Tag Archives: Shrimp
Texas Shrimp Industry Lacks Willing U.S. Workers
It’s two weeks in the Shrimp Season and Texas shrimpers are dealing with another worker shortage. Last year about 20% of the Texas Shrimp fleet stayed in Port from a lack of workers. Andrea Hance is Executive Director of the Texas Shrimp Association based in Brownsville. She told The Texas Standard that about 8 to 10 percent of the state’s shrimp boats are still tied up at docks. “And those boat owners or captains what happened to them is they don’t have enough people to even man the boat, um, so they may only have one other person, well, the boat needs at least three to go out and efficiently operate.” >click to read<11:48
Biloxi Shrimpers say season is ‘mediocre’ so far
The brown shrimp season began about a month and a half ago, and so far, local shrimpers are reporting mixed results. “Our preliminary numbers so far show that we are below average, but we hope that would pick up as we get further into the brown shrimp season,” said Rick Burris, Shrimp and Crab Director for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. “What we’ve been seeing is low numbers, but the shrimp they are catching are good marketable size.”Down on the docks, some shrimpers say this season can best be described as mediocre. Video, >click to read<14:04
UGA researchers dive into a sea of questions
Captain Wynn Gale knew it was bad. He’d been commercial fishing off the coast of Darien, about 50 miles south of Savannah, since he was 12, and his decades of shrimping told him the industry was in trouble. Again..,,, But this time, off the coast of Georgia in the 1990s, there weren’t as many shrimp to catch, and the ones Gale and other commercial fishermen were pouring onto the decks of their boats had something wrong with them. They weren’t flopping around like normal; in fact, they barely moved. And their gills were black, a stark contrast to the milky clear color of Georgia’s famously sweet white shrimp. >click to read<09:43
Shrimp pass hard-shell crabs as North Carolina’s most lucrative seafood
Hard shell blue crabs had been the state’s leading seafood in pounds caught and in dockside value for decades. They still lead in pounds caught, but shrimp have taken over for the first time as the most lucrative seafood in North Carolina. Last year’s shrimp value came in at $29.6 million, besting crabs by nearly $12 million. In 2016, the shrimp sold for $28.2 million, again beating crabs. The 2017 shrimp catch reached 13.9 million pounds and 13.2 million pounds the year before that. Both years set new records. Hard crabs are being overfished, said Jason Rock, a state marine fisheries biologist.,,, Commercial fishermen disagree with the state’s alarm. >click to read< 12:03
Letter: Stop digging a graveyard for our fisheries
Our fishing industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is in shambles, and yet politicians and decision-makers are blind to the fish bones pilling up in the graveyard, and with it, our prime industry, economy and our communities. Either that, or they simply do not care or have a handle on this industry they are responsible for managing and growing. Are they aware or concerned about the rapid expansion of the Canadian factory freezer trawler operations off our coasts while our groundfishery recovery is stalled and shrimp and crab fisheries in decline? >click here to read< 11:05
Empty nets and light wallets as fall shrimp season disappoints in South Carolina
The fall white shrimp season has been a painful one for South Carolina’s diminished fleet of trawlers, with many people wondering what’s become of all the tasty crustaceans. “They’re just not here,” said Grace Edwards, head of Shem Creek Fisheries, whose husband runs a trawler. “They are having a terrible season,” said Jimmy Bagwell, chairman of the Save Shem Creek Corp. “A lot of the boats have gone to Florida and Georgia to try to catch something.” In McClellanville, Mayor Rutledge B. Leland III runs Carolina Seafood, and he’s seen the same thing. “It’s really been a pretty sad fall, so far,” he said. Some shrimpers have headed up to North Carolina, where Leland said they are having a better season. click here to read the story 15:29
Help Shem Creek Fleet Pay The Bills – click here for the fundraiser
Savannah scientists continue study of black gill in shrimp
As the Research Vessel Savannah moved slowly along Georgia’s coast in early October, Wynn Gale calmly arranged about a dozen shrimp on a table inside one of the boat’s laboratories. He inspected each specimen for dark gill coloration, and then he took a photo of the shrimp on his smartphone. Black gill, named because of a telltale dark coloration on shrimps’ gills, is caused by a microscopic parasite. Scientists have determined that the parasite is a ciliate, a single-cell organism, but have yet to identify the specific type. Scientists say shrimp suffering from black gill are safe for humans to eat. click here to read the story 08:53
North Carolina: Local shrimpers still competing with the flood of imported shrimp
Shrimp is the second largest commercial fishery in North Carolina, bested only by blue crabs in pounds landed and dockside value. But unfortunately, within the last 30 years or so, shrimp harvesting has been hit the hardest out of all the commercial seafood industries. A study funded by Sea Grant shows the number of seafood processors declined by 36 percent between 2000 and 2011, causing the economic value of North Carolina’s catch to decline from about $109 million in 1995 to $79 million in 2013. One of the main problems with the state’s seafood industry today is the workforce. Older fishermen are leaving the industry faster than younger watermen are joining their ranks. When adjusted for inflation, the price of shrimp has dropped by more than half since the late 1970s and imported shrimp is a big reason why. click here to read the story 15:23
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
Shelving shrimp: Inside Katsheshuk II, OCI’s $8-million bet on groundfish
For years the Katsheshuk II hauled in shrimp off the shores of Newfoundland. The ship caught, processed and froze the shrimp to be sent to customers. But shrimp stocks have shrunk, leaving Ocean Choice International with too many boats for too small a quota, so the company is spending $8 million to convert the ship. “The shellfish resources are declining but in general, some exceptions, groundfish is increasing,” says Blaine Sullivan, the chief operating officer for OCI. The Katsheshuk II is being overhauled so it can start fishing for groundfish. The industry is hoping for the eventual return of cod, but in the near future it will be other species. click here to read the story 13:57
No shrimp today: Maine’s waters are warming and it’s costing fishermen money
David Goethel wishes he could retire. At 63, he’s been fishing off the Gulf of Maine for over 34 years. Shrimp used to be plentiful there. Back in 2000, Goethel remembers seeing 100 commercial boats out in the harbor. Now, he’s just one of a handful of local fisherman struggling to make a living. “There was life on the docks, there were people working,” lifelong fisherman Arnold Gamage, 64, agrees. “Now, it looks like a ghost town.” Maine’s fishing industry has been declining for years due to factors like overfishing and increased regulation, but there’s another culprit eating away at profits: Maine’s ocean waters are warming — and it’s killing northern shrimp. Why is the Gulf of Maine warming? Scientists aren’t certain, but Appelman and other experts suspect climate change is playing a role.,, Shrimping used to account for around 30% of Goethel’s income. While he recognizes that the ban is necessary, he still misses that extra cash. Lifelong fisherman Gary Libby is also feeling the squeeze. He’s been trying to sell his shrimp boat but no one is buying. He’s lost between 30% to 40% of his annual income since the ban was instituted. click here to read the story 08:52
Bucking rumors of a dying industry, young Lowcountry shrimpers take to the sea.
In pre-dawn’s inky stillness, brackish water floods the back roads leading to Haddrell’s Point near the mouth of Shem Creek on Charleston’s harbor, the full moon’s gravitational pull swelling tides to record heights. Where pavement turns to gravel, a lone street lamp illuminates old signage for the shuttered Wando Shrimp Company, a once vibrant seafood-processing warehouse that closed in 2014 after a sixty-five-year run. There, a ramshackle wooden walkway stretches toward the glaring floodlights of a shrimp trawler named the Miss Paula. Her tangle of furled nets, steel winches, chains, and ropes reach into the night sky. Water laps the dock as three young men pass buckets of ice up onto deck. One by one, their feet anchored in a scupper hole for leverage, they hoist themselves aboard. In an industry dominated by old salts, some of whom have been trawling shrimp for more than fifty years, the Miss Paula is remarkable for the youth of her crew. Captain Vasily “Vasa” Tarvin, at the time of this outing in late 2016, is 25. His deck mate, Franklin Rector, 23. Manning the wheel is Michael Brown, who at the age of 37, wryly pronounces himself “babysitter” on today’s run. click here to continue reading the story. 13:22
Where to find fresh South Carolina shrimp: ‘The more marsh, the more shrimp’
“Shrimp are more concentrated off inlets from which they come out,” said Mel Bell, fisheries director for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. Fresh shrimp could soon be ready for the cooker. The 2017 season is on the cusp of opening, and some boats already have catches in federally controlled ocean waters. Another good year of shrimping is forecast, mostly because more crustaceans survived the winter in relatively warmer waters. The DNR plans offshore sample trawls in the coming week after encouraging numbers of shrimp were found in previous inshore trawls. Outer state waters could be opened after that. Last year, the outer state waters — roughly two miles from shore — opened April 11. The nearshore waters, the heart of the shrimping grounds, opened a month later. Meanwhile, the federal waters farther out never did close over the winter and a few boats have continued to work them when the weather allows it. click here to read the story 10:42
The cod are coming back to Newfoundland — and they’re eating the shrimp that had taken over
Theodore Genge has a big beautiful new dragger that’ll be ready to head for “the Labrador” as soon as the sea ice loosens its grip on Anchor Point. When the 63-year-old Newfoundland fisherman began building the $2.2 million trawler two years ago he had 750,000 pounds worth of shrimp quota to catch. But plummeting shrimp numbers in the cold water off Labrador have led Fisheries and Oceans Canada to drastically carve into quotas for that coast. Genge expects that by April he’ll be left with a total of 300,000 lbs of quotas — 220,000 lbs in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where there is still plenty of shrimp, and 80,000 lbs on the Labrador coast. “Right now, yes, it’s pretty stressful – I don’t know whether there’s any hope or no,” said Genge. (Big read!) continue reading the article here 16:25
Shrimp fishermen facing catch crisis
Shrimp fishermen in parts of northern Norway are reporting their worst winter ever, with catches down by between 50 and 75 per cent. Some say that if the situation continues they may be forced to sell their vessels and turn to something new. It is not just Norway which has problems. Some areas on the north east coast of Canada are also reporting a sharp decline in shrimp stocks. One prawn fisherman Lynne Prudence Sjåvik , based in Helgeand region, told the northern office of the state broadcaster NRK that for every year that passes the situation just seems to he get worse. Read the rest of the story here 11:25
White shrimp weighing in at 10-12 count per pound? In late January?
That is exactly how the 2016-17 commercial shrimping season in South Carolina state waters wound up earlier this week, at the end of January. The season typically closes by mid-January but excellent catches of jumbo shrimp by trawlers kept it open later. “I’ve had people tell me they’ve never seen big shrimp like this out there this time of year,” Mel Bell, Director of the Office of Fisheries Management for the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, said on Thursday. “It’s been an unusual close to the season. It’s normally closed by mid-January, and if it’s a colder winter, maybe earlier. “We’ve never seen that phenomenon of those large shrimp offshore. I’ve talked to fishermen who have been in the industry for decades and they’ve never seen anything like that.” Read the story here 18:07
Research reveals black gill kills shrimp
A disease that’s crippling the shrimp industry may be doing more damage than originally thought. Researchers in our region have made new findings about black gill disease, this as the industry is still rebounding from the worst shrimp harvest in Georgia history. The latest findings from scientists with the University of Georgia’s Skidaway Institute of Oceanography is unsettling. It reveals black gill may continue to push the shrimp industry into the red. “We’ve observed in controlled laboratory situations, mortality events, death of shrimp, that could only be caused by them having black gill. We’ve removed all other predators, uh, we have control groups where they don’t die, so it’s not something else in the water, but the ones with the black gill are dying.” said Dr. Marc Frischer with the UGA Skidaway Institute of Oceanography. Video, read the story here 08:58
Louisiana: Shrimp season starts slowly in local waters
Fall shrimp season has gotten off to a slow start in area waters, fishermen and wholesalers say. The season opened at 6 Monday morning in Louisiana’s inshore waters, within three miles of the coast. east of the Atchafalaya River.Prices have been low in recent years, now about 80-90 cents per pound for small shrimp and $1.50 a pound for larger ones at the sheds. In past years, before a wave of farm-raised shrimp drove down prices, local fishermen could earn as much as $4.50 a pound for larger shrimp. Former commercial shrimper Timmy Melancon was born and raised in Leeville. He built his boat 35 years ago, but now the small hauls and low prices have made him lay off commercial shrimping. On Tuesday, he brought in a 200-pound haul of live shrimp that will mostly be used for fishing bait, and he even gave some away to family and friends since the prices are so low. Guy Duet, who owns the boat Mr. Magoo, had a little more luck shrimping north of Grand Isle. Duet and his crew hauled in about 1,200 pounds of shrimp, but they were mostly small. Read the story here 09:03
Shrimp became the top value catch for the state’s fishermen – North Carolina shrimp was a big deal
The life of commercial shrimpers can be unpredictable, as supply and the market vary. In 1953, writer Wade Lucas presented an optimistic view of the industry from Morehead City. Rested, ready and eager to get going after what some people down this way refer to as “white gold,” owners and operators of a large fleet of boats will be shoving off from various coastal points … in search of the wily shrimp that are now beginning to move in commercial quantities in State-controlled waters. By 1966, North Carolina shrimp was big business, as detailed by writer Frank Montgomery Jr. It takes an awful lot of shrimp to make all those shrimp cocktails Tar Heels eat in a year’s time. And to see that everybody in the Old North State gets enough of them, big and little shrimp boats, with some sort of trawl hung astern, pursue their quarry all through the year with zeal and gusto. From Pamlico Sound clear down to the South Carolina line, both inside and outside Carolina coastal waters get a regular and thorough going-over by the State’s shrimpers as they seek to supply a demand that never seems to slacken. Interesting. Read the story here 14:58
Texas shrimp industry battles hostile trends as season closes for two months
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Coastal Fisheries Division decided May 15 was a good time to close the state’s shrimp season because, according to its sampling, the average size and number of brown shrimp in Texas coastal waters is higher than the 20-year average. Texas closes its waters to shrimping from the coast to nine nautical miles out for roughly two months each year to give little shrimp time to grow before being harvested. The National Marine Fisheries Service typically imposes a closure out to 200 nautical miles at the same time. More, bigger shrimp is potentially good news for the state’s struggling shrimp industry, since big shrimp fetch higher prices, according to Andrea Hance, shrimp fleet owner and executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association. Read the rest here 19:27
Global Supermarkets Selling Shrimp Peeled by Slaves
Every morning at 2 a.m., they heard a kick on the door and a threat: Get up or get beaten. For the next 16 hours, No. 31 and his wife stood in the factory that owned them with their aching hands in ice water. They ripped the guts, heads, tails and shells off shrimp bound for overseas markets, including grocery stores and all-you-can-eat buffets across the United States. After being sold to the Gig Peeling Factory, they were at the mercy of their Thai bosses, trapped with nearly 100 other Burmese migrants. Children worked alongside them, including a girl so tiny she had to stand on a stool to reach the peeling table. Read the article here 08:01
Labrador shrimp fishery seeing boon from rising ocean temperatures
A journalist who covers the seafood industry says global warming may be wreaking havoc on the world’s fish stocks as a whole, but could be related to bigger shrimp catches recently off the coast of Labrador. John Sackton is the publisher of SeafoodNews.com, a website that claims to be the most widely-read daily seafood publication in North America. He told CBC Radio’s Labrador Morning that this past year has been a boon for Labrador’s shrimp fishery. Read the article here 08:11
Shrimp: a Little Creature’s Big Impact by Matt Rhoney
Shrimp has had a wide-ranging set of influences on the United States. This buggy little sea-creature has brought cash flow into our economy, nutrients into our bodies, and life into our culture. No matter where you live, you’ve definitely felt their impact. The next time you think of shrimp, remember the outsized impact of these pint-sized crustaceans. Economics: For huge populations of people, particularly those living in maritime climates, shrimp are more than cute critters; they’re a main source of livelihood. In Louisiana, fishermen landed around,,, Read the rest here 17:09
Video – Big boom for tiny shrimp in Petersburg, Alaska
Alaska is home to one of the most prized species of salad shrimp, Pandalus borealis. In Petersburg, Tonka Seafoods has just three boats permitted for salad shrimp fishing, but is looking for more as demand for the Alaska species soars. “We have a different species than you get in other parts of the Pacific Northwest.” Tonka Seafoods President Wendell Gilbert said. “And these are what they are looking for in Iceland, because this is exactly the same shrimp they have on the East Coast and in their area.” Read the rest here 10:44
Shrimp Season Anomaly: season interruption, low prices make tough year for Mississippi Fishermen
Mississippi fishermen remain intent on harvesting this year’s shrimp crop in the shallow waters of the Gulf of Mexico despite 
and restarted. Dave Burrage, Mississippi State University Extension professor of marine resources at the Coastal Research and Extension Center in Biloxi, said the shrimp season first opened June 3, closed June 19 when shrimp were too small, and then reopened July 13. “This season has been an anomaly so far,” Burrage said. The Mississippi season opened with 310 boats this year, down from 368 boats on opening day in 2014. Read the rest here 12:43
Calhoun County, Texas – Shrimp season devastated by freshwater, Judge signs declaration of disaster
The shrimp boat captain sat at the helm, listening to other captains talk over the radio about the catch they brought in the day before. After subtracting the cost of fuel, one captain had $75 to split with his deckhand. “Seventy-five dollars is nothing,” said Capt. Jose Luis Cruz. “There’s no shrimp. The freshwater pushed the shrimp to the Gulf.” An overabundance of rainfall not only devastated the livelihood of farmers but also hurt those who harvest from the sea. Read the rest here 07:34
SPECIAL REPORT: SHRIMP SAFETY – Six shrimp you might find at the store, And how to choose the best ones!
Shopping for shrimp is confusing. Packages can have so many labels that it’s hard to know which ones to trust. One way to separate the best from the rest is to buy sustainably farmed or responsibly caught shrimp. We believe that your best choice is wild shrimp especially those that have been responsibly caught in the U.S. Avoid shrimp caught in Louisiana??? Funding for this project was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts!! Read the rest here 08:41
Baker: New fish science report paints dizzying picture for industry future, And the news for the fishing industry as a whole is not good.
It might be one of the most important fish science reports in years, but it was released with so little fanfare, you could forgive even the most hardcore of fisheries observers for missing it. It basically looks at the effect of warming oceans and then sets the table for the next three to five years in the shrimp, crab and cod fisheries. Read the rest here 09:04
Louisiana Shrimp season called average
The fall shrimping season, which comes to a close on some state waters Monday evening, has been average for area fisherman. “I’ve seen better seasons and I’ve seen worse seasons,” said Daren Martin, owner of Martin’s Fresh Shrimp in Chauvin. Read the rest here 08:47
Shrimp catch down, value increases
While Louisiana fisherman harvested less seafood in 2013, the value of their catch increased over the previous year, according to a federal report. Louisiana had the second most landings with 1.1 billion pounds, but its overall value was fourth behind Massachusetts and Maine at $402 million. There were 283 million pounds of shrimp landed nationwide, a decrease of 5 percent. That catch brought in a larger price by 15 percent compared to 2012. Read the rest here 13:16
