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Three major hurricanes have hammered Florida's Gulf Coast in the last two years, and few businesses were hit harder than commercial fishermen. Boats sank, docks were destroyed, and fish storage washed away in record storm surges all along the coast. As they struggle to rebuild and recover what they lost, NPR's Greg Allen reports, commercial fishermen are finding they are largely on their own.
GREG ALLEN, BYLINE: Hurricane Idalia made landfall near Steinhatchee in August of last year. Charlie Norwood owns a marina in the small fishing town, the Sea Hag. At the time, he says, it was the worst storm they'd ever seen. But this year Hurricane Helene was worse.
CHARLIE NORWOOD: We've never seen anything like Helene. That amount of wind, that amount of flood just hurt so many people up and down this coast.
ALLEN: Thirteen feet above the entrance, there's a sign now marking the storm surge at the marina, the highest ever recorded there.
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ALLEN: More than a month after the storm, there's still lots of work to repair the retail store, restaurant and motel rooms. But Norwood says in the marina, the debris has been cleared away and the docks repaired.
NORWOOD: The idea is to get the docks back open so our fellow retail fishermen and our fellow commercial fishermen can have a point to get on and off the water. Access to the water is still critical.
ALLEN: After Hurricane Idalia last year, a lot changed for Norwood and others in the seafood business. Insurance costs skyrocketed, and companies limited what they would cover. At the Sea Hag, Norwood says his docks, outside deck, overhanging roof and other structures were no longer included.
NORWOOD: It's been horribly financially a burden.
ALLEN: So this is just out of pocket, then, for you.
NORWOOD: Seventy-five percent of it is.
ALLEN: Yeah.
NORWOOD: Just like the commercial guys, my comrades on the water. They got the same problems. You know, it's out of pocket. They didn't create the storm, but it is what it is. There's no insurance they can buy, for the most part.
ALLEN: Fisherman Eddie Trotter (ph) says he made it through this year's hurricanes OK, but many of the businesses he sold fish to were knocked out in the storms.
EDDIE TROTTER: Almost a month we didn't get to go to work at all, so...
ALLEN: So what does that do to your income?
TROTTER: Oh, killed us - pretty much killed us. Yeah.
ALLEN: There's no help for that, right? That's just on you.
TROTTER: Not that we have seen. No. There's no help nowhere.
ALLEN: There was also extensive damage in Cedar Key, a community where many fishermen have moved into clam farming. Mike Allen, the director of a University of Florida biological station there, says last year Hurricane Idalia destroyed 80% of the clam stocks. This year the damage from Hurricane Helene was worse.
MIKE ALLEN: In total, when you consider those two storms, this is going to be a two-and-a-half- to three-year setback of the shellfish industry.
ALLEN: In Hernando Beach, another small fishing community, Kathryn Birren says the storm surge did hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to the seafood business and marina she owns with her husband.
KATHRYN BIRREN: Our seafood business had about five to six foot of water, our marina about four foot. The restaurant that we rent to next door just - I mean, everything's got to be redone in the building.
ALLEN: Fishermen are a self-reliant bunch, Birren says, and used to dealing with challenges, including the hazards encountered after a hurricane.
BIRREN: One of them, unfortunately, ran into a piling that was submerged, so the boat was sinking - made it back. We were able to pull it out and get those repairs done, and he's back to work.
ALLEN: For Birren and others in Florida's commercial fishing industry, they're getting back in the water at a good time - the beginning of the lucrative stone crab season.
BIRREN: (Inaudible***).
ALLEN: In the quickly refurbished sorting room, workers are grading stone crab claws. Birren is hoping a good season can offset some of the losses from the storms. Insurance won't cover most of her damage. To help, Florida has set aside a million dollars to assist commercial seafood producers. With docks, marinas and fish houses wrecked all along the Gulf Coast, the money won't go far. Still, after two years of devastating storms, she doesn't know any fishermen leaving the industry.
BIRREN: You know, once it dries out, it's like, OK, we've got damage. What are we going to do about it? Let's get this done. Let's get things back going again. And I think that's the way most people are seeing it.
ALLEN: There's something you often hear in Hernando Beach, Steinhatchee and other towns along the Gulf Coast. Fishing isn't just a job, they say. It's a way of life. Greg Allen, NPR News, Hernando Beach, Florida. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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