are turning up in Louisiana shrimping grounds from Venice to Vermilion Bay.
The humongous shrimp potentially carry disease pathogens and various forms of bacterial, fungal, and viral infections, which could threaten Louisiana’s white and brown shrimp populations. Introduced into south Louisiana for aquaculture purposes, the prawns escaped from shrimp farms into local waters; evidence, shrimpers say, against the Obama administration’s plan for fish farms in the Gulf of Mexico.
On the bright side, tiger prawns are a tasty crustacean. So if they do turn up in your nets, after you report them to Wildlife and Fisheries, here’s what to do:
Broiled Lemon and Garlic Tiger Prawns
1 1/2 pounds tiger prawns, peeled and deveined
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat oven on broiler setting. With a sharp knife, remove tails from prawns, and butterfly them from the underside. Arrange prawns on broiler pan. In a small saucepan, melt butter with garlic and lemon juice. Pour 1/4 cup butter mixture in a small bowl, and brush onto prawns. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over shrimp. Place broiler pan on top rack, and broil prawns for 4 to 5 minutes, or until done. Serve with remaining butter mixture for dipping.
Is it a crime for citizens to photograph, video, or take notes of a police officer in the line of duty, or a right protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution? Locally, such activity, as witnessed recently, will at the very least result in a night spent behind bars.
David Calhoun and Elizabeth “EB” Brooks are the first two employees of Lafayette Central Park Inc., the nonprofit charged with turning Lafayette Consolidated Government’s 100-acre Johnston Street Horse Farm property into a passive public park. Calhoun was named executive director, and Brooks is director of planning and design.
At Thursday's State of the Economy luncheon, LEDA President and CEO Gregg Gothreaux said PXP has already quietly hired 180 people for its Broussard expansion.
Episcopal School of Acadiana’s Dr. Joshua Caffery, chair of the school’s English Department, is headed to Washington, D.C., and the Library of Congress as the latest winner of the Alan Lomax Fellowship in Folklife Studies.
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.
The last time the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries asked state residents to help eradicate an invasive species by putting nutria rats on the barbie, locals turned up their noses. This time they may not have so much trouble. The Houma Courier reports that giant tiger prawns, native to the western Pacific where they are widely farmed, are turning up in Louisiana shrimping grounds from Venice to Vermilion Bay. 
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