CHAUVIN, La. (AP) – Annual shrimp boat blessings will return to the bayous of Terrebonne and Lafourche in coming weeks after being canceled or curtailed last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a decades-old tradition, Catholic churches in fishing communities throughout south Louisiana lead the blessings in hopes of a safe and prosperous shrimp season.

This year, the Rev. Antonio Speedy of Holy Family Catholic Church said the Blessing of the Fleet in Bayou Grand Caillou will look more like normal but will still have to keep the pandemic in mind.

“We’re going to have to keep to the government’s and the diocese’s regulations on social distancing,” Speedy said. “It will be mostly family units on the boats, and it’s an outdoor event, so there will be plenty of wind blowing around, but we still have to stay prudent.”

Like the industry itself, the local blessings have become smaller than in decades past, when some, especially the largest in Chauvin, would include more than 100 decorated boats.

These days, it’s a much more somber ceremony, Speedy said.

“This used to be a much bigger thing because of the number of shrimpers,” he said. “It had slipped into a parade-drinking party, and I have made an effort to make it a much more solemn occasion, recognizing its prayerful nature. It’s definitely a reminder to the community that the ship itself is symbolic of the church. Jesus himself used fishermen as his first disciples, and preached from the boat.”

Several poor harvests, a record number of tropical storms last season and the ongoing pandemic make the blessing as important as ever, he said.

“The men and women are on the seas often, and it is a dangerous profession,” he said. “Lives have been lost on the water in the past, and we recognize the need for God to keep them safe. And their livelihoods depend on the fish they catch as well, so we ask God to bless the catch, the fruit of the sea, as they remember him in their daily activities.”