LNG Terminals Decimate Louisiana’s Once Thriving Commercial Fishing Industry

Interview with Eddie Lejuine, a 62-year-old fisherman from Cameron, Louisiana, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

October 22, 2025

Along the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas, at least six liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals are already operating, with several more under construction and even more proposed. The US is now the largest exporter of methane gas in the world, but it must be liquefied so it can be transported in super tankers, a process that consumes a huge amount of energy.

All of this industrial development has wreaked havoc on the natural environment, the health of the residents and their ability to make a living apart from working for a fossil fuel company. Cameron, in western Louisiana, was once known as a major fishing hub, but no longer.

Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Eddie Lejuine, a 62-year-old commercial fisherman from Cameron, who traveled with other Gulf residents to Washington, D.C. in September to protest the continued buildout of LNG facilities. The group met with government agency representatives and politicians, and participated in a Petrostate Tour organized by Third Act Actions Lab. They also visited the offices of powerful fossil fuel industry promoters including the American Petroleum Institute, the American Gas Association and Venture Global, the company behind the construction of two LNG terminals in Cameron. Here Lejuine talks about the decimation of fishing in his community and fisherfolks’ efforts to hold Venture Global accountable.

EDDIE LEJUINE: I started probably when I was about 10, throwing a little cast net and my dad would sell my shrimp that I caught, and that’s kind of how I got started. When I graduated in 1982, I became a full-time commercial fisherman. I caught oysters. I was a crabber, I was a shrimper. I was a gill netter, a strike netter and I fished off offshore some. In 1996, I started drum fishing, and that was with line and hooks. With everything combined, I made a good living. I raised five kids and a bunch of grandkids to begin with and money wasn’t an issue most of the time.

MELINDA TUHUS: So it sounds like there was a lot of availability of all those different kinds of seafood. When did that change?

EDDIE LEJUINE: I’m going to say it was probably about 10 years ago. The oysters started having troubles. The oysters have grown less and less and that’s due to the impact of our estuary changing. The shrimping industry here has went downhill tremendously to where they’re barely struggling. If it was inshore shrimping like it used to, there would be no shrimpers here. All of them has learned to fish in the ocean, Gulf of Mexico here.

And what do, drum fishing, the last five years is getting difficult. But it started about the time that the plants had showed up. That would be the LNG plants that, the first one come up just north of Hackberry a couple miles from my house. After it was in operation, which has been about 10 years ago, the big ships that come in and out to get the gas and go overseas, they throw a very bad wake with the waves and it has been washing away the levees system that was in place of our ship channel. Since the levees are washing away, that puts a lot more salt water into the area. Cameron Parish used to be ranked one of the highest seafood producers in the United States, and now there’s nothing left here.

MELINDA TUHUS: So Eddie Lejuine, has anyone been able to hold these huge LNG companies accountable?

EDDIE LEJUINE: As fishermen, we just accepted things and thinking next year is going to be better. What brings us today, which we are getting lawyers now, two months ago, they had a dredge to come in. One of the biggest dredges in the United States was in Cameron itself. They’ve continued to build levees and fill in miles of more of the nursery grounds in the refuge. And with all this, they’re still denying anything of wrongdoing. They have offered some of the fishermen $20,000, but you have to sign away your rights to sue them in the future or talk about ’em or anything else. So none of the main fishermen at fish full-time is taking the money. We’re all hiring lawyers and trying to do something with that.

MELINDA TUHUS: I know you came to Washington, D.C. to talk to folks at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and some members of Congress about what’s happening in your community. And then I met you on what was called a Petrostate Tour of some of the bad actors in the industry, including Venture Global. What did you think of that?

EDDIE LEJUINE: I had never experienced something like that before. I think it’s awesome to see people that really care about our land. I want to be one of those people, but with the income that we’re struggling so hard right now to keep, I guess, from losing everything we’ve worked for all my life, it’s hard to break away and do anything right now.

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