Tag Archives: Texas
Donna resident aims to raise awareness of shrimping industry challenges
After hearing of the problems affecting the Valley shrimping industry, John Crose says he wants to do something about it. “We call it shrimp aid,” Crose said. “Like farm aid, but we call it a shrimp aid SOS, support our shrimpers.” Crose is a full-time Winter Texan living in Donna. Thousands more Winter Texans are expected to arrive to the Rio Grande Valley for the season. During the season, Crose said he’ll do his part to inform people that living in Donna, gulf shrimpers are facing high costs, issues getting workers, and stiff competition from imports. Video, >>click to read<< 10:31
‘A Gulf and National Issue’: Southeast Texas shrimpers struggling to survive due to influx of imported shrimp
With an an influx of imported shrimp taking over the market, it’s becoming tougher for Southeast Texas shrimpers to survive. Since July 16, the Texas waters opened back up for fishing, but Eric Kyle Kimball’s boat “The Seahorse” has yet to leave the dock at the Sabine Pass Port Authority. Kimball is a third generation fisherman who’s been around the industry for 55 years. This career help provides for him and his family, with brown shrimp being the main source of income. Shrimp imported from across the globe are driving prices down from $3.75 per pound in the 80’s to 95 cents per pound, currently. After paying for fuel and deck hands, area fisherman can’t break even. Video, >>click to read<< 09:49
Shrimp Alliance request fisheries disaster declaration
There’s no other way to put it if you ask Aaron Wallace. Despite a decent catch by the eight shrimp boats that supply Anchored Shrimp Co. in Brunswick, the prices fishermen are getting for their hauls aren’t what they should be. “It’s been one of our toughest years,” Wallace said. He and his father, John Wallace, own Anchored Shrimp and operate the Gale Force, one of the boats that serve the company’s retail and wholesale business. The Southern Shrimp Alliance, for which John Wallace serves as a member of the board of directors, is calling the flood of imported shrimp a crisis. The alliance asked the governors of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Texas in a letter on Aug. 25 to collectively request a fisheries disaster determination by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for the U.S. shrimp fishery. >>click to read<< 11:06
Family throws surprise 90th birthday party for island shrimper
The family of island shrimper Jerome “Pops” Kunz surprised him on Aug. 12 with a belated 90th birthday celebration. He was greeted off the elevator by his baby sister and only surviving sibling, Shirley Kunz-Rooks, who traveled from San Antonio. More than 100 guests filled the party room to wine, dine and dance the night away. Music was provided by his dearest friend, musician Skip Swackhamer. Pops has been shrimping in Galveston Bay for more than 80 years. At the age of 10, he began working with his father, eventually buying his own series of boats. Today he still shrimps on his latest vessel, the St. Vincent, along with his deckhand daughter-in-law Nikki Johnson-Kunz, known as “Texas Shrimp Diva.” Photos, >click to read< 13:26
Dawn Buckingham: Can Texas Stop Biden from Building a Massive Wind Farm Off Its Coast?
As a ninth-generation Texan, I have always loved and respected our beautiful coast, its vibrant economy, and the hard-working men and women whose livelihoods depend on the preservation of these waters. Since taking the helm of the General Land Office as the first female Land Commissioner in state history, I have also had the immense responsibility of stewarding over 13 million acres of state lands, protecting our state’s open beaches, and providing critical relief to Texans in the aftermath of hurricanes and other major storms. Texas commercial fishermen stand to lose a huge swath of navigable waters containing rich fisheries. This project could absolutely devastate this vital industry, robbing families of high-paying jobs, ending family businesses that span generations, and ultimately making the entire United States more dependent on seafood imports from places like China. >click to read< 11:57
Lawmakers push for tighter rules on imported shrimp
A federal lawmaker representing Galveston County has co-sponsored a bill that would increase U.S. Food and Drug Administration testing to ensure imported shrimp meet domestic health and safety standards and fund a federal agency to buy some of the U.S. catch under some circumstances. The bill is meant to weed out tainted shrimp and level the field for U.S. shrimpers and seafood markets that must meet higher quality standards and have been battered by large foreign companies, including shrimp farming operations, able to sell their products in the United States for about half the domestic price. Customers leaving the seafood market agreed. Customer Fredell Rosen said domestic shrimp is the only way to go. “I want my shrimp from here,” Rosen said. “I want my shrimp local. I’m willing to pay more because I know it’s regulated and safe.” >click to read< 16:01
First offshore wind leases off the Texas coast offered for bidding
The federal government on Thursday announced the first-ever chance for companies to lease areas in the Gulf of Mexico to build wind farms, including two parcels roughly 30 miles off the Texas coast near Galveston. Renewable energy developers will likely compete for the leases with firms that are better known for another kind of offshore construction: Oil and gas giants such as Shell and TotalEnergies qualified to join the bidding. Leaders of the traditionally fossil fuel-focused companies say their climate goals make investing in offshore wind critical. Both businesses are already involved in developing wind power in the Atlantic, including near New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. >click to read< 10:02
Leonard Woolsey – Decline of shrimping industry a jumbo problem
The threat to the local shrimping industry is jumbo-sized. In recent weeks, members of the local shrimping industry have taken action to raise awareness of the critical challenges they face in keeping their business afloat. And the economic impact on the Galveston County is significant. “The price of diesel and the falling price of shrimp has made it hard to break even,” said deckhand Cliff Dunn, who last week was at work with Capt. Trey Branch getting a boat ready for the Gulf season’s start. “The price of diesel and the falling price of shrimp has made it hard to break even,” said deckhand Cliff Dunn, who last week was at work with Capt. Trey Branch getting a boat ready for the Gulf season’s start. >click to read< 12:00
Coast Guard, F/V Ocean One rescue 3 after boat capsizes off Freeport, Texas
The Coast Guard and good Samaritans rescued three adults after their vessel capsized off the coast of Freeport, Texas, Sunday. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston command center watchstanders received a call at 5:05 p.m. on VHF-FM channel 16 from the captain of the fishing vessel Ocean One that a pleasure craft had capsized 10 miles off the coast of Freeport. All three boaters were in the water and wearing life jackets. The crew of the F/V Ocean One pulled all three boaters from the water. >click to read< 08:55
Mary Meaux – Our shrimping industry keeps taking hits with foreign imports
Days before the opening of the Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season, a group of shrimpers held a rally in Texas City to bring awareness to the plight of Texas shrimpers and the shrimping industry in general. Tricia Kimball, whose husband Kyle is president of the Port Arthur Area Shrimpers Association, explained the effort. The season for the Gulf of Mexico state and federal waters reopens 30 minutes after sunset Saturday, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. Kyle Kimball is a third-generation commercial shrimper. He remembers standing on a 5-gallon bucket as a child helping his father pick through shrimp. It’s been his lifelong career but last year when diesel prices hit $5 per gallon, he only went out once because it was too expensive. >click to read< 20:06
Harried shrimpers pessimistic as Gulf season opens
Capt. Trey Branch and deckhand Cliff Dunn were at work Tuesday morning at a Hillman’s Seafood & Fish House dock preparing the shrimp boat Capt. Hunter for the opening Saturday of Gulf shrimp season. Dunn and Branch are lifelong shrimpers, from generations of shrimpers. Once, the days just before the boats took to Gulf waters after shrimp were a time of hard work and keen anticipation of profits to make it all worthwhile. Not so much any more, the shrimpers said. The hard work is still there, but profits have plummeted in part because of cheaper, farm-raised foreign shrimp flooding the market and higher operating costs driven by inflation, especially in fuel prices. 5 photos, >click to read< 20;47
Texas shrimpers call for tariffs on cheaper Asian imports
Just days before the start of Gulf shrimp season, harvesters from all along the Texas coast are calling for government action to help them weather a storm of high fuel prices and cheaper foreign imports. More than 100 people who make a living on Gulf shrimp gathered Monday afternoon at the Doyle Convention Center to draw attention to forces they say threaten to sink their industry. Boat owners, dock owners, boat captains and deckhands huddled under a banner with six small U.S. flags to sign in and record their fears in hopes the notes would eventually reach the eyes of the U.S. Congress. Photos. >click to read< 11:41
Commercial Gulf Shrimp season reopens Saturday
The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for state and federal waters will reopen 30 minutes after sunset on Saturday, July 15, 2023. “The annual mid-May closure protects brown shrimp until they can reach larger, more valuable sizes during their major period of emigration from the bays to the Gulf of Mexico,” said Robin Riechers, TPWD Coastal Fisheries Division director. Federal waters (from nine to 200 nautical miles offshore) will open at the same time as state waters. The National Marine Fisheries Service chose to adopt rules compatible with those adopted by Texas. >click to read< 16:41
Texas Congressmen Call on Biden Administration to Protect American Shrimp Industry
With Texas shrimpers struggling to hold on to market share, a bipartisan group of the state’s congressional delegation is asking the Biden administration to do more to protect the industry from foreign providers accused of dumping cheap and less regulated shrimp into U.S. markets. On Tuesday, Reps. Troy Nehls (R-TX-22) and Randy Weber (R-TX-14) sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai requesting more information on the administration’s plans to protect shrimping. “Our nation’s shrimpers are being put out of business because of foreign shrimp being dumped into domestic markets,” said Nehls in a statement. >click to read< 13:20
Commercial Fisherman Captain Ronald Lynn Galloway, Sr. of Baytown, Texas, has passed away
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Captain Ronald Lynn Galloway Sr. of Baytown, Texas, born October 12, 1950, who passed away on June 4, 2023, at the age of 72, leaving to mourn family and friends. Captain Ron was a beloved member of the commercial shrimping industry. He enjoyed sharing his love for the water, and was proud that his son Ronnie, Jr. followed in his footsteps and worked alongside him for many years. In the spring, you could find Capt. Ron out on the bay catching big shrimp and crabs, and in the winter, you would find him sitting in a deer blind waiting for the monster buck. >click to read< 09:54
Alleged shrimp boat bandit arrested in Houston, ran boat aground, damaged 2 others
After weeks, an arrest was finally made in the case of the Shrimp Boat Bandit. Able Antonio Martinez, 22, was arrested and charged with two felony warrants for Unauthorized Use of a Vehicle and Criminal Mischief. On April 16, Port of Galveston Police officers responded to reports of a shrimp boat, which belonged to Alex Gutierrez, that was stolen while it was moored at Pier 19. Investigators discovered a man, now alleged to be Martinez, boarded the F/V Santana in slip 24W, backed out of the slip, and damaged two other vessels that were moored in the area. Video, >click to read< 12:02
Commercial fishing business/vessel owner Jewell Thomas “Tom” English III of Oak Island, Texas, has passed away
Jewell Thomas “Tom” English III, 75, of Oak Island, Texas, passed away peacefully, on Wednesday, April 26, 2023, at his home, with his loving family by his side. He was born on May 12, 1947, in Oceanside, California, to the late Margaret Emily Powers and Jewell Thomas English, Jr. He enlisted in the United States Navy and proudly served his country during the Vietnam Era. Tom was the owner and operator of a commercial fishing business and the fishing vessel F/V M&M (“you know where it melts”) for many years. He also received his captain’s license as a tugboat driver and for pushing barges. >click to read< 09:47
Texas: Shrimping grinds to a halt as import oversupplies add to ongoing woes
The Gulf shrimping industry, including the Brownsville-Port Isabel fleet, shrinking steadily over the last couple of decades, is now in a state of near total collapse thanks to new, unprecedented challenges in addition to the usual. So says Andrea Hance, executive director of the Texas Shrimp Association, who said she and her husband have put their two shrimp boats up for sale because it’s become impossible to make money fishing for domestic shrimp anymore. About 95% of the local fleet is tied up, most fleet owners are cutting their crews loose, and just about everybody Hance knows is trying to sell their boats and shrimping licenses, she said. >click to read< 19:09
Coast Guard pulled 4 men from shrimp boat taking on water 11 miles south of Jamaica Beach, Texas
Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston command center watchstanders received a notification at 1:20 a.m. from Coast Guard Station Galveston watchstanders reporting a 31-foot shrimp boat taking on water with three people aboard. Once on scene, the RB–M crew reported that the shrimp boat, the F/V Captain Alex, was 86 feet in length and had four people aboard. The shrimp boat, which reportedly sank, is reported to have a maximum potential of 17,000 gallons of diesel aboard. 5 photos, >click to read< 14:50
Texas Oyster Fishing at a ‘Crossroads’ – Parks and Wildlife has closed most of the state’s bays to commercial harvest.
Coast Guard medevacs Skipper from shrimp boat off Freeport, Texas
The Coast Guard medevaced a 60-year-old man from a shrimp boat Monday off Freeport, Texas. Coast Guard Sector Houston-Galveston command center watchstanders received a notification at 6 a.m. from the crew of the Barbara Elaine, an 81-foot shrimp boat, stating their captain was experiencing symptoms of a heart attack. Watchstanders consulted with the duty flight surgeon, who recommended a medevac. >click to read< 06:53
Three oyster bays closed may have a strong impact on the oyster industry
Texas Parks and Wildlife Commissioners have voted to permanently close three bays to oyster fishing, and the closures have many Texas oystermen worried about what this means for their livelihoods. The unanimous vote comes after commissioners listened to hours of testimony against the closures from oyster fishermen. Parks and Wildlife shut down Carlos, Ayres, and Mesquite bays near Matagorda Island. TPWD says the decision to close the bays is to let the oysters grow, but oyster fishermen, like Johnny Jurisich, say the closures could hurt the oyster industry. >click to read<
Texas oyster season begins with severe restrictions for fishermen – The six-month Texas oyster season opened on Nov. 1 and Texas Parks and Wildlife Commissioners have voted to permanently close three bays near Matagorda Island to oyster fishing. >click to read< 08:53
Commercial fishermen sounding alarm about snapper stocks
If you had asked me five years ago if I was worried about red snapper populations in Texas, I would have said “no.” But I’m not that optimistic today. Fishery managers have gotten complacent, forgotten where we came from and have put self-interests above conservation and sustainability. Our fish stocks are in decline, our commercial fishing voices are being squashed and our fishery managers are playing politics with our livelihoods. We expect fair representation at the decision-making table. What do we have instead? Only one truly commercial fishing representative on the 17-member Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council. >click to read< 10:52
How an Unlucky Texas Fisherman Stumbled Upon an Environmental Catastrophe
Five years before a pair of bullets tore through his gut and heart, Billy Joe Aplin reached over the silt-smeared water of the tidal flats with a boat hook to snare a small buoy bobbing near the grassy shoreline. As he pulled it toward his skiff, the rope gathered in soggy coils by his white rubber boots. Billy Joe was a bear of a man, six feet with broad shoulders, strong nose, square jaw, and jet-black hair. Their skiff drifted calmly at the mouth of the Guadalupe River in San Antonio Bay, their favorite spot to lay traps. His wife, Judy, lit a cigarette and took a long drag in the Texas heat. His ten-year-old daughter, Beth, was already perched on her culling stool, ready to sort the catch. Billy Joe Jr. and Cheryl Ann, only five and four, huddled close to their mom. Superstitious fishermen thought it was bad luck to bring a woman on a boat, but by 1975, Billy Joe had endured such a streak of bum luck that he couldn’t afford not to bring his family out with him: they were his deckhands. >click to read< 14:09
When Vietnamese Fishermen Went to War With the Klan in Texas
A few nights before the start of the 1980 shrimping season in Texas, as a tropical storm pounded the gulf coast, a Justice Department mediator booked a room at a Holiday Inn near the fishing town of Seabrook, on the western edge of Galveston Bay. He was expecting two guests, each representing opposing sides of a turf war liable to explode into violence. His plan was to lock them inside until they brokered some kind of a treaty. Gene Fisher, the burly 35-year-old founder of the American Fishermen’s Association, arrived first. Fisher stiffened at the sound of someone rapping at the door of the Holiday Inn room: the second guest had arrived, the president of the Vietnamese Fishermen’s Association. Nam Văn Nguyễn was a highly-decorated South Vietnamese colonel. >click to read< 11:09
Joel Dejean: Turn the Tide Against the Texas Gulf Wind Farms
The Biden Administration announced last week that the first offshore wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico will be positioned off the coasts of Texas and Louisiana. The first selected area was described approvingly in the July 22 issue of The Texas Tribune by Mitchell Ferman. It is “24 nautical miles off the coast of Galveston, covering 546,645 acres, bigger than the city of Houston, with the potential to power 2.3 million homes, according to the U.S. Interior Department’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.” The other project, praised in Houston Chronicle headlines, will be near Port Arthur [Texas] covering 188,023 acres, 56 miles offshore, with power potential estimated at 799,000 homes. Public hearings are to start in August. Two issues come immediately to mind. First, in the description of both projects, the phrase ”potential to power” is used. The figures given represent 100% potential productive capacity, but the wind usually delivers only 30%, and often even less. >click to read< 11:25
Don’t Cage Our Oceans: Fish farming may threaten rare Gulf whale
The site approved for the Velella Epsilon fish farm in federal waters west of Venice is one of just three potential aquaculture opportunity areas under consideration off Florida’s Gulf coast. There are six others — three in the central Gulf south of Louisiana and Mississippi and three east of Texas — as well as 10 in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. It’s part of a collusive effort between fish farming companies and the federal government to divide up national waters for profit, James Mitchell, legislative director of Don’t Cage Our Oceans, said. >click to read< 13:49
Vietnam Veteran, Commercial Fisherman Guadalupe G. Zamora has passed away
Guadalupe G. Zamora, a TX native, and U.S. Army Vietnam Veteran, entered eternal rest on July 27th at the age of 78 at his residence in Los Fresnos, TX. Guadalupe is an Army Veteran that served from 1967 to 1970. He was a heavy vehicle driver and attained the rank of Sergeant during the Vietnam War. He was very proud of his service to our nation, and we were very proud of him as well. Guadalupe Zamora was born in Brownsville on June 7, 1944 and raised in both Brownsville and Port Isabel. He grew up with 3 brothers and 5 sisters. He was a natural born carpenter, and one of his many projects included a large front porch of which he was very proud of and spent many afternoons at. He was a commercial fisherman and a Texas history buff, especially of the Alamo. >click to read< 09:48
Texas: Local shrimpers stay in the bays catching live bait
Local shrimpers spend their morning in the bays catching shrimp for live bait not for people to eat. “Since Gulf King is gone. Everything started going downhill,” said one local shrimp boat captain. Gulf King Seafood, once called Aransas Pass its home with the largest fleet of Gulf Coast shrimp boats in the United States. Over 20 years ago, Gulf King moved locations. Soon after local shrimpers followed trying to find more opportunities. Now the only place selling gulf shrimp in Aransas Pass is Erikson and Jensen Seafood. Right now, their fleet is stationed in Florida. Catching gulf shrimp from Florida to Texas. Video, >click to read< 09:23
Missing shrimper identified as La Feria resident
A missing shrimper last seen on South Padre Island has been identified as 35-year-old Christopher Vargas from La Feria. According to a release from the U.S. Coast Guard, Vargas fell from a shrimp trawler 35 miles off the coast of South Padre Island early Saturday morning. Vargas was last seen wearing a tank top and shorts. He was not wearing a life vest when he fell overboard. His aunt Leticia Vargas said it is uncertain what happened to Christopher. She said going offshore to catch shrimp was a traditional job for him. “This was his way of getting money for back to school, that’s what his wife was waiting for, that’s what the kids were waiting for, that’s what his intentions were for him to go out there, he’s been doing this for years,” she said. >Video, click to read< 07:00
