Nestled in the heart of Cajun Country on Bayou Carlin, Delcambre serves as the local seafood hub for Acadiana, including Lafayette, Vermilion and Iberia parishes.
The Vermilion Bay area is rich in heritage, hospitality, history, and of course, tasty seafood.
Whether you catch it yourself or buy it straight from the fisherman, it’s naturally healthy and deliciously different. Taste the difference when it’s direct from the sea.
With a thriving seafood industry, the Delcambre region boasts outstanding Cajun and New Orleans-style cuisine, historic sites, lively festivals and natural wonders.
This small seaport along Highway 14—linked to Lake Peigneur on Jefferson Island, and the Gulf of Mexico by the Delcambre Canal (Bayou Carlin)—is the ultimate definition of resilience. A perfect storm of cheap shrimp imports and several dips in the U.S. economy had seriously weakened an already struggling shrimping industry, and the tidal surge of Hurricane Rita seemed to be the proverbial last straw.
Community leaders, including the Twin Parish Port District, local agents with Louisiana Sea Grant/LSU AgCenter, and Iberia Industrial Development Foundation worked together to create a plan for the revitalization of Delcambre—including the initial Delcambre Direct Seafood (DDS) website. Wildly successful, DDS tripled the number of active shrimpers after launch in 2010 as consumer demand for wild-caught shrimp at a competitive price surged.
Small wonder that Delcambre is the ‘town that refused to die’—though original land grants in the region were conferred by the King of Spain in 1790, the area became heavily populated later by the determined Acadians of Nova Scotia. Their French-Canadian customs, language and Catholic religion came with them as did their love for merriment, strong work ethic and ability to live off the land.
Generations of fishermen continue their family trade, supplying the world and world-renowned restaurants with delicious Louisiana seafood. The mission of DelcambreDirectSeafood.com is to provide a single portal for visitors to find, and buy, fresh, wild-caught seafood directly off the boat. Created in partnership with LSU AgCenter and Louisiana Sea Grant, the web site posts the ‘fresh catch’ messages from fishermen throughout the region; the public is urged to contact fishermen directly for location information and to place an order.
