HOUMA, La. — The steady pounding of oyster shells on tables in the steamy factory of Motivatit Seafoods have the rhythm of a telegraph. About two dozen Mexican women are shucking the meat out of the oysters. They shuck as many as 40,000 a day — a truckload — on a good day.
It is a signal across the darkest of seas that the Louisiana oyster industry will survive after the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon.
Motivatit is about 100 miles from the blowout site. Houma (population 33,000) is known as the heart of America’s Wetland. More than 65 percent of Terrebonne Parish consists of wetlands and open water. The parish was hit with more beach oil than any beach in Louisiana.
The Motivatit owners are the seventh generation of Voisins (pronounced “wah-zan”) involved in the seafood industry since 1770, when the first Voisin arrived from France. Motivatit was established in 1971 in downtown Houma.
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Photo courtesy of Houma Area Convention and Visitors Bureau