Rosamae Neil Smith
April 14, 2008
Charles "Charlie" Herbert Rice Jr.
April 16, 2008
With shrimping season opening in early May, fishermen in Terrebonne Parish are being hit hard by the sharply-rising cost of the diesel fuel used to power their trawling boats.
Last week, the price of diesel fuel was hitting around $4 a gallon nationally.
Diesel traditionally has cost less than gasoline, but the increasing price of crude oil combined with the demand for diesel across the country from truckers, agriculture and rail lines in the U.S. has driven the cost of the fuel to a record level.
Relatively low shrimp prices-caused partly by international competition-are compounding the pain for local fishermen. Additionally, fresh water introduced into coastal areas in Louisiana from river-flooding is reducing shrimp stocks.
“It’s hurting us big time,” said Louisiana Shrimp Association representative Acy Cooper. “This will be a critical season. There’s no way to stay in business. This shrimping season will tell the tale.”
Cooper said fishermen will have to haul in a large amount of shrimp to stay in business. Shrimpers typically will burn a hundred gallons of fuel on a trip, he said, costing them around $360. Shrimpers also need to pay deckhands and buy food for the trips.
Terrebonne Parish commercial fisherman Wallace Trosclair is hurting badly.
“Diesel they used to give away,” he said. “Now it’s more expensive than gold. Gas is eating up our profit day by day.”
Trosclair formerly shrimped using a skiff that burned 350 gallons of diesel a day. The smaller boat allowed him to spend three straight days out on the water.
But because of the higher price of diesel, Trosclair said he had to buy a larger boat enabling him to spend nine to 10 days on the water. The new boat burns 350 to 400 gallons a week.
Trosclair estimated that the number of fishing boats in Louisiana has declined from one million before hurricanes Katrina and Rita to 200,000 because of fuel costs and lower shrimp prices.
“Everything is going up except the price of shrimp,” Trosclair said. “I’m eating more Vienna sausage than chicken and steak. How do they expect the fishing industry to survive with higher fuel prices, plus competition?”
“Dock prices and fuel prices are killing the industry,” he said. “What we used to spend on living has to go back into the boats. It’s hard on us. Which way do we go to get the next dollar to pay the notes on our boats and cars?”
“It’s very stressful,” he said. “But it’s a living. People enjoy it.”
Dustin Luke, a shrimper with Luke’s Seafood in Dulac, said he can recall when diesel cost .60 cents a gallon and shrimp prices were higher.
“It’s hard all the way around,” he said. “We’re getting nothing for shrimp. We’ve got to cut back, conserve a little more, work twice as hard.”
Shrimper Isador Dardar Jr. said buying diesel fuel is hard. Last time he went out, Dardar caught two 80-pound baskets of shrimp and burned 100 gallons of diesel.
“We’re not making any money,” he said.
Dawn Estay with Bluewater Shrimp in Dulac summed up the difficulties faced by trawlers. “If shrimp prices don’t increase, I don’t know what they’re going to do,” she said.
With lower fuel prices, the shrimp harvest in 2006 in Louisiana was the third highest on record.
Trawlers caught 83 million pounds worth $144.8 million.
Inland Louisiana has around 1.9 million acres of water containing sufficient salinity to permit the growth of shrimp, with brown shrimp prevalent in the spring.
With diesel fuel prices exceeding $4 per gallon, Terrebonne Parish shrimpers are feeling the pinch. “Everything is going up except the price of shrimp,” said commercial fisherman Wallace Trosclair. Pictured, a fisherman inspects his day’s catch. * AP Photo TROY R. BENNETT
