I find this topic intersting as I work in the fish industry, servicing dynamic scales for one of the leading fish meal suppliers in the States, Omega Protein.
This company has plants all the way from the northeast to La. I service the La. plants in Abbyville and sometimes Cameron.
I can say this, Katrina, Rita and Ike knocked the "you know what" off the the La. plants. Katrina totally wiped out two plants in La. and then Rita and Ike took it's toll.
The plants in La. fish for what is called a "Pogie" fish. I am not sure of the real name, but that's what it goes by. 8 to 10 boats go out on a Sunday night and fish for two to three days. 5 to 6 Cessna 172's direct the boats to the fish. Three days later these boats make shore with about 8 to 16 million fish each. As you can see, these boats are big, maybe 120 ft. or so. Would very much remind you of "Deadlest catch" type boats. The fish are then pumped off the boats into dewatering screens, pressed of their oils, ground up, then dried to a finished product.
When I go there, I do not eat prior to. To eat, would be to throw up, you can't keep it down (I learned one time on a Egg Mcmuffin). The smell is tremendous, the magets crawl the floors.
So, I can tell you this, last year production was bad, this year with the oil spill, probably worse. The season opens in April and closes, I think, in October. I believe a ton is being sold for $800, whereas several years ago it was $400. The $ numbers I could very well be off on.
I do bring home a 50 lb sack of pure fish meal each time I go, and do feed the fish with it. I figure it's got to be cocaine for the little guys.
