A $500,000 donation from Shell Oil Co. is allowing three new trailer-size ice plants to be installed in Chalmette and Cameron Parish for regional use.
By AMY WOLD
Advocate staff writer
Published: Aug 24, 2006
CHALMETTE — The grand opening of a new building Wednesday lured more than 100 spectators and merited a visit by Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
The building?
An ice machine.
That’s how important the rebuilding of fishing infrastructure is to communities in St. Bernard Parish and surrounding parishes.
For months, getting ice to the fishermen at Bayou Bienville in St. Bernard meant a six-hour roundtrip to Dulac in Terrebonne Parish.
Twice a day, employees of Theresa Seafood dock would make the drive, said Paul Tran, the dock’s owner son.
Peter Gerica, a shrimper, crabber and fishermen now operating out of New Orleans East, said the lack of ice has been a big problem.
“Wherever you can find it, you haul it to the boat,” Gerica said.
Finding ice could mean a one- to two-hour drive to Lafitte or farther, he said.
“They’ve got some at Hopedale, but it’s a 40-minute drive and they’ve only got enough for the boats right there,” Gerica said.
To address the problem, officials unveiled a new 20-ton-a-day ice machine Wednesday, one of three being paid for through a $500,000 donation from Shell Oil Co.
Chalmette will have two machines and third one will be installed in Cameron Parish to help fishermen in southwest Louisiana.
Rusty Gaudé of the LSU Agricultural Center and Louisiana Sea Grant College Program said the extent of fishing infrastructure recovery varies across the coast.
He said Plaquemines Parish docks and fishing infrastructure have recovered much better than those in St. Bernard because Plaquemines Parish owned public marinas and land that face the water before Hurricane Katrina and St. Bernard did not.
That waterside property ownership allowed Plaquemines Parish immediate access to land where the U.S. Coast Guard could salvage boats.
St. Bernard did not, Gaude said.
Quicker boat salvage meant marinas were cleaned out quicker, fishermen could get to work sooner and infrastructure built up to support the increases, he said.
“Almost all locations in Plaquemines are ice producers (now),” Gaudé said.
He said the only place in St. Bernard Parish that has ice is at Theresa Seafood, and that happened very recently.
Gaudé said the new ice machine will allow local fishermen to stay out on the water longer, which means lower fuel costs and a higher profit margin.
Mark Schnexnayder of the LSU Agricultural Center said although the new ice machine is landlocked on Paris Road, it will still mean a shorter trip for fishermen.
In addition, the machine will be operated by the parish, and ice will be sold at cost.
“The prices were going through the roof,” Schnexnayder said.
He said it’s unclear how much demand the new Chalmette ice station will meet.
The state’s active fishing fleet has decreased since last year’s storms, Katrina and Rita, said Martin Bourgeois of the state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Although the state DWF is working on a report on fishing activity, it appears to be down, Bourgeois said.
He said Plaquemines and St. Bernard parishes accounted for 24 percent of the shrimp landings for the state before the storm.
That has changed, he said.
“The industry there simply has not recovered to the base it was before the storm,” Bourgeois said.
According to the DWF, during the period of September through December, the number of shrimp boats actually fishing declined from 2,944 in 2004 to 1,685 in 2005 — a 43 percent decrease.
However, fishermen are working and a steady supply of affordable ice will help.
“This is going to be great,” Gerica said. “It’s got to help. One more step up.”
This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
