'Be comfortable without the lights': this chef wants you to hunt, cook, and be ready for an EMP



Chef Jean-Paul Bourgeois is ready to bring conservation, food, and southern hospitality to the next generation.

The outdoorsman has traded in his chef's hat for a rifle and waders in his show "Duck Camp Dinners," which chronicles the Louisiana native's epic adventures in the south.

In his recent interview with Align, the gregarious southern Louisiana native was eager to tout the Cajun cuisine he grew up on, sharing recipes as practical as they are delicious.

"Boudin is so easy to make!" he said of the classic dish made with meat, rice, onions, and peppers.

Bourgeois has been known to forgo the traditional pork filling in favor of the geese he hunts. In both cases, boudin calls for parts of the animal that are typically discarded.

Whether it's gizzards and innards, breasts and bones, Bourgeois makes sure nothing goes to waste.

"I try to make sure I can make as many meals is possible," he affirmed.

'Some people just have an aversion to seeing dead animals.'

The authentic, practical know-how that Bourgeois brings to "Duck Camp Dinners" helps explain why the show is so popular. It also lets Bourgeois tackle larger issues.

For example, last season's final episode closed with lessons about natural and un-natural conservation in Louisiana.

Bourgeois shared stories about the wetlands along the Gulf coast, explaining how some families literally pick up and move their home depending on the season.

"When it's hurricane season, some families will just drop a concrete slab on the ground — if they have the land — then put their trailer on top of it," he explained. "Or, they may just move out of the area entirely and come back when the seasons change."

"If they don't have that option, some of the homes you see in the video will be built 15-20 feet in the air to avoid floods."

Shockingly, this effort to relocate on a seasonal basis has become routine for a number of families that face consistent natural disasters.

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Confronting activists

Bourgeois also stressed the importance of practicing what he preaches in terms of utilizing an entire animal. He expressed that he felt a strong sense of responsibility to not only represent hunters and chefs honorably but also a sense of responsibility to provide for his family and not be wasteful.

"We know exactly how that fish was caught or that bird was shot or how that venison was harvested," he explained. "[But] we don't know that about what we get out of the grocery store."

"It also saves money, it saves me money at least!" he joked.

That attitude has helped the chef come to terms with some of the activism he has faced over the years.

"Some people just have an aversion to seeing dead animals on social media, and I get that," he noted. However, it isn't Bourgeois' hunting that has drawn complaints from social media users.

"Animal rights activists [came] after me when I was working as a commercial chef; pork, cattle, and chickens ... and came at me more when I played more of a role in that space," he recalled.

"I think it's a lot easier for folks that are on the side of animal activists to support somebody that's hunting and fishing his own meat and game out of the wild, as opposed to somebody who is using the large commercial farming operations of America to feed a restaurant."

To that extent, Bourgeois said he understood why a vegan or an animal activist might speak out if they thought animals were being mistreated.


Passing on the knowledge

Bourgeois knows his idea of fun can be a hard sell to screen-addicted digital natives.

"I don't know how to relate to this generation!" Bourgeois laughed. "Maybe I'm kind of glad I don't!"

All joking aside, the soon-to-be father of two said a lot of the responsibility falls on the parent to make sure their child has an understanding of the outdoors and is capable of surviving if the lights go out.

"A lot of this is on the parents to get out there and be an example. It doesn't mean you have to be a duck hunter, [and] it doesn't mean you have to be a fisherman."

'There's only so long that people can go with running on generators.'

The father pointed to simply letting kids be kids — letting them dig in the backyard and find earthworms or providing them with books that nurture a desire to want to be in the outdoors.

"That should start at a young age," he continued. "It's hard to pull a 15-year-old away from a PlayStation and put them into the wild for duck hunting."

Bourgeois explained that most of the youngsters featured in his videos didn't become nature lovers overnight.

"Those kids were born and raised in the outdoors in Louisiana," Bourgeois explained. "Whether it was an aunt, an uncle, or someone else in the family, someone took them out and gave them that experience."

In conclusion, the longer a person waits, the more they can expect to become overly attached to their "indoor" luxuries.

When the EMP drops

Could a love of outdoors also come in handy in the event of some society-disrupting event like an EMP attack?

"That's a fun thought experiment!" Bourgeois laughed.

He quickly proceeded to offer a list of necessities for when SHTF, including fuel to get out of town, firearms, ammunition, as well as canned vegetables and meat.

When asked about generators, Bourgeois offered a unique perspective.

"When you look at all the history that Louisiana has with hurricanes, there's only so long that people can go with running on generators. That's about two weeks."

Being "comfortable without the lights" and without air conditioning is something that will actually go a long way, he added.

Don't count on always having a refrigerator either, Bourgeois warned. He suggested researching ways that food has been preserved in the past

As much as he sounded mentally prepared for disaster, the food expert said he was still keeping "positive vibes" toward the idea that humanity will get along and be able to avoid any apocalyptic scenarios.

"I do love my amenities, too!" he clarified.

Whether it's Florida where he currently resides, his home state of Louisiana, or elsewhere, Bourgeois asserted he hoped his content would inspire people to try new things, and carry on the traditions of the outdoors for generations.

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Season three of "Duck Camp Dinners" premieres August 18, 2024. For more information on Chef Bourgeois, head to his website.

- YouTube

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Florida man in critical condition after 'severe' shark attack on a boat, deputy who saved victim said to be a hero



A Florida man is in critical condition after a shark attack on the east coast of the Sunshine State.

Around 11:15 a.m. on Friday, the Nassau County Sheriff's Office Marine Unit responded to a distress call from a boat reporting a shark bite that caused a "critical injury." The boat was off the coast of Fernandina Beach – which is roughly 35 miles north of Jacksonville.

The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office posted a video on Facebook revealing the details of the attack and how the deputy saved the man.

The man was on a fishing trip and had been bitten by the shark on the boat.

The man, who was said to be in his 40s, suffered a "severe" shark bite to his right forearm and had "lost a lot of blood."

A Nassau County Sheriff’s Office deputy boarded the boat and applied a tourniquet to stop the heavy bleeding.

The Nassau County Sheriff’s Office said the deputy piloted the boat to the Dee Dee Bartels boat ramp – where Fernandina Beach Fire Rescue was waiting.

The victim was immediately airlifted to the nearby UF Health Jacksonville Medical Center.

The shark attack victim is currently listed in critical condition. The man is said to have been alert and expected to recover.

Sheriff Bill Leeper of the Nassau County Sheriff's Office called the deputy a "hero" for the quick-thinking assistance that he provided to the distressed victim.

There had only been eight confirmed shark attacks in Nassau County since 1882, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File.

Nassau County is approximately 150 miles north of Volusia County, which is considered to be the "shark bite capital of the world."

There have been 351 confirmed shark attacks in Volusia County since 1882, including 17 bites in 2021.

There were 16 shark attacks in the state of Florida last year, or 44% of all of the attacks in the entire United States and 23% of the worldwide total.

In June, there were three swimmers who were attacked by sharks in two different incidents in the Gulf Coast of Florida.

One woman had to have her arm amputated and suffered "critical injuries" to her hip in the shark attack that happened in Walton County – which is located in Florida's northwest panhandle.

On the same day, two teenage girls were victims of a shark attack near Seacrest Beach, about four miles further east of the first attack.

One of the girls suffered "significant injuries to the upper leg and one hand," while the other endured minor injuries on one of her feet, according to officials.

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Watch: Police fishing for leads to catch Florida man who stole 50-pound tarpon from Bass Pro Shops fish tank



A viral video shows the moment a Florida man went fishing at a fish tank in a Bass Pro Shops store and snatched a 50-pound tarpon. Police are fishing for leads to catch the thief who stole the large tarpon under fishy circumstances.

Video shows a man snag a 50-pound tarpon with a large net on Wednesday night inside a Bass Pro Shops store at the Gulf Coast Town Center in Fort Myers, Florida.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post: "But not just your ‘normal’ retail theft. We guess you could say THIS one will o-fish-ially catch your eye."

The police said the male suspect "proceeded to remove a live tarpon from the store’s indoor fish pond."

The man fled the sporting goods store with the live fish in the net.

"We’re #FishingForInformation & would love nothin’ more than to chum it up with this guy," the Lee County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook. "Don't Get Caught Aiding & A-bait-ing."

The Lee County Sheriff's Office, the Animal Cruelty Task Force, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and SWFL Crime Stoppers are working together to tackle the fish thief.

"The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) is aware of an incident at The Bass Pro Shop in Fort Myers involving a tarpon. We are currently working with the Lee County Sheriff's Office to investigate further," a spokesperson for the FWC told WOFL "I will provide updates when they become available."

Anyone with information on the fish caper is urged to "drop a line" to SWFL Crimestoppers at 1-800-780-TIPS or contact the Lee County Sheriff's Office at 239-477-1000.

NEW: Florida police are searching for a man who 'caught' a 50-pound tarpon from a Bass Pro Shops' fish tank.\n\nOnly in Florida!\n\nLee County Sheriff's Office is searching for a suspect who walked off with a tarpon in a fishing net.\n\n"Somebody came up to me holding a scale of a\xe2\x80\xa6
— (@)

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Mississippi gator hunters bag a record-setting leviathan after a 7-hour battle: 'It was pandemonium. It was chaos.'



A record was set and certified in August 2017 for the longest alligator bagged in Mississippi. The beast weighed 766.5 pounds and measured 14 feet and 3/4 inches tail to snout.

It turns out there was yet a greater monster still lurking in the murk.

With an inkling of where a "particularly territorial" alligator at least 12 feet long could be found out on the Yazoo River, Will Thomas, Don Woods, Tanner White, and Joey Clark ventured out Friday in search of their gator and glory, reported the Washington Post.

Woods, among those to receive a tag by lottery for this year's 10-day hunting season, told the Clarion Ledger, "We got on the water right at dark. ... It was a calm night. We saw a lot of 8-footers, 10-footers, but that's not what we were after."

Around 9 p.m., they saw their prize.

"We knew he was wide," said Woods. "His back was humongous. It was like we were following a jon boat."

The hunters managed to hook the beast, but it would not go gentle into that good night. Rather, the beast shredded lines, broke rods, and tested the men's endurance for several hours.

"We held onto him awhile — until 10 or so," Woods told the Ledger. "He broke my rod at that point."

Woods and his crew hooked the beast several more times, but again and again it managed to break off.

"He would go down, sit and then take off. He kept going under logs. He knew what he was doing," Woods recalled. "The crazy thing is he stayed in that same spot."

The more the alligator thrashed, the better sense the hunters got of exactly what they were dealing with.

Thomas told the Post, "It was pandemonium. It was chaos. ... When you have an 800-pound animal on the end of a fishing rod, and he's coming up and he looks like a beast, everybody is kind of going crazy, and your adrenaline is pumping."

"We probably didn't have top-of-the-line equipment because he broke everything we had," said Thomas. "By the end of the night, I didn't think we could catch him because our equipment was shot."

"He dictated everything we did. It was exhausting," Woods told the Ledger. "It was more mentally exhausting than anything because he kept getting off."

Although tested, the crew would not be bested.

Taking on water and working feverishly to close the deal before the oppressive Mississippi heat returned along with the sunshine, the men put their last two good rods to use and slayed the beast around 3:30 a.m..

Thomas told NewsNation, "It was a team effort. Everybody kind of had a job and we fought him hard."

The Post indicated that after noosing the gator in accordance with state law, the hunters rendered the beast the inert stuff of legend with a shotgun blast.

In the 30 minutes it took to get the gator on board, the men began to comprehend the full heft of their prize.

"We just knew we had a big alligator," said Woods. "We were just amazed at how wide his back was and how big the head was. It was surreal, to tell you the truth."

Andrew Arnett, Alligator Program coordinator with the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, later measured it and discovered the hunters had a state record for "longest male alligator taken by a permitted hunter" on their hands. It weighed in at 802.5 lbs, measured 14 feet and 3 inches long, and sported a belly girth of 66 inches.

Arnett told the Post, "I was actually shocked. ... It's not every year you get something of this magnitude."

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves congratulated the hunters on "harvesting the biggest alligator in state history," adding "#TastesLikeChicken."

— (@)

NewsNation indicated that the team donated an estimated 380 pounds of the gator's meat to a program in the state that feeds the hungry.

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14-year-old out fishing hooked farmer's lost wallet, full of cash. Like his old man, he knew not to keep something he hadn't earned.



14-year-old Connor Halsa of Moorhead, Minnesota, was out fishing with his family on Lake of the Woods when he hooked bills instead of gills.

"We were doing a walleye drift, so we stopped the boat, put some spinners on, and let the waves take us," Halsa told WDAY-TV.

Of all of the places he could have drifted to on the lake — some 85 miles long and 56 miles across at its widest — those serendipitous waves brought Halsa over the resting place of Iowa farmer Jim Denney's lost wallet, stuck 20 feet below in the glacial deeps.

The summer prior, Denney reportedly came up against rough waters and went overboard. Although he managed to bring himself out of the murk all right, Denney later realized when readying to pay his final bill at the resort that the pocket on his overalls was down one billfold and $2,000 dollars.

"They had to float me the money for the whole deal. That's the (worst) feeling I ever had, didn't have a penny on me," Denney told the station.

This summer, Halsa struck on the wallet, but mistook it for a nibble.

Ready for a fight, the boy "set the hook really hard."

The incoming freshman at Moorhead High School came out victorious, but what came out of the water was no walleye. Rather, the 14-year-old had reeled in Denney's billfold, packed with $2,000 in cash.

"My cousin opened the wallet up, and he said some words you probably shouldn't say," Halsa told WDAY. "He showed everyone, and we took the money out and let it dry out."

$2,000 can go a long way, especially for a 14-year-old, but Halsa explained, "We didn't work hard for the money. He did. It was his money."

"My dad said we should give it to the person, and I said we should too," Halsa recalled.

After setting the cash out to dry, the family looked for some way to identify the owner. All they could find inside the water-logged wallet was a business card with a phone number belonging to a livestock owner in western Wisconsin — and that proved to be enough.

They called the number on the card and eventually got in touch with the owner of the wallet.

Although the wallet made its way to his farmhouse in Mount Ayr, Iowa, Denney traveled to Moorhead to visit Halsa, amazed by his luck and the boy's virtue, reported the Star Tribune.

"I tell you what, I have the billfold in my hands, and it is still hard to believe," said Denney.

The farmer reportedly offered to give the boy a reward, but Halsa refused.

"To meet people like that, who are that honest, I tried to get them to take the money, and they wouldn't do it," said the farmer.

While Halsa refused a reward, the Iowan gifted him a custom-made cooler and paid him a compliment: "I would take Connor as a grandson any day, and I would fight for him any day."

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Teen hooks wallet full of cash while fishingyoutu.be

'Thank you Jesus!' Fisherman narrowly escapes kayak-chomping shark, accidentally captures viral video

'Thank you Jesus!' Fisherman narrowly escapes kayak-chomping shark, accidentally captures viral video



A Hawaii man is counting his lucky stars after narrowly escaping a tiger shark that chomped onto the angler's kayak instead of his body, KITV reported.

"Dunno how I did that, but my foot actually pushes the shark off near its vulnerable eye. Thank you Jesus!" a message within the YouTube video says.

"I realize that life is short, time is short on Earth, so make the most of it," fisherman Scott Haraguchi told KITV.

The 42-second video quickly went viral on social media, and it's easy to understand why.

The video opens with a school bus-yellow kayak filled with gear gently making its way through the calm, crystal blue waters on the windward side of Oahu. A quiet breeze and the sound of a crinkling wrapper can be heard. All seems to be well.

The serene scene lasted all of about nine seconds before a tiger shark came barreling toward the front of kayak, ramming it on the side. At the ten-second mark, the beast latches onto the craft, leaving minor teeth marks in it. The shark clamped on for a couple of seconds, and Haraguchi can be heard screaming.

"Tiger shark rammed me!" the angler yelled, adding an expletive in the heat of the moment.

Though you might have to pause the video and squint to see it, at about the 11-second mark, Haraguchi's black, white-soled shoe connects with the shark's eye region. He gave it a shove, and the mammoth macropredator disengaged.

"Happened so fast. Didn't realize I took my left foot out of the water to brace myself from impact and actually pushed the shark's head off with it. If you asked me to do that again, even without the shark, I don't think I'd have that flexibility," text accompanying the video says.

Haraguchi reportedly went on fishing after the shark swam away and didn't fully appreciate the depth of the encounter until watching the video later at home. The wild video was caught on a GoPro he had accidentally left on after catching a fish, KITV reported.

"I heard a whooshing sound that sounded like a boat heading towards me without the motor, and I looked up and I saw this big brown thing. My brain thought it was a turtle, but then I got slammed by it and realized that it was a tiger shark," Haraguchi told the outlet.

The wise fisherman told KITV that he is counting his blessings and that he will be bringing a partner along the next time he hits the water.

Watch the viral video from Hawaii Nearshore Fishing's YouTube channel that shows fisherman Scott Haraguchi's too-close-for-comfort encounter with a tiger shark about a mile offshore from windward Oahu.


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