Fisheries Assistance Center opens new office

By Zoe Sullivan
Contributing Writer

For almost four years, the Southeast Louisiana Fisheries Assistance Center (SLFAC) work­ed out of a double-wide trailer in a corner of Plaquemines Parish. Thursday, however, Seedco Finan­cial Services held a grand opening ceremony for the new Center, next to the Parish government offices. Established to help the fishing community recovery from several devastating hurricanes, the SLFAC was ready to assist with the issues following the BP oil disaster in 2010. Even now, for example, one of its primary services is to work with fisher folk who need to navigate the Gulf Coast Claims Facility claims process.

The Greater New Orleans Foundation’s Director of Regional Initiatives, Marco Cocito-Monoc, told a crowd of roughly 30 people who gathered for the event that the fishing industry is experiencing “the cusp of an existential crisis,” and that, supporting fishing folk and their families is critical because of the significance it has for the overall economy. “This was the first and remains the only such commercial fisheries assistance center in the country,” Cocito-Monoc explained, describing how this reality was a testament to the friends, both locally and around the country that aim to support the “resilient” community.

Wearing a dark blue suit, and a yellow tie bearing the blue tile street names visible on many New Orleans’ corners, Mark Maher, Vice President and Director of Operations for Seedco Financial Louisiana, expressed his hopes for the new facility. “I think we’ll continue much as we are now: bringing partners in that can deliver services that are needed.”

According to a Seedco document, the organization has helped people obtain more than $8.5 million in state-funded grants and has issued loans worth over $6.5 million to fishing-industry members. It has also produced a regularly updated guide, the Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill Resource Guide, to services and organizations providing assistance around oil-spill-related matters.

“Right now we have plans,” Maher went on. “We’re working on an educational initiative for fishermen with the LA Workforce Commission and Nunez Com­munity College.” Maher also described another effort to bring information about public benefits to those who come to the center.

“We’re going to be here,” insisted Seedco’s Financial President, James Bason, underscoring the organization’s commitment to supporting Gulf Coast residents.

With a rebellious tie that made him look like he’d be more comfortable on the bayou than in the suit he was wearing, the Environ­mental Defense Fund’s Paul Harrison also addressed the crowd about the need to see opportunity in the changing coastal environment. “The Missis­sippi River delta,” he said, “is a national and a world treasure be­cause it is a working coast.”

“The reality is that fisheries in other parts of the country haven’t had to deal with their economic issues at the same time they’ve had to deal with massive hurricanes and oil spills and that sort of thing,” Harrison later told The Louisiana Weekly. “So the stress on the fisheries in South Louisiana is very different from a lot of other places.”

Plaquemines Parish Council Member Percy Griffin sat in the audience at the event. “A great deal of minority fishermen are in my district,” Griffin told The Louisiana Weekly. “Hopefully this is going be an avenue to help them economically and financially. One problem that the minority fishermen have been facing is that they don’t have the resources in case they want to buy a boat.” Griffin explained that access to Seedco’s financial services could help more minority fishermen become independent.

“It means everything,” said Byron Encalade, President of the Louisiana Oystermen’s Assoc­iation, about having the fisheries assistance center. “Without the NGOs such as Catholic Charities and Seedco and others…building those bridges, getting those organizations together and getting on the same page. That’s what we’ve done. They have been out there… I hate to think of where we would be [without them].”

This article was originally published in the January 23, 2012 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper