The Mudcat Report: Mississippi Gulf Coast Community News & Guests
The Mudcat Report was an idea developed a few years ago from the Mississippi flathead catfish with a little tradition put into this about the blues, government and local community news. Decades of experience will be given to adopt the idea created in this podcast.
Over the last few decades, Americans have been increasingly doubtful about the outlook of government and the quality of the local community's reaction by them. The creation of the Mudcat Report is an evaluation of the local government so the community has a realistic acknowledgement.
HOST: Hunter Dawkins - Owner/Publisher of the award-winning newspaper - The Gazebo Gazette, SuperTalk Mississippi News contributor, Congressional Staffer, Public Relations for the Attorney General's Office
The Mudcat Report: Mississippi Gulf Coast Community News & Guests
The Mudcat Report Episode 26: Seafood Events of the Coast
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The Mudcat Report Episode 26: Seafood Events of the Coast
HOST: Hunter Dawkins - Owner/Publisher of the Award-Winning Newspaper - The Gazebo Gazette, SuperTalk Mississippi News contributor, former Congressional Staffer, former Public Relations for the Attorney General's Office
PRODUCER: Jeff Clark - Award-Winning Journalist, Multimedia/Podcast Host, Director for the Harrison County Senior Services
GUESTS:
- Richie Valdez - President of the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo
- Ryan Bradley - Executive Director, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United
- Kirk Kimball - City of Pass Christian, Ward 3 Alderman
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SPEAKER_07Welcome to the Mudcat Report, community news, politics and culture with a local twist. Here's your host, owner and publisher of the Gazebo Gazette, Hunter Dawkins.
SPEAKER_10Good afternoon. My name is Hunter Dawkins. I am the host of the Mudcat Report. This is the 26th episode, Halfway Jeff, a Mississippi Gulf Coast Community News Podcast. Sponsored by the Gazebo Gazette, Harrison County's independent newspaper, the Beau Revise Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Nine Toes Brewing Company in Paschan, Odoire Realty Agent, Stephanie Mankovitz, Joseph Kelly's attorney at law, host casual in Paskristian, the insurance barn in Gulfport this week is the Missouri Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, which we'll hear from our great guest come up here soon. And we're always in the U.S. Marine Inc. Studio. I'm here with my wonderful producer of the show, my good friend Jeff Clark. Jeff is a well-accomplished award-winning journalist and the director of the Harrison County Senior Services. Jeff, how are you, my friend?
SPEAKER_09Connor, what's happening, man? I'm uh I'm well, you know, just uh busy day, busy day, but that's all right. Um, how was the Mississippi Municipal League? Was it cool?
SPEAKER_10It was great, it was solid. You know, the convention center was Sam Vuitton, who is the leader of the Pacific Coliseum and the Convention Center, the executive director for the county, does a fantastic job. They had a great setup. And I tell all of my friends that are with city councils or aldermen or anything or mayors as such, everybody needs to go to that because it is a phenomenal uh thing. They've got put together different organizations, different, you know, uh little small bitty things. Uh, you got education classes, got turf, you got uh, you know, I'm trying to think of what else, contractors, you got mowers, all these different things, Jeff, and it's uh it's definitely something that makes the city stronger. Um, our theme today, Jeff, is the seafood events on the coast. This is a big topic in our area, Jeff, and especially through the spring and summer months, which come together with crawfish and shrimp boils, blessings of the fleet, fishing rodeos, etc. Give me your thoughts.
SPEAKER_09Uh, you know, it's it's a big part of our economy. It's not the large part, it's not as big of a part of our economy as it used to be, and that's a lot, has a lot to do with the Bonnie Carey spillway, the oil spill, a lot of things that have happened. But you all of that said, seafood's on the rise again on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Um, you know, I'm glad to see it coming back. I went to Blessing of the Fleet uh on Saturday. A lot of St. Paul Carnival stuff going on uh over the weekend, but I went to the blessing of the fleet. You know, you always hope that they have a good season, that's good shrimp season, that that the oysters are coming back. But hey man, you know, you're talking about the Mississippi Municipal League. When I worked in in Columbus or Tupelo or other places, the mayors of other cities, councilmen, they couldn't wait to come down to the coast to attend the MML so they could uh eat seafood, you know.
SPEAKER_10That's right.
SPEAKER_09See all the great tour things we have to offer, but eating seafood. I'm going down to the coast so I can get some crab legs. I'm going down to the coast so I can get shrimp. You know, it's just it's a part of it.
SPEAKER_10So and the casinos and other the restaurants, they have definitely built up that in Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Pascushan, all the way across the board. And it's it's phenomenal what this end what that industry has done for our economy over the traditions. And you know, obviously talking to these next few guests, we'll talk about what this tradition is, at least for the seafood industry and the coast, my friend.
SPEAKER_09Yeah, absolutely, man. I'm a couple of really good experts tonight, and then we got Richie to talk about seafood, and we got Richie coming on to talk about the deep sea fishing rodeo, which is this weekend or July 2nd through 5th in Jones Park and Gulfport. Road by today, on my way to work, hoping I'd see the old Ferris wheel. Not there yet, but but I know it's coming.
SPEAKER_10So it'll come in soon.
SPEAKER_09All right. Well, uh, let's uh get into we'll have Richie on. He's gonna be our first guest tonight. We'll talk to him about the deep sea fishing rodeo after our first commercial break. We'll be right back.
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SPEAKER_10My first guest is the longtime president of the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo in Gulfport, Richie Valdez. Richie, this is the 78th annual Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo, the Jones Park and Gulfport. From the outsiders' point of view, what makes this event family-oriented?
SPEAKER_02Well, Hunter, first of all, I'd like to say I'm glad to be on this show. I can't thank you enough for your support for the deep sea fishing rodeo. We have a long time history of, you know, having all the kids there for the kids' fishing rodeo. And it's just been a family event over the years that people come to. You know, they may move away for some time and then they come back, and the first thing they say is, hey, we're going out to the Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo. I haven't been there since I was a kid. It's just a great family thing. And it's always great to see the uh kids' faces uh when they receive those prizes.
SPEAKER_10You know, and I know this is going to be a a pretty much a funny question to me for you because you're going to be like, well, we're doing this most of the year. How much time does this overall take to promote this event and bring in a decent revenue for you guys?
SPEAKER_02We work on this event. We start working, we hit the ground the day after the rodeo, and we have meetings once a month. Of course, you know, me and the board of directors, we're we're always on the phone working with stuff, trying to get sponsored, um, hitting up different people for different ads and stuff on our uh site. So we we work on it year-round and it takes year-round. Uh most people don't realize the rodeo takes around $130,000 to put on every year.
SPEAKER_10Wow. Wow. Wow. Is there uh I mean, as far as not only that, are y'all having to pay for music and things as such, I mean, or uh, you know, vendors, food things. Talk to me about that.
SPEAKER_02Yes, um, on the on the bands. Uh there, you know, bands all across the country. They they've gone up on their places a lot. Uh, we have a great uh lineup coming for the rodeo. We have uh Journey Tribute with Rock Downola. Uh if you haven't ever seen those guys, they've been phenomenal. That's open at night, starts at seven. We have Amanda Shahall out of Louisiana. He'll be here on Friday night for our country cave tonight. And then, of course, we uh always have bars on 4th of July with the fireworks show. And the mayor has uh me and him talked the other day, and he said we're doubling the fireworks show, so it's really gonna be a great time.
SPEAKER_10Awesome, awesome. I know Mayor Keating definitely looks forward to all that stuff going on. What's the largest? I know this is another question. What's the largest and the smallest fish you guys, just an ETA on what uh what your thoughts are, your estimate. What's the largest and the smallest fish you guys end up catching every year in the rodeo?
SPEAKER_02It's always usually your your big race is gonna be the shark. Of course, you know Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo holds numerous uh fake title events. Of course, the shark event that I remember most is it goes way back. I think that shark was 800 and something pounds. Um that's before it was a tiger shark, but that was before they classified.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And they didn't break it down. It was just listed a shark. And then I'd probably say our smallest fish is probably gonna be appropriate out of the kids category. Um it's always so funny. They they bring it in and you know it'll fit in the palm of your hand, but they uh they think they're they're as big as the 800-pound shark.
SPEAKER_10Nice, nice. Yeah, you know, I remember Richie, and I told you the next year before COVID that I won the my first uh ever award, at least for taking the picture, that big huge tiger shark we were talking about, but 850 pounds, and that was uh it was a massive uh thing to see. And of course, you know, that's it's something everybody wants to see, you know, uh bringing in fish like that. And y'all always have a good group over there weighing them in, and uh that's that's something right by the entrance. Am I correct? Right when you drive in, that's right where the drop-off is.
SPEAKER_02Correct. You'll come in, you'll see the anchor, you'll make the circle. Uh there's a uh a little gate there, there's someone there that'll lift it up so you can drive your vehicle up. We also take fish by water. You can pull right up behind the uh way scales and they'll help you unload it there. So we try to get those fish to the scale as soon as possible. Uh Mickey Legat is our way master again this year.
SPEAKER_04Oh yeah.
SPEAKER_02So we we got a great, great, great guy in there. He became a director last year. I can't thank him enough for the work he does.
SPEAKER_10Awesome, awesome. Well, when people come back to you, Richie, and they tell you about the event every year, you know, maybe this is the past event they're talking about to you, but what do you what do they talk about more in the in the past events or like what stands out to them where they're like this Richie, this this was great. You guys did this, that, or the other. What would uh what do they talk about the most?
SPEAKER_02You know, we get a lot of talk now about the Landry Four Memorial Kids Condition. Can't thank the four family enough for uh sponsoring that and helping with that. Um I think that is one of the biggest compliments the rodeo gets. We had 250 kids hit the tournament last year. It was just an amazing time. And that that right there, when you come in there and those kids are bringing it in, it's just amazing to sit out and watch. Um thank those parents for bringing those kids in and the poor family out because you know, we used to be the kids rodeo was always on Saturday, and uh Pat outfits to go to two days and last year. We had a meeting right after the rodeo and they said, Hey guys, we're really looking great. And we do three days uh Landry Fucking Department, and it's they want to be on the fish, you know, with these dads, with these grandfathers, and these mothers, and they want to they're they see their older siblings competing in the adult category, and now they're out there fishing three days out of that tournament with them. Hopefully one day we take it to a four-day. Um and you know, that's that's the biggest compliment we get. We always hear just what a great job that we do on that kid's tournament.
SPEAKER_10I knew you guys have the pageant every year. Would give me the specifics of that, like what the girls do for you guys helping y'all out with that, and when they actually have to get judged.
SPEAKER_02Uh Shirley's our uh coordinator for that, and I have to say she does a great job with it. She takes uh the girls, they go all over to different cities. They not only are representing the Fisher Rodeo, they represent the city they're in. They promote their cities that they're from. And I can't thank the cities enough. We get a lot of support out of the Hancock County area, they start with the diamond and they all do like support for the girls, aquarium thing. Um their girls are all over the coast. And uh when you uh talk to them, uh talk to them about what they do. Uh all of them are uh real talkative and friendly, and they just uh have a great time. They're uh taking all over the country. And they meet with different mayors and get their, you know, they get inside about how politics work. It's a great experience for them. I know this year right off the bat, they're gonna be at the mayor's lunch in downtown at the downtown minor, and then I think the next day they're out at the water park uh hanging out there for a while, and then they start branching into their uh cities. I know basing Louis's got a full day ball, and Cop's got a full dayfall, they will make an appearance over at the crab nest in the bay. So um if they're all over it, you see them, talk to them about their city and uh talk to them about Mississippi Deepsy Fisher Rodeo.
SPEAKER_10Well, we thank you, my friend. You give the audience a way they can reach out and be in contact if they have any questions.
SPEAKER_02You you can uh pull up to Mississippi DC Fisher Rodeo dot com or and then it's a board uh list on there. If you go to directors, you want to talk to a Pacific Director or me myself. We uh all other our phone numbers are listed. Give us a call, we answer any questions we can for you. And we can't thank you enough for your support. Um without the people coming out to the Fisher Rodeo. There's no way we'd make it to 78 years.
SPEAKER_10Hey, I think we thank you very much, Richie. You've always been a good friend, and we you know anything we can do, you let us know.
SPEAKER_02Yes, sir. We can't thank y'all enough in your audience enough. Uh remember us we're there on the second, third, fourth, and fifth, reparking down on the west side with uh Coast Area Transit doing uh transportation back in Fort Forest. And don't forget to come out on Fourth of July. We also have VIP tables available.
SPEAKER_10There you go. You guys take care. Thank you, Honor. Y'all take care. The Gazebo Gazette is Harrison County's only independent newspaper publishing news from Gulfport to Bay St. Louis every Friday. Hi, this is Hunter Dawkins, owner of the Gazebo Gazette. If you're looking for local news without the hassle of sorting through story after digital story, log on to thegazebogazette.com. Add your name to the digital audience of 250,000 plus coastal residents who already know where to find the stories that matter to them. Our next guest is the executive director of the Mississippi Gulf Coast Fisheries United, and also a good friend of mine, Ryan Bradley. How Ryan, how important are these seafood events on the coast for your members and the cities that host?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, well, thank you for having me, Hunter. I really appreciate it. Uh, you know, these blessings of the fleets and some of these other seafood festivals. You know, we just they're so important to our culture and our heritage, uh, getting the people out, our residents, uh, enjoying our local seafood meeting and greeting our local fishermen. Uh, you know, we're losing a way of life, and uh people need to wake up. We've been ringing alarm bells, but you know, the average age of these uh fishermen are getting older that's catching our seafood, and we gotta get uh we gotta support them so that the the next generations of young fishermen can come in behind them and see opportunity and see you know, be willing to take on the responsibility of providing fresh seafood uh to the public. And so it's a big deal. And so we're so thankful for the cities of Pash Kersham, Biloxi, some of these other cities that have festivals. Uh, it's a great thing. Getting the public engaged, getting them out on the front lines to see what's going on, blessing our boats, getting blessings from above. That's so important. Uh, you know, that's what we have to do is put that first and uh continue uh to put our foot for uh our best foot forward. You know, we're really blessed here in Mississippi. We have tremendous marine resources. Uh our oysters have made a tremendous recovery. We have our wild reefs right outside of Pash Christian, stretching down through Bay St. Louis and uh Waveland down to Bayou Cathy uh into Hancock County. The oyster reefs are flourishing, and we've had great water quality for many years now. And so um, you know, we'll be looking forward to a great oyster season and uh to get our guys there. A lot of our guys at oyster, they also shrimp. And so, you know, we always encourage our guys, you know, our our citizens go and eat uh fresh Mississippi shrimp anytime you go out to eat. Uh demand only the best Mississippi uh wild seafood and uh ask for it, demand it. Tell them you know, you want to eat at places that serve it, and uh we'll see that demand trickle down to our fishermen, and uh that'll help support them, give them incentive to go out and continue to do what they do, and uh that's provide some of the world's best protein and best food uh on your dinner plate.
SPEAKER_10Ryan, of course, you'd uh mentioned too about this, but I'm segueing for tell me the importance of the youth in being a part of these traditional festivals and how it's important of the kid fishing a rodeo, not only with uh you know the blessing of the fleets, but of the deep sea fishing rodeo, how important this is, you know, because especially my former guest Richie Valdez said, this is something that he's talked about every year with by former former people involved in the fishing tournament.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, you know, so what we see on in the seafood industry, which you know comes under the commercial rules and regulations and laws, um, is that we've seen a decline, a severe decline in the number of licensed participants in the commercial fisheries throughout Mississippi and in our federal fisheries offshore in the federal waters. And so what we're seeing is like uh 25 years ago, we had over 2,000 shrimp boats. And we look at today, we had 22 boats out on opening day. You know, so we've really fallen uh down from uh our peak production and uh from our heyday, and so we're just trying to hold on to what we have. Uh we want to encourage the next generation of fishermen. There's a lot of opportunities, uh out there, grants and stuff to help young fishermen development. We're looking at those closely. Um but at the end of the day, we get we've got to make it profitable to make it where these young fishermen want to get involved because um when we look forward into the future 10, 15, 20 years from now, and we don't have a workforce, um, a leadership for you know ability to go out and captain these boats and do what it takes to provide this fresh seafood, catch it and harvest it and and do a good job and make money with it, um, we're gonna lose. Uh we're gonna lose out completely, and we're gonna come we're gonna become dependent on foreign nations for our food supply. And uh that becomes a matter of national security, and so it's uh food. Security is national security. So we've got to put our fishermen first. We've got to put our young fishermen first. And we've got to continue to develop ways to uh strengthen our workforce and uh make harvesting seafood profitable again. And um there's a lot of good things that are in the works. We're starting to see the tide shift. Um I just hope it's not too little, too late. But um, we need all the help we can get, and uh we certainly appreciate the time you give us to spread our message and uh help raise awareness about uh what's going on in our local seafood industry. There's a lot of opportunities uh to get involved, to uh to work in the seafood industry, whether it's on an oyster boat or a crab boat or a shrimp boat. Um, you know, so uh for anybody that may be listening that that knows somebody that wants to learn these trades, um, all you got to do is venture down to the harbors and start talking to some of the boat owners and uh go out and give it a try. And um, you know, you may like it, and uh it may be a lifestyle that fits you, but um, you know, we're in a in a really good period of recovery in our marine resources. So what we see when our oysters come back, the crabs come back, the fish come back with the speckle trout and the red fish, and uh you know, everything starts coming back along. Uh those oysters are a keystone species, so uh it benefits commercial and recreational, and uh it's really a great thing uh for the environment as a whole, but uh that's super important for our young fishermen. And this was not just a problem in fishing, it's the same problem in farming. Uh they actually have a term for it in fishing, they're calling it the grain of the fleet, but uh we see the same thing in farming. The average age of the farmers are getting older, just like the fishermen. And at the end of the day, somebody's got to produce the food that we put on our table. And uh, we need hardworking uh families to step forward and uh and to fill that gap. And there's plenty of opportunity to do that.
SPEAKER_10Well, Ryan, tagging along with what you had mentioned about the the need for a public safety issue, too. Does the federal or state government have any play in making sure these economic boosting seafood events don't fail?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, you know, look, uh, we've got all kinds of funds out there. You know, people need to wake up and look at what's going on with all these different funds that our state and federal government is appropriating. I there's so many you can't even list them all. But the main ones that's uh major opportunities that we don't want to see passing in the window is fading is on our BP Restore Act funds. And so, you know, I just encourage everybody to follow along as closely as you can, get involved, engage the decision makers, uh, demand good quality projects because I tell you, when you look at some of the stuff that they're spending money on, you really question, you know, what is the nexus to the environmental damages that occurred? And they don't have to always justify environmental damages because there's a lot of economic stuff that went on with the cities and the and the counties. But um at the end of the day, I think it's gonna be a failure if we don't support our seafood industry because they bore the brunt of these BP um damages that we seen back in 2010 from the oil spill. So you know it's a historic opportunity, billions of dollars being spent across the Gulf on restore at projects. Um look, take a close look at that. I encourage the listeners to follow that as close as you can. There's many different what they call buckets of money that they use for different purposes. It's very complex. It's difficult for the average citizen to follow along. And so that's been problematic. But uh, you know, what a waste of money if we don't put our seafood industry back uh on a path towards greatness. You know, we forget that Biloxi used to be the seafood capital of the world, and uh, we've got this potential tremendous uh economic potential to grow so many jobs through our seafood industry, and I think we're on a good path, but uh you know, that that's a way for our state and federal, for these governments to help uh with the funding, these projects, uh, we've got to watch closely. Also, you've got funds like Go Mesa, you know, that's the Gulf of Mexico uh now the Gulf America uh Emergency Security Act that uh that all the Gulf states that have oil pipelines flowing through, they get a uh a revenue share in those proceeds, and they spend those monies on conservation projects. So there's all this opportunity to increase conservation and the environment benefit the environment in Mississippi. And so I I just encourage folks to watch these opportunities closely and get involved and get engaged and uh talk to your local decision makers, your politicians, your uh mayors, uh, your city councils, and uh let them know what's important to you because uh you know these are once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, these monies may not always be available, certainly in the case of the BP funds, that those will be uh dwindled down and come to an end. So uh you know that's a big deal.
SPEAKER_10Ryan, being from the uh family that built its foundation on the seafood industry, how important is it that the local commercial fishermen work together together with the seafood processors?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, that's you know, that's always been a challenge. Uh it's it's um unfortunate that that's just the nature of the way that the business has gone over the years. But um we've seen in in recent years, you know, uh some cooperation uh with the processors from our oyster industry, and we're working with them closer in the shrimp industry, and that's what it's gonna take. Uh, because at the end of the day, we're competing in a global marketplace, and we all got to work together to put our best product forward, an American product, and um we've really got some of the best seafood in the world, and so there's no reason that um we can't sell everything we catch for an absolute premium price uh anywhere in the world, really. And so um, you know, that's what we're looking at, that's what we're working towards. And um, you know, I would say we're looking at increased cooperation amongst all sectors uh amongst, you know, in the fishing industry. And that's what it's gonna take to have uh successful management of our fisheries that results in in great outcomes for generations to come so that our grandkids and and their grandkids can enjoy the same opportunities when it comes to fishing that that we've enjoyed and our and our grandfathers have enjoyed.
SPEAKER_10Right. The final question should Mississippi's Department of Marine Resources be more involved in these local seafood events? I know they're heavily involved in art in the past with education, but it doesn't appear, now I could be wrong, but it doesn't appear that they're as involved in a number of the seafood events on the coast. Do you personally think that they should be involved more? Do your members feel the same way?
SPEAKER_12Yeah, no doubt. You know, I I think that um, you know, they they were involved in the past blessing of the fleet in terms of leading the boat parade with their vessels, and we appreciate that and their support. Um, but we see you know, there is a seafood marketing fund that the DMR has control over, and they get appropriated funds from the Tidelins and from the um the BP Restore Act and other funds. And so we need to be asking, what are they spending that money on? You know, is it going to advance that or really uh promoting things? You know, I know that they did some good uh work down at the Billfish Classic and Biloxi. They fed a bunch of people down there with some of the best Mississippi seafood we had on hand. And uh they're doing all kinds of things that a lot of people don't even uh realize, but um at the end of the day, there's still a lot of opportunity. Uh I know we've been talking with DMR, we're encouraging them to have an oyster festival, and uh we want to do that in Long Beach, Pastor Shannon Long Beach, and um a huge oyster festival to celebrate the recovery of our oyster industry and let everybody come out and enjoy these beautiful, fresh local oysters that we've been harvesting. Uh, we're looking to uh a bumper crop this coming season, and uh we really want to get the word out about how wonderful these oysters are that we're having. So look forward to that. Maybe this fall, maybe we can convince DMR to support that effort. And um, you know, if I'll talk with them folks, tell them that that'd be a great thing to have. So, but uh as always, Hunter, I appreciate you having me, and uh, you know, I'm I'm glad to answer any other questions and and uh thank you for all that you do uh helping to get the word out with local community leaders and um the like. So thank you.
SPEAKER_10Well, thank you, Ryan, very much. And uh tell everybody how they can contact you, either email or whatever proper way to be able to contact your organization or anything as such.
SPEAKER_12Yeah, so again, I'm my name is Ryan Bradley. I'm the director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United. We are the largest organization of commercial fishermen and fishing businesses, seafood dealers and processors on in Mississippi. And um if you want to learn more about us, you can visit our website at www.mscfu.org that stands for Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United.org or R G. And you can email us at info at MsCFU.org. And uh we'll be glad to get with you. And uh we're doing a number of projects that's helping our communities. We're doing some marine debris removal that's benefiting our crab and our shrimp fisheries, and um, we're doing some food uh donations where we're taking fish that's being otherwise discarded, and uh, we're getting it to uh food shelters and food banks. And so if there's anybody out there that wants to get involved and help supporting these uh projects, we're doing uh again you can check us out on our website or email info at msu.org. Thank you, my friend. Yes, sir. Thank you. Y'all have a great evening. Take care. Bye-bye.
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SPEAKER_10And I would love to introduce my final guest. The city of Pennsylvania has a warbreaker, Alderman Kurt Kimberly. How important are these local seafood events for the Mississippi Gulf Coast seafood industry?
SPEAKER_03They're very important. And I think what's transpired is we're doing a lot of things with the seafood industry, but one of the things that a lot of people do not either understand or do not recognize is that in Mississippi, we have a gaming industry, we have a poultry industry, and we have a seafood industry. It's been overlooked, it's been beat up, and as you can tell from the state legislator of Mississippi, they've done some things that weren't quite what we call nice to the industry. And we just want to go ahead and do a lot of focusing on what has occurred. And if everyone, and I've said this many times over and over, if everyone would just buy local seafood, either at their local seafood dock or straight from the boat, it sure would help the industry. They've gotten beat up with imports, and I don't want to sound like I'm beating uh the drum that everyone else has beat over and over the years, but the the industry, I'm gonna tell you, is taking a beating, give you an example from I would say about 1984, the same price for shrimp is what they're paying now, although diesel fuel prices were a heck of a lot lower than what they are now. So, how can you make it when your when your product is not getting the price that it got in now currently versus what it got 25 or 30 years ago? It's unsustainable.
SPEAKER_10Are we camping? Tell me the importance of the youth being a part of these local traditions. Say that again. I'm sorry, I was only catching the last part of it. Tell me the importance of the youth being a part of these local seafood traditions.
SPEAKER_03You have to understand what the coast was back in the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s. It was our identity. That was the coast before gaming. And a lot of people forget that. If you drive down Biloxi Beach, that's what people know now. But as a kid growing up, I don't want to show my age, but that's not what was always there before. And the economy was the seafood industry, and and if you look at the economy and economic impact of what the seafood industry does here locally, everyone thinks that it's the guy on the boat and he's going out and he's getting his catch. Has zero to do with that. That's the smallest amount of the equation. That guy has to feed his family. He's gonna go to the local grocery store. He needs fuel for his boat, he needs fuel for his truck. The person that's gonna work at that convenience store when he gets his diesel fuel, she has a family, correct? She's gonna go to the grocery store. The people that are in the grocery store, they have a family. It's just a spiral all the way down. It's it starts from the top and it works its way down. This is a local economy. I mean, this is about as local as it gets on a macro level. But if if if you're looking from the 10,000 feet level, the economy of the coast is revolving around the seafood industry, which is dying as we speak. And we do need to shed some light on what this industry can do for the coast, just for an economy itself.
SPEAKER_10Being from a family that built its foundation on the seafood industry, and yes, I know your family was large in the seafood industry. How important is it that the local commercial fishermen work together with the city? With a city on the coast.
SPEAKER_03Well, when you look at what we've done here in the city of Pasquasan, our harbor is an economy all to itself. If you go down to the harbor, you're gonna see commercial vessels, you're going to see a seafood vessel, you're going to see a recreational vessel, then you're going to see everything from local restaurants, you're going to see seafood dealers that are shipping out to different states, you're going to see seafood dealers that are down there selling locally, you're going to see people that are down there fishing. I mean, this is an entire economy all to itself, but to add credibility to what I'm saying, if you look at what transpired just last year with the legislation that was brought out for the oyster reef, what was behind that was not so much just the local fishermen. That was going to affect everyone in the city of Pass Christian. And I'll tell you the reason why. And once that legislation came to fruition, and if it was going to pass, and if they did not push it and put that lawsuit where it needed to be, and they stopped it, what you'd have seen is a lot of these boats that are here in this harbor would have not been able to pay their lease or anything in that harbor, which means is going to cause a budget shortfall for the city of Pascal. And what about I mean by that is if the boats falter, they can no longer pay the lease. Every citizen in the city of Pascal would eventually have to pick that up. That's not conducive for the environment that we have here in Pascal. That is not what we want. So we did everything we could possibly do to work as hard as we could to make that known to our state legislators. That affected us. This small town that affected us tremendously.
SPEAKER_10Can the local harbor be an economic builder as it was in the past for more than just the seafood industry?
SPEAKER_03Definitely. And my hopes and desires, and we've shared this with the other board members and with the city of Massachusetts officials, with the mayor and with citizens, is that the harbor is working its way towards a marina type harbor where we're going to transition into that space because if you look at that harbor now, but I want to say this, but without without forgetting who we are as a community and not forgetting those local fishermen. So we want to go to a marina style without forgetting them. And you will see the the local fishermen, you will also see the guys down at Shaggy's, which are those the charter fishermen. We've got to be able to capitalize. I don't want to say guys, we must we must capitalize on that. It's always packed down there. You try to call one of those guys, you can't get an appointment to save your life. They're booked up for weeks at a time. And now we have more hotel space. We should capitalize on that. We also have more boutique, uh clother's boutiques that they're going to, more local restaurants. There's more businesses there here than there was before. So those are the things that that are going to be, I would say, conducive to more economic freedom here inside the city of Pasqua's stand and more opportunities for everyone, especially the local economy.
SPEAKER_10Final question, Alderman, and I know you have addressed this in past discussions in the Board of Alderman discussions, but is there a commercial avenue for businesses other than seafood in the harbor? And I know you have been a big proponent of that. Just tell me what you think.
SPEAKER_03But I feel if you travel on the West Coast, look at what they've done with not their state. Now that's a different story, but look at what they've done with their with their east communities everywhere.
SPEAKER_10I know I'll have to say that. I know I know the state. You know, you got some different opinions of that, but I agree with you on that.
SPEAKER_03Santa Monica, Peter, and look what those guys have done. They've incorporated every aspect of the sea. They've got something for everyone. There's restaurants, there's rides, there's local restaurants, even on that scenery, and they cannot survive without the waves and the rocks that you see that are there. And I think we don't want to miss that opportunity. I think Pas Christian is probably not probably, I will say this, I'll go on and look, it's the greatest city in America because of its authenticity. You travel to other spaces, other cities, and I do it very often. They're missing one thing, and it's called authenticity. And Pas Christian has it. We are one of those cities, you cannot recreate what we have here in the city. And I think we need to capitalize on that. And I'll give you an example. The other night we were having dinner at one of the local restaurants, and there was a couple next to us, and they said, Golly, we can't believe we're in Pascal Stand, Mississippi. And I'm listening as to why. And they were speaking about the scenery, the breeze, the restaurant they were eating at, the great food. They were going to walk next door, have a dessert, they were going to get a drink down the street at one of the local taverns. They just were in complete shock and awe as to what Pascal is about. And so what I mean by that is we didn't have to really create anything. If I had to relate it to sports, it's like having your number one quarterback that everyone wants. You have him. Build the team around it.
SPEAKER_10We thank you very much, Alderman. And if there's anything you can uh give us your contact or anybody that needs to get in touch with you to find out how they can ask some of these questions on the other side.
SPEAKER_03Sure, they can always email me, they can always text, and I will go ahead and give that phone number out now. It's 228-574-7909. Quickest way to catch me. And don't panic if I don't respond instantly. I'm usually in a meeting. But I also want to say one of one of the greatest things about public service is representing Pastor Shannon. Uh, I know we everyone thinks we take the heat. We don't. We have one of the greatest jobs in the entire universe. We get to represent some of the greatest people on earth and the greatest town.
SPEAKER_10Well, we thank you, sir. You take care of yourself, and we look forward to it.
SPEAKER_03Thank you so much for having me on. It was a pleasure. Thank you so much.
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SPEAKER_10We gratefully appreciate you listening to this podcast. And Jeff, we thank you again. We want to thank all of the sponsors. The Beau Revise Resort and Casino, Nine Toes Brewery in Pasker's Chan, O'Dwyer Realty Agent, Stephanie Makowitz, Joseph Kelly, Attorney at Law, Coast Casual in Pasker's Chan, the insurance barn in Gulfport, the Mississippi Deep Sea Fishing Rodeo in Gulfport at Jones Park this July 4th weekend, and the U.S. Marine Inc. Make sure you check us out on YouTube under the Gazebo Gazette Productions. Am I right about that, Jeff?
SPEAKER_09That's it, man. Gazebo Gazette Productions. You can uh see the uh Mudcat report, you can see the HD experience all uh under one channel.
SPEAKER_10There you go. Or you can follow us on the weekly award-winning best you know website in uh in the state of Mississippi, the gazebo gazette.com, where the podcast will be posted later on this week, as well as on facebook.com backslash the real gazebo gazette, or on X at Gazebo Gazette is the handle. The Mudcat Report is available on all podcasts, including Apple, Spotify, iHeart, Amazon Music, or anything else under the Mud Cat Report tag. Signing out, this is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mud Cat Report. Now, you know the rest of the local news story. Good night.