IBERIA PARISH, La. (KLFY) – Delcambre shrimpers are upset over the unexpected closure of the ice house at Ocean’s Harvest Wholesale.

Shrimping is a huge part of life for many people in the area. The ice house is one of the only ones in the area that can help support local commercial shrimpers.

People are not sure of what to do now after the ice house closed on Monday. The owners of the ice house reside in Illinois.

They sent representatives to the sight to send employees home with severance papers declaring the icehouse will be shut down for the time being.

The Louisiana shrimping industry has been in a noticeable decline. This is something longtime commercial shrimper Joseph Sauce said is another huge hit for the industry.

“No one is buying shrimp in Delcambre right now,” Sauce said.

According to Sauce, more and more people have noticed the severity of the closure.

“The message we want to really get across to everybody is that Delcambre is at a loss without ice,” Sauce said.

The Director of Twin Parish Port Commission Wendell Verret said the port is coming up with temporary accommodations to help support the shrimpers in need of ice.

“We are working with some facilities in intracoastal to get ice available to them on a temporary basis,” said Verret. “We are also looking at some possible emergency economic development funds for a start up of a 20-ton ice plant in intracoastal which has been shut down for a couple of years.”

Verret said he believes this could just be a temporary closure as hopes of the icehouse operating once again are still high.