Uncounted Resources of the Louisiana Coast

1
Uncounted Resources of the Louisiana Coast
Value and Sustainability in an Informal Economy
2
Many Underrated Cultural Resources

• Maritime Wetland Heritage
• Wooden boats and historic port facilities
• Artifacts and tools related to historic fisheries
• Visual art (models, decoys, paintings, etc.)
• Intangible Heritage Resources
• Louisiana French language endangered!
• Performative folk art (songs, tales, music, etc.)
  
• Folk narratives and oral histories

3
Informal Economy of Lower LafourcheCREST Project
- 2006

• Subsistence Use and Value The Sharing,
  Distribution and Exchange of Wetland Resources
  among Households in Coastal Communities
• Robert Gramling, JoAnne Darlington, George
  Wooddell, Ray Brassieur
• University of Louisiana at Lafayette

4
Unrecognized Coastal Economies

• How Important are Non-Market Economies?
• Have we underestimated coastal value?
• What is the range of coastal subsistence
  activities?
• How important (valuable) are these activities?

5
How significant is subsistence in South
Lafourche?

• Adams Fruit Stand in Mathews, Louisiana, 2006

6
Economic Exchange

• Market Exchange (the only metric valued in )
• General Reciprocity
• Family support (nuclear extended family)
• Giving for charity (community, church, club)
• Balanced Reciprocity
• Exchange of materials or services of equal value
• Paymentoften deferred
• Useful in maintaining alliance network
• Trade/Barter Reciprocal exchange of items
• Redistribution of Goods (often to earn prestige)

7
Informal Exchange Networks

• nuclear family
• extended family
• neighbors
• friends / acquaintances
• occupational networks
• church networks
• voluntary associations (local festivals, etc)
• friends of friends
• victims of misfortune (benefit recipients)

8
Research Methods

• Mail survey, conducted fall/winter, 2005-06
• Randomly selected mailing list of 5,000 residents
  from Lower Lafourche
• Questionnaires with postage paid return envelopes
  
• Queried respondents about use of 45 resources
• Only 180 returned questionnaires
• Method did produce interesting statistics
• Follow-up field interviews during summer/fall,
  2006

9
45 Resources from Survey Questionnaire
Shrimp Catfish Frogs Garden Vegetables
Blue Crab Crayfish Deer Chickens/Eggs (Yard)
Oyster Bream Rabbit Goat
Redfish Sacalait Squirrel Satsuma
Speckled Trout Choupique Blackberry/Dewberry Pears
White Trout Gar Soco (Muscadine) Figs
Black Drum Alligator Roseau Cane Persimmon
Sheep Head Turtles Palmetto Loquat (Jap. Plum)
Flounder Ducks Horsetail Sassafras (fié)
Croaker Geese Black Gum Medicinal Plants
Mullet Poule d'eau (coot) Cypress Other?
Other Saltwater Species
10
Concerning Household Use

• How often do you eat or use it?
• More than once a week
• Weekly
• Monthly
• Seldom
• How do you get it? Check all that apply.
• Catch, harvest
• Given to you
• Trade
• Buy

• Is this resources necessary to you?
• Yes
• No
• What do you do with this resource?
• Eat or consume
• Give away
• Trade
• Sell

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Are They Economically Significant ?Very Likely
? Unknown

• Redfish
• Speckled Trout
• Shrimp
• Blue Crab
• Crawfish
• Oysters
• Catfish
• Garden Vegetables

• Figs
• Choupique
• Sacalait
• Poule d'eau
• Soco
• Horsetail
• Loquat
• Medicinal Plants

12
Gardens Deserve A Closer Look

• 2005 La. Ag Summary -- 6,500 home gardens in
  Lafourche Parish
• What are they growing?
• How important are gardens?
• Who gets the produce?

Loulan Pitre, Cuttoff, La.
13
Hibiscus esculentus Gumbo Okra
Not for Sale in Grocery Stores !
14
Sechium edule
Mirliton, Chayote, Vegetable Pear
15
I just love em we used to eat a lot of that
.
Cucurbita argyrosperma Giraumon Coucroche Cushaw
(Striped Crookneck)
16
Ficus carica (Fig)

• 2005 La. Ag. Summary -- only 3 acres of figs
  in Lafourche Parish
• They are ubiquitous!
• Locals claim theyre needed.
• What do they do with them?
• Who gets them?

17
Vitis rotundifolia soco, muscadine
18
Medicinal Plants
1941
Speck found 73 plant curatives among Houma
19
1940
Taylor recorded 185 SE Indian plants
20
Marie Dean, Houma Palmetto Basketmaker
Speck 1941
Basket fiber but medicine too.
21
Saururus cernuus - Z-herbe à Malo,
- Z-herbe baume à leau,
- Lizard's Tail
Taylor 1940
22
Equisetum hyemale la prêle
horsetail, scouring-rush
23
Curatives not reported by Speck or Taylor
Baccharis halimifolia L.
Mangolier, Mongrier, Mango,
Groundsel-tree,
Consumption-weed
24
Momordica charantia Mexicain Bitter
Melon Balsam Pear
25
Ethnomedical Resources? Do economists consider
them when calculating La. coastal values?
26
Fulica americana Poule deau Coot
Poule d'eau Gumbo Skin poule d'eau, wash, cut up,
salt and pepper Fry lightly and set aside
Make basic roux .
Lafourche poule deau decoys
27
Amia calva choupique, bowfin, grinnel, cypress
trout, dogfish
Choupique catches, Adams Fruit Market, Mathews,
Louisiana
28
Stramonita haemostoma bigorneaux,
southern oyster drill
Bigorneaux Jambalaya first remove le tobac
viscera its too bitter to eat
29
Uca panacea tou-la-lou,
fiddler crab
Tou-la-lou -- prime bait for snapper, grouper,
sheepshead
Uca longisignalis
tou-la-lou,
Gulf Marsh Fiddler Crab
30
Siren intermedia lesser siren En-soir a
nocturnal salamander used as bait
31
Myrophis punctatus Speckled worm eel Premier
catfish bait   
32
Consumption / Exchange Patterns
Species Eat or Consume Give away Trade Sell gt Monthly
Shrimp 91 10 4 6 89
Crayfish 78 3 0 1 54
Redfish 76 24 1 0 49
Garden Vegetables 73 11 2 1 67
Speckled Trout 72 23 1 0 56
Blue Crab 67 9 2 2 58
Oyster 66 7 2 0 47
Flounder 64 8 1 1 30
Satsuma 61 8 0 1 41
Catfish 57 6 1 2 41
Deer 57 9 1 0 28
Figs 48 9 0 1 26
Chickens/Eggs 47 3 0 1 40
Blackberry/Dewberry 46 8 0 1 22
33
Consumption / Exchange Patterns, cont.
Species Eat/Consume Give
Away Trade Sell gt Monthly
Ducks 42 8 1 0 17
White Trout 40 13 1 0 17
Pears 38 3 0 0 24
Rabbit 37 5 1 0 12
Sassafras (file) 32 4 0 0 24
Frogs 32 4 0 0 9
Black Drum 29 11 1 1 13
Alligator 27 3 1 0 3
Loquat (Japanese Plum) 24 7 0 0 9
Sacalait 23 5 0 1 10
Sheep Head 22 12 1 1 11
Poule d'eau (coot) 21 4 0 0 4
Persimmon 21 4 0 0 11
Turtles 20 3 0 0 4
34
How Respondents Obtained Species
Species Catch/Harvest
Given to You Buy Trade
Speckled Trout 56 41 7 6
Redfish 54 47 6 1
Flounder 38 40 10 1
Blackberry/Dewberry 34 16 8 3
White Trout 32 21 1 1
Blue Crab 28 32 52 2
Shrimp 27 41 66 2
Figs 26 28 7 2
Black Drum 25 15 1 2
Garden Vegetables 24 34 52 1
Sheep Head 21 14 1 1
Satsuma 21 29 38 1
Ducks 19 34 4 1
Catfish 18 21 38 1
35
How Respondents Obtained Species, cont.
Species Catch/Harvest
Given to You Buy Trade
Deer 16 52 3 1
Rabbit 16 27 3 1
Sacalait 15 14 1 1
Loquat (Japanese Plum) 12 12 4 1
Crayfish 12 22 72 0
Oyster 11 26 54 1
Frogs 10 21 12 1
Persimmon 8 10 7 1
Poule d'eau (coot) 7 18 2 1
Turtles 6 17 3 0
Pears 6 13 28 1
Chickens/Eggs (Yard) 5 16 37 2
Sassafras (file) 2 10 25 1
Alligator 2 21 7 0
36
Consumption Patterns by Number of Species
37
Use Patterns by Number of Species
38
Profile of a Subsistence Economy
39
Why is Subsistence Econ Important ?

• Linked to Resilience
• Quality of Life Factors
• Part of Traditional Heritage
• Cultural Identity and Distinctiveness

40
What about Sustainability?

• Depends on Biological Diversity
• Social Stability is Needed
• Stable Social Networks
• Stable Patterns of Reciprocity
• Requires Traditional Knowledge --
• (Often transmitted in French)

41
Traditional Knowledge -- Is it the most
significant uncounted coastal resource?
42
TK /TEK is a Valid Field!
43
NOAA has sponsored great TEK projects Local
Fisheries Knowledge Project Maine Among Tribal
People in Alaska Louisiana and the Gulf Coast
needs to get aboard!