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LAFITTE, La. — Their industry in shambles, Gulf Coast fishermen omitted from the $29 billion federal hurricane relief package hope to convince officials next month their post-Katrina plight is worthy of financial help.

Even in areas of south Louisiana and Mississippi not wiped out by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, fishermen have been slow to return as they try to find temporary housing for their families and rebuild homes. Many lost their boats. Some areas still have no electricity.

Louisiana's $2.5 billion-a-year commercial fishing industry produces 25 percent of the seafood in America, according to the state. Figures on losses because of the storms are difficult to determine, but for September, only 5 percent of the state's fishermen reported catches.

Representatives of the U.S. Department of Commerce will tour devastated areas of lower Plaquemines Parish, Grand Isle and the Mississippi Gulf Coast Jan. 4-6, said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

Smith said he hopes the trip will expedite the delivery of bare essentials, such as Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, and result in other resources like marketing assistance to revive the centuries-old industry. The board says it doesn't have a specific funding request, but it needs money to rebuild marinas, docks, ice houses and processing plants — projects that will run into the millions of dollars.

"They have to see it for themselves to understand," Smith said in an interview this week. "The infrastructure is completely gone — no bait shops, no marinas."

Jules Nunez, a Lafitte fish and seafood merchant for more than 50 years, said only about 10 percent of the pre-Katrina fishermen on his payroll have returned. Across the coast, less than 25 percent of fishermen are now back, Smith noted. "I've never seen anything like it," Nunez said. "Katrina took out a lot of people, but the real damage was Rita, the floodwater."

Just three weeks after Katrina's winds lashed coastal Louisiana, Rita's storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico left much of Lafitte, a small fishing village 28 miles south of New Orleans, under several feet of water. Now, bright white trailers issued by FEMA line properties and driveways where trawling boats once rested.

Lafitte's shrimp season ended recently, with merchants reporting large, plentiful shrimp but only a handful of fishermen to bring them in. With offshore fish and crab seasons in full swing, it appears fishermen again will be scarce.

Complicating matters, the storms took out two of the state's biggest seafood processing facilities and two of its largest shrimp docks, Smith said. Fishermen also are facing high fuel costs coupled with low seafood prices. The result: skimpy profits.

"The price is terrible," said fisherman John Brown, whose Barataria, La., home had wind damage but did not flood. "Everything's up — fuel, bait, traps, everything."

Since the storms, there aren't as many people buying, and many restaurants have yet to reopen. Shrimp prices are down so Louisiana's industry can compete with imported shrimp, and fish prices are low in part because it's not popular during the holidays.

"There are plenty of fish but not enough buyers," said Harlon Pearce, owner of a seafood processing company in Kenner, and chairman of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board.

Seafood prices fluctuate greatly depending on the season, size, quality and type of seafood, though Pearce estimated overall prices are down roughly 20 percent to 25 percent from a year ago.