Jerald Horst, a retired fisheries specialist, taught members of the commercial and recreational fishing industries as well as the seafood processing and marketing industry how to use the results of scientific research to their benefit. However, his pursuit of a career in fisheries was not immediate. After graduating from St. Francisville High School and separating from active duty in the United States Army, Horst worked as a roustabout and a roughneck in the oilfields of south Louisiana.
His goal of entering a higher-education institution became short-lived after a lack of funds resulted in his taking a sales job. It wasn’t until after he became a husband and father that he gave up what had turned into a lucrative business career to fulfill his dream of studying science. His love of the outdoors led him to Louisiana State University to pursue a master of science in fisheries. Upon graduation, he worked as an extension fisheries biologist in the LSU Agricultural Center and quickly rose to full professor of fisheries.
Originally from North Dakota, Horst was born to Great Plains farmers. When the family moved to St. Francisville, Louisiana, Horst discovered “a whole new world of Southern foods.” Having previously watched his mother turn out traditional German-Russian delicacies, he had now developed new culinary preferences. After marrying his Cajun wife, Glenda, he recognized the superiority of a skilled chef in the region.
Horst is a past president of the Louisiana Association of Professional Biologists, and a member of the Louisiana Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. Named the 1997 Conservation Communicator of the Year by the Louisiana Wildlife Federation, Horst has published articles for the Coastal Ecology Institute, the Coastal Fisheries Institute, the Louisiana Sea Grant College Program, and Lagniappe Fisheries Newsletter. He has written columns for the New Orleans Times-Picayune and Louisiana Sportsman Magazine.
Horst published Angler’s Guide to Fishes of the Gulf of Mexico with fellow fishing enthusiast Mike Lane, and The Louisiana Seafood Bible: Shrimp gives Horst another opportunity to share his knowledge of marine life. His wife joined him as the book’s coauthor.
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