A quaint fishing village on the far east financial institution of the Mississippi River, a bit over an hour from New Orleans and a inhabitants simply over 100, sits Pointe à la Hache. The river financial institution was the supply of meals and livelihood for the predominantly Black neighborhood in Plaquemines Parish, however has since diminished by destruction of local weather change and the intervention from the state of Louisiana.
Byron Encalade, founding father of the Louisiana Oystermen Affiliation, a primarily Black union that fights for the widespread pursuits of oystermen of coloration, remembers how his grandfather handed down the custom of fishing and harvesting oysters.
“This was often known as one of many richest oyster grounds on the planet,” he mentioned. “This was the primary income for the neighborhood. The outdated folks would come down right here, catch the boats comin’ in, would get ’em just a few oysters, crabs, shrimps, and stuff.”
Whereas this numerous and delicate ecosystem has withstood the take a look at of pure and man-made disasters, poisonous spills, and racist insurance policies, rising sea ranges and vigorous storms because of local weather change, are destroying the once-fertile land and forcing its residents out.
The state nevertheless, needs to reroute a part of the Mississippi River straight to the wetlands so the land can acquire again some sediment and reverse what’s been eroded. Based on the state of Louisiana, that is the final resort earlier than villages like Pointe à la Hache are misplaced beneath water.
The one drawback is the Mississippi River consists principally of contemporary water. Oysters can solely survive in brackish water, a mixture of contemporary and saltwater. Remaining residents are confronted with the inconceivable choice of saving the land or destroying Pointe à la Hache’s wealthy Black cultural heritage of oyster fishing.
“They didn’t drop bombs on us with a aircraft, however they dropped the Mississippi River proper in our lap,” says Encalade. “And the outcomes have been the identical: You destroyed a neighborhood.”
Black oystermen in Louisiana date again to enslaved Africans working the identical waters. Following emancipation, many Black fishermen stayed on, engaged on white-owned boats and incomes a minute sum of the earnings.
Pointe à la Hache endured the racist Jim Crow legal guidelines, redlining, and Hurricane Katrina; although torn and battered they finally survived. Nonetheless, when the BP oil spill of 2010 occurred, the worst offshore spill in American historical past, irreversible harm was executed and made worse by the clean-up chemical substances after.
When the State of Louisiana redirected contemporary water to the waterways lined in oil, the huge quantity of freshwater ended up killing many of the oyster and thus the livelihood of Pointe à la Hache.
“Then BP, once they arrange a compensation fund to maintain the folks, the folks on this neighborhood was not noted,” mentioned the third-generation oysterman.
As a result of life on the village appears bleak, many oystermen are encouraging their children to go off to school and pursue different professions though that they had deliberate to go their companies all the way down to them.
The older fisherman, nevertheless, plan to spend the remainder of their days in what they’ve solely ever often known as house. “That is house. There’s no place like house, you recognize? I’m gonna be right here without end,” mentioned fisherman Keslyn Williams.
