Tag Archives: San Carlos Island
Shrimpers displaced as Fort Myers Beach Fire Department plans new training facility
The state of the shrimping industry on San Carlos Island has been a topic of concern for months. A shrimping building that once stood on the island is now a pile of rubble, recently demolished as the Fort Myers Beach Fire Department prepares to purchase the land. Virgilio Rijo, a shrimper who has been working these waters for over ten years, expressed his frustration. “Everybody here feels like they’re being pushed out,” he said. As the number of docking and processing facilities dwindles, Rijo and other shrimpers are beginning to feel the impact. “It’s just slowly shrinking, and everything that the shrimping business has is slowly shrinking, from the waterfront standpoint,” Rijo added, highlighting the challenges facing the industry. Video, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 14:02
A good plan or not? Dual-Purpose docks stir waters with local shrimpers
On the shores of San Carlos Island, just off Shrimp Boat Lane, the docks of the former Trico Shrimp Company look unchanged since Hurricane Ian. That’s soon to change since, on Tuesday, Lee County Commissioners voted to direct staff to budget for a new dual-purpose dock design for the waterfront land. For over seven years, Mathew Shetters has captained a shrimp boat for Trico. The proposed redesign might allow the county to use the docks to keep large barges for disaster response – disrupting regular operations. Video, Photos, more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 10:14
Fort Myers Beach shrimpers face uncertain waters post-Hurricane Ian – Captains point to imported shrimp
On San Carlos Island, just off Shrimp Boat Lane, the local shrimp fishing community is navigating troubled waters in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian. Even with their ships repaired, the challenges for these shrimpers are far from over. Henry Gore, a seasoned shrimp boat captain of over 40 years, tells us it’s the worst state he’s seen for the local shrimping industry. The decline is due to two main factors: the high cost of boat repairs, often exceeding $100,000, and the competition from internationally imported farm shrimp. Video, more, >>click to read<< 10:53
One Year after Ian: Shrimping Industry
Grant Erickson’s family spent 70 years building their shrimping business on San Carlos Island. Hurricane Ian destroyed it in about 12 hours. “Devastating. We’ve never been damaged so bad,” he recalled. “You come back to that, and you’re stunned. You’re in shock. You don’t even know where to start. It’s too much all at once.” It’s just hard to put in words the last year,” Jesse Clapham, the fleet manager for Erickson and Jensen Seafood. “We had a meeting, and everybody said, ‘Do we want to give up and go home, or do we want to put it back together?’ And everybody unanimously said, ‘Put it back together,’” he recalled. But doing so would be a Herculean challenge. Photo, Video, >>click to read<< 10:57
$9.6 million to get all 36 shrimp boats back in the water in less than 6 months from Hurricane Ian
All the captains we spoke with after Hurricane Ian thought this whole process of getting the boats back into the water would take possibly years but it took less than 6 months and that’s because of all of the extensive hard work day in and day out to try to get our shrimping industry back. This comes as The Florida Division of Emergency Management says they’ve been able to refloat the 36 shrimping boats and it cost $9.6 million dollars to get done. Some boats are already back out shrimping while others according to a few of the shrimp boat managers had to be taken to other states because of the lack of docks in the area that Hurricane Ian tore apart. Video, >click to read< 10:37
One by one, shrimp boats are being lifted back into the water on San Carlos Island
They’re lifting a 290,000-pound boat after Hurricane Ian tossed it around and brought it on land. Scott Schofield knows a thing or two about watching the big shrimp boats being lifted and removed because he’s been out here watching, and recording, every move of these boats. Meticulous is one way to describe it. Painstaking is another. The process takes anywhere from a day and a half to two days. For boats like F/V Captain Eddie 99, it’ll be the full two days. Video, >click to read< 11:34
Crews hope to return pile of shrimp boats on Fort Myers Beach to water within 70 days
“Boats that are all tangled up and the ones that we started on are the ones that are along the edges of the water,” Vice President of Beyel Brothers, Steven Beyel said. So far, of the roughly 45 boats on land, three have returned to the water. And they are mostly in good shape. “We were able to get ours back in the water yesterday afternoon,” James Drigger said. Drigger’s boat is the ‘Miz Shirley’. “Words can’t even explain how thankful we are,” he said.Video, >click to read< 09:34
‘Y’all love the seafood and everything, but what about us?’ Shrimpers feel overlooked post-Hurricane Ian
More than a week and a half after Ian passed, nearly all of the island’s shrimp boats remained on top of nearby houses or tangled in the rigging of other ships. The Gulf of Mexico’s largest commercial shrimping port is all but paralyzed. Most fishermen on San Carlos Island weathered the storm on their boats, which often serve as their homes as well. A number were injured, and storm surge destroyed much of the island’s fishing infrastructure and equipment. When the water receded and they were able to make it down to land, help had yet to arrive. Photos, >click to read< 11:49
They rode out Hurricane Ian on shrimp boats. Now they fear their livelihood is destroyed
By the time these shrimpers knew Hurricane Ian was headed to Fort Myers Beach, it was too late to leave. Shrimp Boat Lane is a crook in the middle of San Carlos Island. Inside pulses the heart of a storied fishery. But with little warning and punishing winds, Hurricane Ian shredded it. Jesse Clapham walked through what was left Friday morning, sweat soaking the back of his black T-shirt. “My dad was a fisherman. His was a fisherman,” said Clapham, fleet manager for Erickson and Jensen, a seafood and marine supplies company. Just three of the company’s 12 boats are still in the water, he said, and one has a hole in the side. Normally, Clapham said, the fleet would be in Texas around this time, but gas was too expensive to make the run this year. Photos, >click to read< 13:04
Pink Gold – The next generation of shrimping comes into its own on San Carlos Island
They tie off and wait their turn to unload at the shrimp house owned by Erickson & Jensen, which has been on San Carlos Island since 1965. The shrimp house is a cavernous structure with plywood floors and an open ceiling. On this particular morning, an industrial fan in the corner blows hot air and a radio plays Savage Love by Jason Derulo. The cries of gulls and the clink of boat rigging can be heard from the wharf. Inside, the air smells of fresh shrimp, the scent of the sea. A small crew of day-pay workers mill around, smoking and looking at their phones. They are mostly men, their skin tanned and their faces lined from years spent near the water. At the center of the room stands Anna Erickson. >click to read< 09:19
Ostego Bay Foundation Working Waterfront Tour returns
The shrimping industry has been a staple of the economy on Fort Myers Beach and San Carlos Island for decades, bringing in hefty hauls of the popular seafood appetizer for restaurants local and far away. The Ostego Bay Foundation Working Waterfront Tour on Fort Myers Beach is back for the season and provides a closer glimpse of the shrimping business for those interested. The tour has been getting more visitors of late now that the winter season has picked up again. “The boats are very busy.” >click to read< 06:47
Portraits of the modern shrimper
San Carlos Island is home to one of the few remaining working waterfronts in Florida, and one of the last shrimping fleets in the country. The shrimping docks used to house hundreds of boats, but now, two businesses and a handful of independent fishers are left to sustain the industry. During a recent community visioning meeting, Lee County asked San Carlos Island stakeholders to discuss what made the island special – and almost every focus group said it was important to preserve and promote the commercial working waterfront, a piece of the county’s culture. >click to read< 15:31
Shrimp tales in economic swales
For the second time in two years, Trico Shrimp Company isn’t sailing off to Texas for the summer season. Even Erickson & Jensen, San Carlos Island’s other commercial shrimping company, stuck around an extra month before moving its operation to its Texas location in late July. It’s been more than a decade since shrimp have been plentiful just off the coast of Fort Myers Beach, but now both San Carlos Island shrimping companies are catching them by the boatful. “We’re catching phenomenal amounts right now,” said Grant Erickson, owner of Erickson & Jensen, earlier this summer. Earlier in July, one of his captains reportedly caught 150 baskets, or about 4,000 pounds, just off-shore. It’s a bit of a mystery why the shrimp have returned. click here to read the story 07:49
