SLIDELL, La. — All summer, you've likely been hearing about the struggles fishermen have had because of the Bonnet Carre Spillway opening. Now, there might be some good news on the water.
Mitchell Messina has been crabbing since he was only 14-years-old.
"When things are right, I'll fill up a whole trailer a day," he said.
It's not just a hobby, Messina is a commercial fisherman. He wrapped up another's day work in Slidell Wednesday.
"Today was slow," he said.
While that may be so, he's thankful to catch any crabs at all.
"About 700 pounds," he estimated.
That's still not near what he would catch under normal circumstances, but the last few months have not been normal.
"Rough, rough," he said about this year's crab catching.
Fresh water from the opening of the Bonnet Carre Spillway was hurting the crab population.
"Half of them are dead just because the waters bad," Messina said.
It's the same story over at Shell Beach.
"It was covered up with dirty fresh water," Capt. Jonathan Sanchez with Reel Excitement Charters said.
Then, the spillway closed and Hurricane Barry hit. Sanchez believes that's why he's having more luck catching fish now.
"Once Barry came around, it gave us a little flush and definitely turned things around for us," Sanchez said.
While Messina admits things have finally picked up, it's still tough business and he's hopeful he'll start catching more and more crabs as the year goes on.
"I don't think you'll see a full recovery until next year," he said.
That's as long as there isn't a repeat of what we saw this year.
"Hopefully, maybe, you can only pray," he said.
It wasn't just crabs, but fish, oysters, and shrimp were all declining after the spillway opened. The spillway has now been closed for one month and fishermen are hopeful they'll continue to see improvements.