Tag Archives: Commercial shrimpers
Louisiana lawmaker grills Shrimp & Petroleum Festival for selling imported shrimp
A state lawmaker has issued a scathing rebuke of what she characterized as an embarrassing and “misleading” response from the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival after the Illuminator reported that multiple vendors sold imported shrimp at this year’s event. State Rep. Jessica Domangue, R-Houma, wrote an open letter to festival organizers that she posted Thursday on Facebook. “Growing up in St. Mary Parish in a family of generations of commercial shrimpers, I was appalled to learn of the widespread selling of imported shrimp at the Louisiana Shrimp & Petroleum Festival,” Domangue wrote. “I found the festival’s official response in an October 1 press release to be an embarrassment.” The testing was performed at the five-day festival over the Labor Day weekend by Sea D Consulting, a food safety technology company that recently developed a rapid seafood species identification test in collaboration with Florida State University microbiologist Prashant Singh. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 12:32
Saltwater Science Speaker Series presents oral histories of Georgia shrimpers
On June 29, the Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant held the first of three events in this summer’s Saltwater Science Speakers Series. Their anthropology project is aimed at recording the stories and experiences of local commercial shrimpers and their boats. Fluech and Tooks discussed how the commercial shrimpers who participated were skeptical of the researchers and their students at first. “It took time to build up the trust for them to be willing to go on record,” Tooks said. They research team essentially ran two studies. where the fishermen lend their names and voices to be archived in the Boat Stories initiative.Tooks explained that, “Once the stories are recorded and analyzed, they are no longer merely individual experiences. They become data. That data is then studied and eventually becomes science. Policy decisions are made based on science.” Photos, >click to read< 08:29
Anglers welcome offshore wind energy in the Gulf of Mexico; shrimpers skeptical
While commercial shrimpers worried that turbines might crowd them out of prime harvesting areas, recreational fishing groups wanted assurances they could get as close as possible to turbines, which can act as artificial reefs. Off the coast of New England, commercial fishers are fighting plans for large offshore wind farms. They say the farms will overlap some of the best spots to catch squid, lobster and other species, and could make fishing more dangerous and costly. >click to read< 07:43
Shrimpers pressured by import prices, seek legislative change
Charles Robin the third comes from a long line of commercial shrimpers. Robin said the shrimping community is struggling to stay afloat. “The way it is right now you gotta catch a boatload of shrimp every trip. If you don’t, you don’t even pay the bills. That’s all we’re doing is staying above water,” Robin said. Local fisherman say import prices are forcing them to lower prices.,, On top of competing with import prices, shrimpers are also forking out money to upkeep their boats. >click to read<09:56
South Carolina and Georgia shrimpers brace for black gill
While Lowcountry shrimpers have seen little of their catch infected with black gill disease this year, scientists say it’s only a matter of time. The infection, which causes dark spots to appear on the midsection of shrimp, is not dangerous to humans. It remains somewhat of a mystery to scientists and shrimpers, but some of them blame it for reduced shrimp population in recent years. Charles Gay of Gay Fish Company on St. Helena Island said his shrimpers began seeing black gill this week. Read the rest here 13:24
Georgia Shrimp fishermen want a later season opening in state waters
Commercial shrimpers in McIntosh, Glynn and Camden counties have been keeping the Georgia Department of Natural Resources busy lately pleading for it to wait another two weeks before opening state waters for harvesting. If the season opens on schedule Tuesday, they will lose an opportunity to make money this season, they argue. An unusually high number of brown shrimp making their way into the estuaries and into the surf need a couple more weeks to be big enough to fetch a decent price, they say. Read the rest here 08:53
