Fishermen discouraged by algae bloom levels post-Barry, still hoping for federal assistance

NEW ORLEANS, La. (WVUE) - As fishermen took to the water Tuesday (July 16), they didn’t see the swirling blue green algae as they did before Barry.

But, Robert Campo, with Campo’s Marina, said he doesn’t believe it’s gone for good.

“It got pretty shook up here for a couple days. We don’t see it anymore, but I suspect if it stays flat and calm probably a week and a half, we’ll see it again; I don’t think it’s over with,” Campo said.

The unprecedented double opening of the Bonnet Carre spillway in one year has dumped freshwater into normally salt and brackish water for months, killing 100 percent of the oysters on many fishermen’s leases. Robert Campo said even if the algae disappeared today, it wouldn’t make much difference.

No, they’re dead there’s not bringing them back to life, it’s a minimum three-year turnaround, minimum,” Campo said.

He said now, they need help two-fold -- not only to somehow stave algae from killing off their catch, but also money or federal grants to help them get through this season.

“We all knew going into this year with the river as high as it was, we’d rather see the river water in the lakes, even if it killed everything than in our homes again," Campo said. “I would say somewhere in the million-dollar range of oysters dead on our grounds.”

Scientists with the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation like Brady Skaggs, say while they expect more detailed reports in the future, preliminary results re-affirm Campo and others’ suspicion: The algae didn’t go anywhere.

“We were hoping some of the algae would dissipate or at least be limited by cloud cover and rain and increased salinity and well, we still see algae,” Skaggs said.

Skaggs said salinity levels are marginally higher than last week, which means it’s the first time levels have been this high since 2018. So far, samples do not indicate swimming in the lake is dangerous, and while that’s not helpful for fishermen, Skaggs is hopeful things will eventually return to normal.

“This has been a year of many firsts, and we’ve been in flood-fight," Skaggs said. “That balance in the ecosystem could be disrupted, but we remain optimistic that things will eventually rebound as well.”

Campo said he is hopeful algae levels and oyster fishing will return to normal too, maybe a year or several years from now. But, to even get to that point, he said they need federal dollars, and he’s not holding his breath.

“I don’t think we need a bigger storm, we just need some of these congressmen to send money down this way, that’s what i think we need,” Campo said.

St. Bernard parish leaders, fishermen and wildlife leaders are in Washington D.C. right now to lobby for that federal aid for fishermen.

Senator Bill Cassidy said have sent a letter to the administration asking for emergency relief and plan to meet with the local leaders by the end of the week.

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