[StBernard] St. Bernard President Craig Taffaro expands role of Fisheries Director Ricky Melerinein response to Kenneth Feinberg's efforts to reconfigure impacted shrimp fishermen's compensation

[Westley Annis]

St. Bernard President Craig Taffaro expands role of Fisheries Director Ricky
Melerine

in response to Kenneth Feinberg's efforts to reconfigure impacted shrimp
fishermen's compensation 

 

St. Bernard Parish President Craig P. Taffaro, Jr. announced that in
response to the latest disclosure of Kenneth Feinberg to reconfigure how
compensation will be handled to impacted shrimp fishermen, he is expanding
the role of the Director of Fisheries, Ricky Melerine.

 

"During the BP Oil Spill and for nearly a year following the spill, we
continued to plead with BP and Mr. Feinberg that his formula just wasn't
going to adequately address the needs of our commercial fishermen and that
the need to push more funds to the impacted fishermen was critical"
explained Taffaro.  Taffaro explained that Melerine's expanded role will not
only continue to address programs related to fisheries and economic
development programs for the commercial fishing and processing industry but
now will include oversight to the additional coastal restoration funding
anticipated from Coastal Impact Assistance Program and restoration funding
from the long term recovery and emergency restoration allocations from BP.

 

Councilman Wayne J. Landry said, "We have continuously pushed BP to give
more assistance to the fishermen. I am hopeful that this time they get it
right so that the money does finally get into the hands of the fishermen."

 

District E Councilman Fred Everhardt echoed those concerns.

 

"I believe that we have to get Mr. Feinberg back to St. Bernard to address
the negative impact that is occurring now only a year after the BP oil
spill. I also believe it's going to get worse before it gets better,"
Everhardt said. He said he also asked the Gulf Ecosystem Restoration Task
Force to officially recognize "that current land loss rates in coastal
Louisiana indicate that this is a crisis and that officials make specific
recommendations or changes to current federal processes to streamline and
improve the permitting process required for coastal restoration efforts."

 

Taffaro announced that both much needed oyster cultch and shoreline
restoration activities will be the primary focus of this funding and that
this will be in addition to the current oyster basket projects underway in
St. Bernard with Coastal Environments, Inc. to establish oyster reef blocks
as a means to rebuild shoreline.

 

"With all these programs our absolute priority is to engage our local
fishermen.  Having Ricky (Melerine) in place will provide added credibility
to ensuring that our local fishermen are treated fairly, Taffaro said.
"While the long term impact of the spill continues to unfold, we have to
stand up for and guard against out of state contractors taking all the
work", expressed Melerine.  "As long as I am around, I can guarantee that
Craig and I will fight to keep our fishermen in place.  This is as important
as anything we can do as part of our recovery," committed Melerine.

 

Oyster seeding continues to take place from the first two rounds of funding
through the Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries program with one project in the
Half Moon Bayou area and the other in the Black Bay area.  Additional
funding in the range of $25 million as part of an agreement between St.
Bernard and the Governor's Office is available. Reprogrammed diversion funds
and a request of $110 million and nearly $300 million in the BP restoration
projects are in process.

 

Taffaro reports that these program requests are the result of months of
planning and review with the state's Office of Natural Resources and the Oil
Spill task force.  Louisiana has led the way in project requests as part of
being better prepared and scoping restoration work even before the spill.
According to Garret Graves of the state office, Louisiana has always made
coastal restoration a priority which allowed projects in the face of the
spill to advance more quickly through the process. While no money has been
released from the BP $1 billion of early restoration funds, St. Bernard has
continued to remain engaged with Governor Jindal's office to prepare for any
projects that are released.

 

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