Gulf Shrimpers Get Some Help From Congress

The Associated Press ^ | Feb 18, 2003

[new cruelty]

Congress has allocated $17.4 million to help seafood workers across the Gulf Coast suffering from a global price collapse and a season cut short by Tropical Storm Isidore and Hurricane Lili. A.J. Fabre, a Lafitte, La., shrimper who has organized petition drives for aid, said the money could keep some families and businesses from financial collapse.

"We appreciate anything we can get right now," Fabre said. "We're literally in a shutdown situation, caught between a rock and a hard place. We can't afford the fuel to go shrimping, and the money you can get from shrimping won't pay for the fuel."

Louisiana officials said they don't yet know how the money, which also includes $2 million to help oyster harvesters through the lingering effects of this winters' storms, will be allocated.

"We don't know what kind of criteria they're going to use to get the money in the hands of fishermen. But it's welcome news," said Martin Bourgeois, shrimp program manager for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Interesting how we have both a reduced harvest and a global price collapse.

[MichaelP]

Shrimp farming and South American shrimp has a lot to do with the collapse. I feel sorry for them, however, I sure like buying jumbo shrimp for 10 bucks a pound....

Mike

[Aracelis]

Hmmm...our local grocer is still charging $8/lb of frozen shrimp. Guess the boys on the boats aren't getting much of the retail price.

[El Laton Caliente]

This is a subsidy that should not be paid. It is a waste of the taxpayers’ money. The price collapse is caused by three factors.

One is foreign fleet competition. The US fleet can’t compete with the lower cost of foreign vessels and imported shrimp.

The second reason is that the US fleet has grown over the last fifty years to where they are over-shrimping the waters they work. This lowers the fuel and payroll to catch ratio making it more expensive per pound of shrimp lowering profit margins.

The third reason is the competition from shrimp FARMING. In the present marketplace, the reliability and consistent pricing of farm raised shrimp is appealing to the restaurants. THIS IS WHERE THE MONEY SHOULD GO IF ANYPLACE!

Shrimping kills ten pounds over other sea life for every pound of shrimp taken. This is not an efficient use of the sea resources. It takes a terrible toll on our offshore waters. If this was happening on land people would be up in arms over it. The grand banks in the Northeast have been decimated by similar fishing techniques to the point that it may take more than ONE HUNDRED YEARS TO RECOVER.

Any taxpayer money at all spent here should go to covert the shrimping fleet into shrimp farming.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Any taxpayer money at all spent here should go to covert the shrimping fleet into shrimp farming.

I'm philosophically opposed to government intervention in the market, but the current political reality makes such intervention inevitable.

If the tax dollars must be spent (again speaking in the context of current political reality), wouldn't it be cheaper to send these folks to college or to trade school and get them self-reliant in a new career?

[Ditter]

I agree with you on shrimp farming. Thats the way we should be going. Also bay shrimping should be outlawed today. The bays are the nurserys for many species & bay shrimping kills many baby fish crabs & shrimp. Lets stop it now.