Padgett, Herbert Ryals. "The Marine Shellfisheries of Louisiana." PhD Thesis, Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, 1960.
MICRO FILM 2250
Keywords: Louisiana, Shellfish fisheries.
Abstract
Geographers in general (and American geographers in particular) have given only slight attention to sea industries. The present study attempts in part to redress the imbalance by inquiring into a myriad of factors that have shaped the development of a specific sea industry--the marine shellfisheries of Louisiana.
Though comparatively few, those geographical studies that have dealt with sea industries are certainly not without merit. Such works as those by Bartz, Ackerman, Rostlund, and Morgan are outstanding in the field, and their influence on the present study is considerable. Yet traditional studies have frequently approached the subject from the viewpoint of one, or at best two or three, of the major factors, such as the economic history, or the market character and trends, or the simple economic-geographic relationships of the industry. The present study is grounded in a conviction that a serious inadequacy exists unless there is a thorough investigation into the interrelationships of the whole physical, historical, economic and cultural complex.
In addition to following an "interrelationships" approach, this study utilizes familiar lines of research. Close scrutiny has been made of several categories of literature pertaining to the sea: hydrographic principles, geology and composition of sea bottoms, marine biology, climate, history of fisheries, and State and Federal public documents. Thus, the work of specialists in several fields has been synthesized and then modified and supported by the author's own field observations. From this analysis of the Louisiana shellfisheries, several conclusions can be drawn.
The physical environment of the Louisiana coast, due to the Mississippi drainage, has been a pervasive factor, both positively and negatively, in the development of shellfish industries. Sheer abundance of shellfish and ease of capture appear to account for Louisiana's preoccupation with and high productivity in the shellfish industries. Yet the deltaic character of the Louisiana Coast, while responsible for an abundant marine life, has yet been a deterrent to the centralization of ports and facilities, to the construction and employment of seaworthy vessels and gear, and to a well-populated coast zone.
The influence of New England fisheries on the entire southern region has been strong, and is especially apparent in gear vessels, and methods of processing.
The varying degrees of commercial development of each of the three industries studied has been largely the result of the influence of economic and ethnic factors. The revolutionary development of the shrimp industry in the 1920's and 1930's rests largely upon the joint advent of the gasoline motor and otter trawl. The stability since the turn of the century of the much older oyster industry results from ethnic factors which brought a transition from extractive reef harvesting to cultivation. Improved processing and packaging techniques occurring in the 1930's and an expanding national market for seafood are largely responsible for the commercial development of the number three industry--blue crab.
At least two cultural factors have been of major significance in accounting for retardation of southern fisheries, including those of Louisiana. These are the lesser degree of urbanization than occurs in some other sections of the nation, and an agricultural orientation of the entire southern region. These conditions are related, though indirectly, to a natural environment that originally favored an agricultural economy to the exclusion of almost any other.
The study of sea industries is a relatively new and promising field for geographic investigation. If the present study should serve as stimulus to future inquiries in this area, it will be more than justified.
October 3, 2007
