Bayou expects big turnout for 58th fleet blessing

By car and by boat, thousands are expected to travel this weekend to Bayou La Batre for the annual Blessing of the Fleet -- the second time the celebration has been held since Hurricane Katrina struck in 2005.

"Everyone needs to come and take a look at us because we're getting bigger and better every day," said Ron Goleman, this year's event chairman for St. Margaret Catholic Church.

Last year's estimated crowd of 8,000 was an unwelcome drop from the 11,000 that attended the 2005 event held just three months before Katrina flooded half the homes in the low-lying fishing village, Goleman said.

This year, church and city officials said, they decided to ramp up their efforts to draw visitors.

"We want to make sure everyone knows we're here, and the blessing's going to be big," said St. Margaret pastor, the Rev. Bieu Nguyen. "Some people doubted we could continue this tradition. We can."

The event once drew tens of thousands before the area hit harder times with the increase of shrimp imports from Asia, which industry officials say depressed prices.

The number of shrimp boats in the Gulf shrank by nearly 40 percent since 2000, according to federal statistics. About 1,800 Gulf vessels are currently operating. Of those, about 120 have Alabama permits, state regulators said.

In 2005, 45 boats participated in the Bayou's fleet blessing, while last year only 25 did, event volunteers said. Boat registration for this year's fleet blessing begins Sunday morning.

To increase participation from entertainment and arts and crafts vendors this year, Goleman said he sought the assistance of Marie Mathis, who has long directed events at the annual Alabama Pecan Festival in Tillman's Corner. Last year, 10 vendors set up at the fleet blessing. This year, at least 35 vendors are expected, Goleman said.

Also, the grand marshals of this year's parade -- Shelby Mitchell and Dan Brennan, hosts of WKSJ's Breakfast Club morning show -- have promoted the event on the air and posted information about it on their Web site.

The 58th Blessing of the Fleet, held on the waterfront behind St. Margaret's, will begin Saturday with a 5K fun walk or run at 8:30 a.m. Food will be served starting at

11 a.m. -- gumbo, boiled shrimp, stuffed crab, hot dogs, hamburgers, shrimp salad, fried fish, oyster and shrimp dinners, along with Vietnamese food.

A Mass for blessing workers is scheduled for Saturday at 6 p.m. at the church.

The official fleet blessing Mass is set for 11 a.m. Sunday.

A land parade is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Bayou La Batre Community Center on Padgett Switch Road. It will travel southwest to Wintzell Avenue, where it will turn left and then travel south to the church.

This year's blessing queen, Aimee Renee Gueret, 11, and her maids, Sally Hua, 13, and Taylor Paige Ladnier, 11, are to be presented at the church's dock at 3:30 p.m. The actual blessing and the boat parade are scheduled to follow.

Archbishop Oscar Lipscomb, this year's celebrant, is expected to deliver the event's traditional, solemn prayer for those lost at sea. Then Lipscomb is expected to board a vessel, which will carry him down the bayou as he stands at the bow sprinkling holy water and blessing the boats along the waterway.

A long row of boats traditionally trails behind. In recent years, those vessels have ranged from high-tech yachts packed to the gills with partying people to simple shrimping boats. Ships from the southern tip of Florida to Texas and even foreign vessels have shown up for past blessings.

Traditionally, the boats are decorated with flags and religious symbols, such as wooden crosses and painted angels. A recurring theme in the decorations is the New Testament passage in which Jesus promises to make his followers "fishers of men" (Matthew 4:19).

The first Bayou La Batre fleet blessing was in 1949, when Louisiana native Clarence Mallet organized it to bring the fishing village custom of his home state to Alabama. The Rev. Alex O'Neill conducted the first blessing at the Bayou Ice Plant.