Eyes on the Water

Time was that a shrimp season opening in Terrebonne Parish was cause for joy and glee, followed by grumbles from time to time, and continued elation at others.

The majestic parade of trawlers from Dulac, Chauvin and other local ports a day or two before the scheduled opening, headed to waters where the bounty awaited – or so everyone presumed – was in itself a sight to see.

But this year, as during the past few years, the outbound trawlers have more space in between them. The mosquito fleet of smaller vessels that were the epitome of the American dream, the idea that with a little boat and some gas you could harvest enough to support your family. In that sense, these bayou parishes may have been some of the freest places in the nation.

The tone is different; what was an annual rite of spring that allowed for variations in catch and price has become instead a nail-biter. Even though dockside prices have stabilized in recent years – at least for now – other costs including fuel have continued an upward creep.

So the idea of keeping a vessel and taking it out to bring in nature’s bounty is more than ever a gamble for many, and so many over the years have opted to get up from the table and not come back.

The shape of the industry has also changed. Where once the processing houses were the only game in town, an increased emphasis from fishermen and even the government agencies that work with them has been on development of retail markets, where a big, succulent shrimp is the prize.

That’s kept some shrimpers afloat for sure, though these days it tends to empower fewer full-time fishermen and more part-timers. It has had a profound effect in the processors, whose fortunes in a given year can be made or broken by differences of a penny per pound, and who therefore depend on volume of shrimp in order to get by, to pay their employees, to keep paying the leases on their peeling machines.

The competition has become fierce; some processors have left town or shut down. But the core of the infrastructure remains for now, and the moral of that story is that the balance between the processors and the shrimpers is such a delicate one. There is an intense symbiotic nature to those relationships. Each side has created problems at the expense of the other. Low prices have hurt fishermen. The quest for a better way to sell shrimp by the fishermen has hurt the processors.

You can see the change on an opening day, when the small boats seeking shrimp just for a family’s freezer, fishing at the recreational 100-pound per day limit, appear to outnumber a lot of the commercial fleet. And even their numbers are not so great.

But some things do not change, at least not in Terrebonne Parish.

At the wheel of an open 23-foot boat Monday morning Larry Phillips monitored the vessels in the waterways, keeping a lookout for any that might have a problem that might need help.

Larry grew up in Dulac, the son of a shrimping family, with shrimpers and crabbers all around him. But he chose a different path than many other people he has known.

First there was his time in the Marine Corps, protecting his country, and, he hoped, the world, from people who would do bad things and have proven they can.

After the Marine Corps law enforcement was the calling, and he began work with the Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Within two years he was placed in a job that made use of his intimate knowledge of the parish’s lakes, canals and bayous, as a water patrol agent.

And that’s why the boat he operated Monday morning was dark blue, with a blue light on top, the boat he works on every day.

As he traveled through the waters of Dulac Larry spied a small shrimp boat and recognized it, drawing closer to the vessel. The two boats stopped briefly.

The shrimp boat was occupied by Larry Dion, who is Larry’s father.

“They’re catching some shrimp around Lake Boudreaux, around Lake Robinson,” Deputy Larry Phillips said.

The older man nodded. That was the direction he was heading in.

During several encounters with boatmen Monday, Larry displayed his knowledge of who was who, able to piece together the identity of a crab thief during a discussion with one man whose traps have been getting raided lately.

For Larry, it’s a waterborne form of community policing, a method of doing things here long before seminars and books said knowing a bit about the people you police makes for better policing.

As he continued his patrol, Larry said he has seen a lot of changes in the fishery over the years.

But he is convinced that it is in the process of a renaissance.

“There has been a decline, that’s true. But I believe it is going to rise again,” Larry said of the fishery. Then he was off, back out to observe, protect and, most of all if anyone is having a problem, to help. “As I’m riding around here I am just hoping everyone can stay out of trouble and have a good season.”