A recent study shows a positive link between expectant mothers eating fish weekly and the health of their newborn children.

A recent study has shown that a consistent diet of fish –– broiled or baked –– may hold the key to fighting Alzheimer’s disease. And, in an unrelated study, but just as important, fish consumed by pregnant women may help their children developmentally.

“This is the first study to establish a direct relationship between fish consumption and brain structure and Alzheimer’s risk,” said Dr. Cyrus Raji, from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The results showed that people who consumed baked or broiled fish at least one time per week had better preservation of gray matter volume on MRI in brain areas at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.”

An additional study in New Zealand found similar results as the Pittsburgh School of Medicine study. Alzheimer’s disease is an incurable, progressive brain disease that slowly destroys memory and cognitive skills.

Raji pointed out that working memory, which allows people to focus on tasks and commit information to short-term memory, is “one of the most important cognitive domains.” Working memory is destroyed by Alzheimer’s disease.

“We found higher levels of working memory in people who ate baked or broiled fish on a regular basis, even when accounting for other factors, such as education, age, gender and physical activity.”

Dr. James Patterson, professor of Psychiatry at LSU Health Shreveport, said Omega 3 fatty acids are the key. Fish, particularly northern fish, have a high concentration of Omega 3 fatty acids, he added. But Louisiana fish also contain varying levels of Omega 3.

There’s also good news for pregnant women. A study conducted by Carol Lammi-Keefe, professor and head of human nutrition at LSU in Baton Rouge, shows a positive link between expectant mothers eating fish weekly and the health of their newborn children.

“There is evidence of a more mature nervous system,” Lammi-Keefe said. “We saw the benefits of Omega 3, especially in the last part of the pregnancy.”

The study also showed:

• At four months, the child’s vision was better.
• At nine months, the child performed better on a problem-solving test. (The child was asked to retrieve a toy.)

Dr. James Barrow, assistant professor of OBGYN at LSU Health Shreveport, said the positive results are linked to an increased development of the child’s central nervous system.

“The data also shows better results for eating fish, rather than taking fish oil supplements,” Dr. Barrow added.

Testing will help restaurants ensure customers that the fish they ordered is indeed the fish they are eating.

Thanks to a new DNA technology that’s coming soon, you will be assured the fish you are served in your favorite restaurant is the real thing. DNA barcoding, according to an Associated Press report, is used to prevent mislabeling of seafood.

That’s good news for the Louisiana Restaurant Association. Although the association is aware of efforts to use DNA to identify species of fish, the technology doesn’t have a direct link to restaurants in Louisiana. But the Louisiana Restaurant Association always wants to set that higher standard.

“Not only do we promote the use of Louisiana seafood, we also promote truth in menu,” said Erica Papillion, director of communications for the association.

In October 2011, the Food and Drug Administration officially approved DNA barcoding in the hopes of preventing mislabeling U.S. produced seafood, as well as seafood imported from around the world.

David Schindel, executive secretary of the Consortium for the Barcode of Life, told the Associated Press that he is in discussion with seafood suppliers and the restaurant industry to utilize the technology as a means of certifying the authenticity of different species of fish. Currently, the Barcode of Life database includes more than 167,000 species.

The DNA barcoding of fish will reduce the mislabeling of seafood and help restaurants ensure customers that the fish they ordered is indeed the fish they are eating. The Consortium for the Barcode of Life believes barcoding offers a simple, rapid and inexpensive means of identifying fish. The ultimate goal of the group is to barcode all fish species.

The process works much like you would think –– by using DNA to identify a species using the database. When the technology is used to test the seafood used in restaurants, not every piece will be tested. With each shipment of seafood that’s ordered, representative samples will be selected for testing.

“When they (restaurants) sell something that’s really expensive, they want the consumer to believe that they are getting what they are paying for,” Schindel told the Associated Press. “We are going to start seeing a self-regulating movement by the high-end trade embracing barcoding as a mark of quality.”

Photo Credit: Kerry Maloney

In the meantime, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries is about to launch a new program to ensure quality certification and authenticity of Louisiana seafood. Jon Bell, extension professor in the Department of Food Science in the LSU AgCenter, said the new program should be up and running by spring 2012. The program will establish that the seafood is harvested from Louisiana or Gulf waters and landed and processed in Louisiana.

“It sounds simple,” he said, “but there are a lot of details to work out. Participation will be voluntary, and the program will certify that current state and federal requirements are met. All participants must be licensed by the state of Louisiana, and these participating fishers, dealers, and processors will be linked by trip tickets and other product documentation. This documentation and traceability will assure that the product is wild Louisiana seafood.”

Although the program won’t initially utilize DNA technology, there is interest in incorporating it into the program, Bell added.

Once this authenticity program is in place, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will work with the state’s seafood industry to develop a more sophisticated premium product certification program.

A future step by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will include using DNA to identify species of Louisiana seafood. A DNA identification project is in the early stages of development, focusing on Gulf shrimp, which is the largest species by volume and value to the state. Like all species, Louisiana Gulf shrimp species have their own unique DNA.

Center of attention: BP's oil spill claims fund administrator Kenneth Feinberg.

“It can’t hurt,” but it’s too early to tell whether the decision made by Kenneth Feinberg, the BP spill claim czar, to double damage payments to shrimpers and crabbers will help any.

Della Dupre, owner of Captain Allen’s Bait and Tackle here, said of the decision, “Everything is so new. I think it is kind of early in the process” to determine just how, or if, the decision will help the economy.

“I think our seafood industry … needs to be paid,” Dupre said. But, she said, the oil spill’s damage has been done. She said her customers want to know “if there is any oil in them,” referring to raw or boiled shrimp, crabs or oysters that she sells. “People want to know. What do you say to that? We’re just kind of playing it by ear and hoping for the best,” she said.

Michel Claudet, president of the Terrebonne Parish Consolidated Government, was more cautious. He said it is “too early” to assess the impact,

Claudet, who before his election was a businessman, a certified public accountant and a lawyer, among other things, did have an official statement. “For many years,” he said, “our local seafood industry has had significant uncertainty and challenges. While I am certain that the industry will rebound, any adjustments in the GCCF (Gulf Coast Claims Facility) payment methodology that favor our hard-working and ever-resilient fishermen will have a positive impact on them, our community and our economy as a whole.”

The new rule covers four times the documented losses from 2010 and in the future. Prior to that, it had been double the losses.

But there is a deeper problem.

“Many of these fishermen never went past the seventh or eighth grade,” Dupre said. “It’s the only lifestyle they know.” The volume just isn’t there. “At one point we were moving a lot more seafood.

As to whether the BP oil spill is affecting the crab population this year, she said, “We’re not seeing the little crabs like we used to. But I can’t really say” there is a cause-and-effect impact.

Feinberg changed the methodology because of the “uncertainty of any ongoing impact from the spill.” That was the stated reason for increased compensation for those who can document their losses.

The move comes as BP was pressuring Feinberg to curtail payments, according to news sources.

Islenos Seafood owner, Mindy Nunez, selling soft-shell crabs at a market in St. Bernard, LA.

There is a growing movement whereby consumers are able to purchase fresh seafood directly from those who catch it. Fishermen and shrimpers benefit financially from the direct transaction, which eliminates middlemen who pay them a lower price for their products, while consumers are assured the freshest seafood at a lower cost than they would pay at a market.

Two of the visible facilitators of the practice are Mindy Nunez, founder of Islenos Seafood Direct and Thomas Hymel, director of Delcambre Direct Seafood Market. Nunez’ company allows consumers to sign up for seafood “packages” and get a certain dollar amount of whatever’s freshest delivered to them statewide every week by Nunez, who collects daily catches from docks in Ycloskey, Reggio and Delacroix. Delcambre Direct enables consumers to contact providers directly to purchase their catch, primarily from the South Pier at the Port of Delcambre.

Mindy Nunez, a St. Bernard parish native, who saw her family of commercial fishermen lose everything in Hurricane Katrina, traded her lucrative career as a Chicago-based trial attorney to return to Louisiana and work in the seafood industry. Her bold move was prompted when she witnessed again their suffering following the BP Oil Spill.

“Buying directly from the fisherman supports the industry and ensures quality,” Nunez said. “It (also) creates community conscience, a relationship, and a connection.”

St. Bernard fishing boat in Ycloskey, LA.

Delcambre Direct was established by the Twin Parish Port Commission in partnership with the LSU AgCenter and Sea Grant. On the company’s website local fishermen’s profiles are listed by species. Consumers select the species of seafood they want, then contact the fishermen with their orders, preferably in advance of the provider’s outing to make a harvest. Consumers can also select “Fresh Catch” messages on the site to see reports directly from fishermen with extra product to sell.

“This concept has really taken off and we want to expand it across the Louisiana coast, said Hymel. “The Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission has awarded a $560,000 grant to launch new direct marketing programs for fishing communities in three other regions — Cameron Parish, Lafourche and Terrebonne parishes, and the New Orleans area.“ The new marketing programs should be up and running by the spring 2012 shrimp season.

U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu speaks with Mike Voisin, CEO of oyster processing company Motivatit Seafoods.

On Thursday U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced in New Orleans the funding for the two projects, one to create 104 acres of marsh in Plaquemines Parish and the other to improve seeding grounds in five parishes. The former allocates $13.2 million and the latter allocates $14,874,300.

The projects are part of a massive “early restoration plan” to mitigate damages caused by the April 20, 2010, explosion of the Deepwater Horizon which was drilling a well for BP Exploration and Production Inc.

The projects are part of that plan which is still undergoing review.

A team of trustees from five states said in a report, “While we do not yet know the extent of the natural resources that were impacted by the spill, we do know that the impacts were widespread and extensive and will take years to assess completely.”

The trustees said the projects “would enhance Louisiana’s oyster productivity” and that beneficial actions would far outweigh “any short-term, adverse impacts.”

The projects in the Atchafalaya, Terrebonne, Barataria, Breton Sound and Pontchartrain coast basins would product “seed-sized and sack-sized oysters on public oyster seed grounds.” Those are areas in which oysters were exposed to oil and dispersants.

Officially, the projects are known as the Lake Heritage Marsh Creation in Plaquemines Parish and the Louisiana Oyster Cultch Project in St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Lafourche, Jefferson and Terrebonne parishes.

The funding comes from a  $1 billion early restoration agreement reached between the trustees and BP last April.

“This is a positive step,” Landrieu said, but the “plan should only be the beginning of a comprehensive strategy to restore the Gulf.” She urged the expediting of other projects “that are ready to begin.”

Mike Voisin, an owner of Motivatit Seafoods of Houma, said his company owns oyster beds, but the state owns 1.6 million acres of public lands. The restoration is “a positive thing” and shows a commitment to rehabilitation from the damages caused by the spill.

Louisiana fisherman Lance Nacio aboard the Anna Marie.

Lance Nacio and his shrimp boat, the Anna Marie, have caught the attention of the Washington Post for his innovative shrimping process. Nacio catches shrimp then freezes them almost instantly to preserve the sweetness and firm texture. Nacio then directly markets his product to chefs, grocers and restaurants. The result is high-quality Louisiana shrimp:

Read More: By freezing his catch at sea, La. shrimper turns the tide on his business  by Jane Black (Published December 13, 2011)

New Orleans Gemologist Anne Dale

Raw, fried, char-grilled, simmered in creamy soup – we typically think of Louisiana oysters in terms of the best way to eat them, but enterprising entrepreneurs in the state are finding myriad uses for the luscious bivalve that extend beyond the plate.

New Orleans gemologist Anne Dale is putting Louisiana oysters on the map with her trademarked LaPearlite™ cabochon cut gemstones made from hand-cut, polished oyster shells. In August 2011, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal signed a bill declaring LaPearlite™ the Official Louisiana Gemstone.

Dale hit on the idea during the BP oil spill, when worry about the health of the Gulf spurred a run on seafood. Like everyone else living along the Gulf coast, Dale says she and her husband were stocking up on shrimp and softshell crabs, and eating oysters by the bushel. She had an a-ha! moment while shucking oysters in her backyard.

“I’m sipping a beer, cracking open oysters and really noticing the way the sunlight hits the inside of the shell and reveals these gorgeous layers and swirls of pearlescent color – it just hit me,” Dale says.

Dale estimates that only about 10 percent of the shells she plows through at Motavatit Seafood in Houma will make the cut for her LaPearlite™ gemstones, but she is adamant about the superiority of Louisiana oyster shells for the process.

“My guess is that our brackish coastline – the unique mix of saltwater and fresh water – creates the ideal oyster shell,” Dale says. “Saltwater strengthens the shell, and I think there’s a connection between freshwater and aragonite, the mineral that gives the shell its lustrous gold qualities.”

Respect for the mighty Louisiana oyster also prompted Baton Rouge home brewer Kerry Yoes to create his Imperial Louisiana Oyster Stout – a beer that won the “Andy Award”, Abita Beer’s home-brew competition.

“Using oysters was really my way of showing support for my favorite food,” says Yoes. “The thought of Louisiana oysters on the half shell not being available anymore was horrible.”

Abita's Imperial Louisiana Oyster Stout is made with shucked oysters and oyster liquor.

So Yoes put his four years of home-brewing experience to work. Oyster stouts are traditionally made with oyster shells, but Yoes took it a step further, adding shucked oysters and oyster liquor to his blend. Abita chose Yoes’ winning recipe to be brewed and distributed as an Abita Select tap-only offering.

Oyster shells also travel full-circle back into the water to be used as oyster reef material. One Louisiana company, Coastal Environments, Inc., builds living oyster reef panels called ReefBLK℠ that are used in a variety of coastal projects, including erosion control. Piles of shells returned to oyster beds also provide an ideal habitat for oyster spat to attach to and grow.

Re-purposing oyster shells isn’t a new concept in Louisiana. Al Sunseri, president and co-owner of P & J Oysters in the French Quarter, says that underneath the asphalt, the streets of New Orleans are literally paved with oyster shells.

“My grandfather had a contract with the city to put oyster shells under the streets,” Sunseri says, rattling off Crescent City street names like Elysian Fields, St. Claude, and North Rampart.

Freshwater diversions driven by the BP oil spill damaged the Louisiana oyster population, which means P & J’s isn’t shucking – or producing the volume of shells – the company once did.

Workers clean oysters at a Louisiana seafood processing business.

A case in which employers say new and higher federal wage rules for foreign workers would drive many of them out of business was moved back to Pennsylvania by a federal judge in Louisiana.

“The Department of Labor revised the H-2B wage rate as the direct result of the rulings and orders that took place in the litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania,” U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell said in a ruling late Monday. “Therefore venue of the present suit would be proper there.”

The H-2B program is one by which documented foreign workers are hired when no Americans will do the jobs.

Among those affected by the program are seafood processors. Testifying in an earlier court hearing, they said the much higher wages would effectively put them out of business or allow foreign competition to shut them down.

Edward T. Hayes, attorney for the American Shrimp Processors Association, said, “We are disappointed by the ultimate conclusion of the ruling, but understand it. We have a lot of respect for Judge Drell and he obviously carefully considered his role as a jurist and the overall impact of this particular lawsuit in the grand scheme of the H-2B program.

“While he decided to transfer the case, he expressed significant reservations regarding the Department of Labor’s implementation of the new wage methodology. That is what is most important to us, and we will continue to pursue this matter both in court and in Congress. This issue is too important and the impact on small- and medium-sized domestic employers too drastic not to pursue on all fronts,” Hayes said.

Drell was blunt. “We have serious concerns about issues placed before us in the merits, versus the decisions reached by the Pennsylvania court … but comity dictates the transfer based on the ‘substantial overlap’ in issues between our case and the case pending before Judge Pollak.

“Specifically, we find the employers’ complaints about the manner of determining the prevailing wage rate directly result from Judge Pollak’s orders to the Department of Labor, and to rule either on injunctive relief or on the merits of this determination would constitute a ‘trenching’ on the authority of our sister court” as prohibited by a higher court.

Furthermore, Drell said, “We may be sympathetic to the burden to be placed on employers by having to pay significantly increased wages with little to no advance warning by the Department of Labor, but sympathy does not outweigh the ‘substantial overlap’ that exists between our case and the one in Pennsylvania.”

And, he said, “Unless we have missed something that occurred in Pennsylvania that is not part of the court’s opinions, we remain frankly baffled that the Department of Labor apparently ignored the foregoing authorities in its ‘throw in the towel’ concession to Judge Pollak that employer concerns are not a proper issue for consideration in wage promulgation under H-2B.”

With the transfer, Drell said, employers’ concerns “may now be relevant to the discussion of the propriety of allowing the impact of employer hardship on the wage determination.”

In the meantime, U.S. Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., has introduced legislation to prohibit the Department of Labor from implementing H-2B wage rules.  Alexander said his bill now has 26 co-sponsors. He also said he hopes in “the next couple of days” to have language in the appropriations bill to stop the Department of Labor from implementing the wage rule change.

“The Department of Labor is really way out of line and meddling with something that they shouldn’t be meddling with,” he said.  He also said a federal judge in Florida may prohibit the department from implementing the change.

And U.S. Sens. Mary Landrieu, D-La., and Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., were successful in attaching an amendment to the appropriations bill to prohibit implementation.

Salt water intrusion is dangerous to the cultivation of crawfish, a fresh water species.

It’s the perfect storm for southwest Louisiana crawfish farmers.

An extended drought, damaged lock gates within the Intracoastal Waterway and breaches from a bayou have all contributed to salt water intrusion from the Gulf into the 700-mile freshwater Mermentau Basin. Unless there is significant rainfall this winter, Basin crawfish farmers may be in serious trouble, which is why Vermilion Parish declared an emergency in late November.

“It’s a big problem for Vermilion Parish,” said Wayne Touchet, Vermilion Parish Police Jury President.

Salt water is entering lower Vermilion, lower Jefferson Davis and the southeastern sections of Cameron and Calcasieu parishes, said Mark Shirley, an aquaculture specialist with LSU AgCenter in Abbeville. Salt water intrusion is dangerous to the cultivation of crawfish, a fresh water species.

The causes of the salt water encroachment are many. The drought that has lingered in southwest Louisiana means less rainwater to flush out the fields. With fresh water in the crawfish ponds evaporating without rainfall to replace it, and salt water leaking in, the soil’s salinity levels go up, Shirley said.

“We’re still in a drought that has been going on for two years,” he said.

The salt water leaks have been occurring along breaches on Freshwater Bayou that connects the freshwater marshes to the Gulf of Mexico. In late September, an oil barge damaged the Leland Bowman Lock near Intracoastal City, which is now allowing salt water into the Basin from that channel. The Corps of Engineers is estimating February or March, 2012, before the locks are fixed.

“It is kinda complicated because it’s not just one thing causing the problems,” Shirley explained.

Crawfish can tolerate small amounts of salt water, Shirley said, so it’s likely the spring crops will be spared. Significant rainfall this winter will help flush the salt out of the freshwater marshes.

If winter doesn’t bring adequate rain, however, future years may be bleak.

Meanwhile, Touchet, state leaders and farmers are developing plans to divert Red River water from the middle of the state should a drought occur again.

“We want to be ahead of the game,” he said. “Diversion will definitely solve our problems.”

For now, however, it’s a battle against time to fix the lock gates and the bayou and channel breaches.

“It’s going to take a huge effort,” Touchet said, “and a lot of rain and prayers.”

U.S. Senator David Vitter

Under the leadership of U.S. Senator David Vitter, a letter has been sent to Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, asking that the FDA step up its efforts to ensure the public understands that Gulf seafood is safe to eat.

The letter was also signed by Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Senators Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchinson of Texas and Senators Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby of Alabama.

Vitter is urging the Food and Drug Administration to “publicly and vigorously” declare that Gulf seafood is safe to eat. Outside groups such as the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) have recently claimed that Gulf seafood is not safe for consumption, even though all tests have shown that Gulf seafood is safe to eat.

The letter is the second one sent to Commissioner Hamburg by Senator Vitter urging the FDA to take a more public stand on the safety results of their own and other agencies’ testing.  The first letter was sent November 4 and there was no response from Hamburg.

Gulf Delegation Seafood Letter- Dec 1 2011 FDAAccording to Vitter’s letter, “Sound science must prevail to protect American jobs and to help reinvigorate this important industry.  We ask that you please help us by more actively promoting the safety of our seafood and refuting unscientific claims which assert otherwise.” 

Gulf Delegation Letter to FDA

Ewell Smith, Executive Director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board, said consumer confidence in the quality of Gulf seafood is critical.  “It is vitally important that the FDA and other federal agencies involved in the testing of Gulf seafood continue to educate consumers at the national level regarding ongoing testing and the results of those tests, which show that our seafood is safe,” he said.

The letters are being sent at a time when the state is still recovering from the devastating economic effects of the BP oil spill.  The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board is about to begin a consumer marketing campaign that will depend upon consumers’ understanding that Gulf seafood is safe to eat.