Trawling for a Miracle

Dear Editor,

In 1934, the harvesting of large Gulf of Mexico shrimp began when a shrimp fisherman from Galveston, Texas, traveling off the Louisiana coast, discovered jumbo shrimp. He decided to unload his catch at the nearest port, Morgan City in St. Mary Parish.

The deep-sea shrimp industry reached such a scale in 1937 that Morgan City was tagged the “Shrimp Capitol of the World.”

Today, Louisiana is No. 1 in the nation in shrimp production.

The shrimping industry is a vital element of Louisiana’s economy. Fishermen’s sweat in the Gulf and at busy docks along coastal waterways helps to fuel the state’s economic engine, and their toils help keep the state running.

Shrimp trawling requires a large initial investment for a boat, ongoing diesel fuel, ice, insurance, labor, equipment and maintenance costs. Louisiana’s 30,000 or so licensed vessels typically land about 125 million pounds of shrimp a year. Shrimp prices vary according to size – the more shrimp to the pound, the less it’s worth.

For 50 years, annual shrimp harvests in the Gulf have fluctuated between 100 million and 160 million pounds … well within the range of sustainability, according to the Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Galveston, Texas. But prices have dropped in recent years and cheap imports have been getting the blame.

Demand for shrimp is high. Plentiful supplies and low prices have helped transform shrimp from a high-end delicacy to the No. 1 seafood in the country. Americans eat about 3.4 pounds per year on average, up from 2.2 pounds per year during the 1990s.

The supply of shrimp varies depending on the time of year, the species, location and the skill of individual shrimpers. Unusually cold spring weather causes a premature migration of shrimp from coastal marshes into offshore waters, robbing inland fisherman who use smaller boats of about 40 to 60 percent of their yearly catch.

In the Gulf of Mexico and generally around the world, the species is fished to its limits each year, meaning that there is only a given total amount of money that can be made. Economists say that only a given number of vessels in a fishery will create maximum revenues for each boat and that when more boats enter the industry, it drives profits down for everyone.

Government studies have shown that the Gulf shrimp industry grew past this magic number in the 1960s.

Over the past decade, the number of boats for offshore shrimping has declined. The number of large offshore federally registered fishing boats operating appears to have dropped by at least half, from about 6,000 to fewer than 3,000, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service. An industry advisory panel recommends holding the number to about 2,800 shrimpers.

The men and women in the industry make a living the old-fashioned way. They work hard for the money … they don’t have the luxury of letting money work for them. Their sluggish existence is a daily battle to survive from paycheck to paycheck, struggling to put a little aside for retirement and the children’s education after they pay the grocery bill, the mortgage, car note, etc.

During the past decade, the state’s position in the global shrimp marketplace has steadily declined. Overseas farming operations, fueled by inexpensive labor and weak environmental regulation in Asia and Central America have begun to dictate world prices.

Six of the leading shrimp exporters to the U.S. – Brazil, Ecuador, India, China, Thailand and Vietnam – have flooded the U.S. market with their product at prices below cost. Those countries have dumped shrimp on the U.S. market at unfairly low prices, crippling the shrimping industry in the U.S. As a result, low prices and ever-increasing operating costs (the narrow margin between profit and loss has all but disappeared) are forcing southeast Louisiana families out of the shrimping business.

American shrimpers deserve some protection from imports of farm-raised shrimp that are being dumped onto the market. The government must take bold steps to ensure that free trade is fair trade by imposing tariffs on imported shrimp. Tariffs will provide price relief by leveling the playing field of international trade, where foreign firms often don’t play fair and their behavior endangers American jobs.

The anti-dumping law offers a way for embattled industries to get temporary economic relief. It’s also a political safety value. The U.S. shrimping industry, alleging that America’s shrimp business has suffered “material injury” because of imports, wants the government to impose tariffs on shrimp imports that range from 26 to 349 percent.

Louisiana’s commercial fishermen face many economic and environmental challenges. The shrimping industry is in a fight for surivival because of low prices, poor harvests and other difficulties attributed to a flood of low-priced shrimp imports, the state’s gill-net ban and environmentalists who want the U.S. government to require larger turtle escape hatches in shrimp nets.

This has been another tough year for Louisiana’s shrimpers, and it’s not over yet. The world beyond the bayous of south Louisiana has altered the rhythms of life here, leaving many shrimpers worried about the months ahead and wondering about the future of their industry, their livelihood and their culture.

Without shrimping, south Louisiana would suffer the loss of thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars. It would have a significant economic impact on the Bayou Region, resulting in the loss of $45.9 million in gross regional product, $68.8 million in sales and the loss of 3,100 jobs. And the area would lose about 233 people and $52 million in salaries and wages.

The numbers are based on the earning, buying and spending power of boat owners and operators. It did not take into account shrimp-processing plants and loading docks.

Louisiana’s shrimp industry represents 85 percent of the value of the state’ total edible fishery production. For the 20-year period of 1970-90, over 40 percent of the Gulf of Mexico landings took place in Louisiana.

Those who remain in the shrimping industry are eternal optimists. Clinging to the belief that the big catch is awaiting them shrimpers always look forward to spring and to another year of fishing.

They’re shrimpers. It’s in their blood. It’s who they are, where they come from and where they live now. When they talk about it, they talk about fighting and praying, not failing and quitting. Praying that the shrimp season will be plentiful and full of big shrimp so they are able to pay their bills and that every ear in the nation will hear their story.

Max J. Thibodeaux Jr.

Morgan City