Here's how to score some fresh Louisiana seafood for dinner

A program started almost a decade ago to help commercial fishermen locally and across Louisiana’s coast sell their catches directly to customers is paying off for some amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Stay-at-home orders and shutdowns the state has ordered in an effort to slow the deadly virus’s spread have closed or slowed business at many restaurants and markets, wreaking havoc on the supply chain upon which fishermen usually rely. Freezers at most large seafood processing companies were full, or filling up, and labor became unreliable.

That’s where Louisiana Direct Seafood comes in, says Robert Twilley, executive director of Louisiana Sea Grant, which launched the online-based program in 2011.

It helps commercial fishermen, shrimpers, crabbers and oyster harvesters sell a portion of their catch directly to the public at premium prices. And that helps offset sinking dockside prices due to imports, increased fuel costs and the financial struggles resulting from 2019’s spring floods.

“Our focus right now is on shrimp,” Twilley said in a news release. “With inshore shrimp season opening in May-June and the freezers being full, the product has nowhere to go unless we can help connect the dots and use our established networks to create new supply chains. We’re talking about 48 million pounds of shrimp; that’s the yearly catch and it has to come out of the water, onto the docks and somehow find its way to people’s plates.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s decision about two weeks ago to buy 20 million pounds of frozen Gulf shrimp for use in various food security programs will help open some of the freezer space at the commercial processors, Twilley said.

And that will allow Louisiana Sea Grant to focus on expanding direct marketing networks for other commodities, including crab, oysters and finfish.

In March, Marine Extension Agents Thomas Hymel in New Iberia and Julie Falgout in Houma helped a Louisiana fisherman move 5,000 pounds of freshly caught red snapper. They called Frank Randol, owner of Randol’s restaurant in Lafayette, who happens to have a large parking lot where the fisherman could set up shop.

The also helped set up another popup market in the same lot with shrimp boat captain Lance Nacio of Anna Marie Shrimp of Montegut, who sold not just snapper, but 20-pound grouper and tilefish, too.

“The only way for Lance to keep working was to try doing this pop-up,” Hymel said. “He didn’t have a market anymore, and he had fish. So we were there from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday, with cars lined up 30-deep for two-and-a-half hours, and the last car bought the last fish. He sold out.”

Anyone looking to buy seafood at these one-off events can visit louisianadirectseafood.com to check for times and places.

Once there, click on the button for LaTer Direct Seafood and you’ll find a list of fishermen in Terrebonne and Lafourche parishes who sell fresh seafood directly to customers. They will have your order ready for pickup. At least one has advertised delivery service to help maintain the social-distancing guidelines in place during the coronavirus pandemic.

You can also buy frozen seafood from fishermen locally and across Louisiana’s coast at LouisianaDirectSeafoodShop.com. Shrimp, fish, crab and oysters can be shipped anywhere in the U.S. in two days.

“Remember that each dollar you spend helps fishermen, their families and their communities, the backbone of the seafood industry,” said Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Secretary Jack Montoucet, who penned an open letter encouraging people to purchase seafood produced and caught by Louisiana fishermen. “They are counting on this income for their survival, especially after the hardships many of them suffered last year.”

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Here's how to score some fresh Louisiana seafood for dinner