UPDATED WITH STORY: Lieutenant governor kicks off Cajun Coast's Shrimply Delicious Food Trail

St. Mary Parish Councilman Patrick Hebert has an idea.

At Tuesday’s Berwick Town Council meeting, Hebert noted that the La. 182 bridge has a hump-shaped superstructure, a bit like the curved back of a shrimp.

And because the bridge is due for a three-year rehabilitation, Hebert mused, why not paint the bridge to look like shrimp? He said he would bring up the idea with Lt. Gov. Billy Nungesser.

As it happened, Nungesser was in Morgan City on Wednesday. He talked with Hebert. A quick question for the lieutenant governor in passing: Did Hebert mention the bridge?

“I’m going to see what I can do,” Nungesser said.

In the meantime, Cajun Coast celebrated St. Mary’s favorite seafood in a more immediately tangible way — tangible as in peel and eat. At the Morgan City visitor center Wednesday, the parish tourist authority launched the Shrimply Delicious Food Trail, a promotion for local tourism, restaurants and Louisiana’s beleaguered shrimp industry.

Somewhere between the music of Johnny Chauvin and the boiled shrimp, participants heard about the trail, which consists of 38 restaurants, from Jeanerette to Amelia, at which customers will be encouraged to order shrimp dishes.

Collect five receipts, and you can get a free Shrimply Delicious T-shirt.

You can find a list of participating restaurants at www.cajuncoast.com/shrimptrail.

Wednesday’s Shrimply Delicious event coincided with National Travel and Tourism Week and National Shrimp Day.

Nungesser, who said his first job was in his parents’ shrimp factory in Algiers, clowned around with Chauvin, pretending to play the accordion although he doesn’t really, and
his wife kicks him when he tries to sing in church.

But he had a serious purpose: promoting Louisiana’s tourism opportunities.

“I’m traveling the state, trying to get us back to the record number of tourists we had before COVID,” Nungesser said. “I listen to the people about what it takes.”

According to Doug Bourgeois, assistant secretary for tourism, tourism numbers were up 4% last year to 43 million.

Along with the music and the food, there was a plea.

Parish Councilman Rodney Olander of Franklin has been a commercial fisherman for 45 years, and he sits on a state shrimp industry task force.

Olander said he’d rather have been shrimping Wednesday. But he wasn’t, because he couldn’t make money on his catch. And he can’t make money because imported shrimp are flooding the market.

“We don’t have a market for our shrimp,” Olander said.

The number of licensed shrimpers has fallen from 10,000 to 4,000 in 20 years, Olander said.

“The industry needs the help,” he said.