Tag Archives: American shrimping industry
Tom Poland – Wake-up call aboard the F/V Pamela Sue
I got up at 4:30 a.m. to go to two Carolina bays in the Francis Marion National Forest. Hours later I left pitcher plants, blue irises and Halloween pennant dragonflies and headed to the McClellanville Diner for a platter of fresh-caught domestic shrimp. Consumers take note: it was not frozen, imported shrimp. After lunch I went into McClellanville, a lovely fishing village that’s home to South Carolina’s largest fleet of shrimp boats. As I made my way into McClellanville, I passed T.W. Graham & Co., another great local restaurant. Hand-painted on its windows were “Support #Freshlocal” and “God Bless Our Shrimpers.” Carolina Seafood sits on Jeremy Creek, a creek named after King Jeremy, a Seewee Indian chief whose tribe lived along the creek’s banks. There I met Capt. Bryan Jones. He catches shrimp, no easy task. Besides the hard and dangerous work, he must overcome many a challenge. Capt. Jones showed me around his boat, Pamela Sue. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 08:31
DISASTER DECLARED FOR TEXAS SHRIMP
Minh Dang repairs nets on the Johnny II shrimp boat in Galveston, Texas
In normal times, these boats would be out in a bay for the day or at sea for weeks, following shrimp from Texas to Florida and back again. But these are not normal times. The American shrimping industry, from the Gulf of Mexico around Florida to the South Atlantic, is nearly at a standstill, undersold and sidelined by a deluge of cheap imported farm-raised shrimp from Asia and South America that have been “dumped”—sold to the United States at below-market value. Many owners are keeping their boats docked rather than spending money on diesel, boat repairs, and crew wages to net shrimp that will sell at a loss. The Eties have been running up credit card debt and selling shrimp meant for human consumption for bait because prices are so low. “[Shrimpers] need supplies like ice and diesel. It takes money to get the boat out there,” said Briana Etie. “And if you don’t have a place to sell your shrimp when you get back in, what’s the point?” Photos, >>click to read<< 11:20
Fernandina’s Shrimping Industry: Storied Past, Uncertain Future – A Look Back
Here we are in the birthplace of American shrimping industry. We greet visitors with a waterfront Shrimping Museum. Pink and blue larger-than-life statues of shrimp adorn our parks and street corners. Our major civic celebration is the annual Shrimp Fest, complete with a parade and people dressed like crustaceans. But is it all just nostalgia? Is our historic shrimping industry just a museum piece, or is it a vibrant business that will survive and thrive? At Dave Cook’s dock at the south end of Front Street, Roy Mc Henry, who was working on his 39-foot shrimper, Queen B, while his aging Golden Retriever, Sweetie, lounged in the cockpit. Capt. McKendree was not optimistic about the state of the local shrimp industry. >click to read< 09:22
