A town built around the fleet
Delcambre sits on Highway 14 about 20 miles southwest of Lafayette, straddling the Iberia and Vermilion parish line. The Delcambre Canal, which locals also call Bayou Carlin, connects the harbor to Lake Peigneur at Jefferson Island on one end and to the Gulf on the other. The festival association describes the town as home to one of the most productive shrimp fleets in the area.
The land goes back to Spanish rule. Around 1790 the King of Spain split it into three grants: the Jefferson Island area to Eugene Carlin, the northern part of the community to Charles Prevoux, and the southern part, where the town stands now, to Jean Petit. According to the Iberia Parish tourism bureau, the grants sat mostly idle until Acadian families arrived from Nova Scotia.
Hurricane Rita in 2005 and Ike in 2008 hit the town hard. What came after is the reason to visit. Local officials worked with the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant on Bayou Carlin Cove, a $4 million project dedicated on September 6, 2014, with a boat launch that takes four boats at once, a public fishing pier and a 7,500 square foot covered pavilion where boats can tie up and sell. At the first market there, four shrimp boats sold their whole catch in a few hours.
Buying shrimp at the dock
In 2010 the Twin Parish Port Commission, the LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant started Delcambre Direct Seafood, a way for home cooks to reach shrimpers and buy from a boat once it gets to the dock. The Iberia Parish tourism bureau still points visitors to it for wild caught Louisiana shrimp, fresh or frozen, sold in season. The same team worked on Vermilion Bay Sweet, a project to pack peeled and deveined local shrimp.
The Delcambre Seafood and Farmers Market is held monthly at the Bayou Carlin Cove pavilion, with homemade food and live music, and you can watch the shrimp boats from the cove. If you buy whole shrimp, keep the heads and shells. They make the stock that turns an ordinary pot of sauce into a Delcambre one.
