February 8, 2024 — The U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued contracts cumulatively worth USD 32.5 million (EUR 30 million) to several U.S. Gulf of Mexico wild shrimp suppliers.
After asking for bids in mid-January 2024, the USDA awarded the majority of the contracts for 385,000 cases of peeled and deveined shrimp to New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S.A.-based Paul Piazza & Son for USD 15.1 million (EUR 14 million).
January 18, 2024 — I’ve been a shrimper for over 45 years. It’s more than just a job; it’s a legacy that’s been passed down through generations in my family. Since I was 15, I’ve been working in the waters of Plaquemines Parish, my workplace, my passion, and my source of livelihood. Today, as I continue to bring the finest Gulf shrimp to your tables, I find myself fighting not only for my job but for the very soul of Louisiana’s shrimping heritage.
The recent rule by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) mandating the use of Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs) on skimmer trawl vessels longer than 40 feet is a real threat to our community. This rule, though it may seem well-intentioned, is an example of overreach and disregard for our industry’s reality. That’s why, under my leadership, the Louisiana Shrimp Association is taking a stand by suing against this unfair regulation on the same day the Supreme Court is hearing arguments on the power of faraway bureaucrats in the Loper Bright case.
Our challenge isn’t about denying environmental stewardship; we shrimpers understand the importance of preserving marine life more than anyone else. Our problem lies in the NMFS’s lack of consideration for the real-world reasons and impact of this rule. Studies show that there is minimal interaction between sea turtles and shrimpers in the waters where we mostly operate, and our waters aren’t primary nesting sites for these creatures. However, the NMFS chose to ignore this evidence and push through a rule that could devastate our industry.
August 28, 2023 — The city of Bayou La Batre in the U.S. state of Alabama has declared a disaster over shrimp imports, and it’s asking the state government and the federal government to do the same.
The Bayou La Batre city council unanimously adopted a resolution on 17 August declaring shrimp dumping to be a disaster.
August 10, 2023 — The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission announced the opening dates for the fall inshore shrimp season Aug. 7.
Meanwhile, Louisiana lawmakers have called on Congress to protect the domestic seafood industry as shrimp harvesters face low prices due to large amounts of imported shrimp.
The Louisiana Shrimp Association joined in a letter that said the influx of imported shrimp has proven especially problematic for domestic harvesters. Nineteen other allied organizations and companies, representing more than 4,000 seafood businesses of the U.S. Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic region also signed onto the letter.
August 3, 2023 — NOAA recently released preliminary data on shrimp landings from the Gulf of Mexico and the South Atlantic for April 2023, with the data showing the price of shrimp continues to sit near historic lows.
Across the Gulf of Mexico – which is listed by landings from Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Western Florida, and compiled monthly by the Southern Shrimp Alliance from NOAA data – most states saw increases shrimp catches sitting above historical averages. Overall landings across the state, however, were down thanks to a lack of data from Louisiana, which historically has averaged over 884,000 pounds, or roughly 401 metric tons (MT), of shrimp landed for the month.
July 26, 2023 — The Louisiana shrimp industry is in crisis; putting our 15,000 jobs and $1.3 billion industry at risk.
During the legislative session, hundreds of shrimpers, dock owners and processors marched on the State Capitol to call out unwanted competition from imported shrimp.
Louisiana plays a significant role in the U.S. shrimp market, accounting for 25% of the nation’s demand. But imports from Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Ecuador are flooding U.S. markets, resulting in distressed prices for our product.
Absent an outright ban or a cap and control mechanism on imported shrimp, it becomes increasingly challenging to sustain our livelihoods. Additionally, imports raise concerns about cheap foreign labor practices and potential health risks.
Expanding testing and enforcing country-of-origin labeling are common sense solutions to ensure consumer safety and awareness. But our pleas for assistance to our federal and state lawmakers continue to go unanswered.
To add insult to injury, we face another threat by Louisiana’s recreational and for-hire charter fishermen who have suggested there need to be arbitrary and scientifically unsubstantiated limits on commercial fishing, including shrimping and Gulf menhaden fishing, to reduce incidental bycatch of speckled trout and redfish.
While conservation efforts of these stressed species are important, singling out the commercial fishing sector without addressing the root causes of reckless overfishing by the tens of thousands of unmonitored anglers off Louisiana’s coast is misguided. Louisiana’s commercial fisheries follow sound fisheries management practices.
We are heavily regulated, guided by science and sustainability. We will not allow others to selectively shift blame to us when they need to do more to preserve and protect their catch.
Failure to address these challenges will have far-reaching consequences, potentially resulting in the loss of not just our industry but a cultural heritage deeply intertwined with our coastal communities.
ACY COOPER
president, Louisiana Shrimp Association
July 23, 2023 — On the inviting teal-colored water in the shipping channels off the coast of southern Louisiana, Phillip “Rooster” Dyson pilots his bright red shrimp boat named Papa’s Shadow through a landscape he no longer recognizes.
His practiced gaze sweeps over the water, but very little remains of the small fishing community of Cameron, where he has lived all his 40 years. The rickety wooden social clubs, bars, homes, and colorful shrimping boats are gone, most of it replaced by giant liquid natural gas terminals, and many more are planned for Louisiana’s fragile coast
The shrimp are also more challenging to find these days.
“It costs $400 just to take the boat out,” he said in his strong Southern southern accent, adding that July can often be a slow month for shrimp. “But this is the slowest it’s ever been. I’m not sure if I can buy the things my kids need for school right off the bat [and] pay utilities.”
Not more than a decade ago, when Dyson bought his first boat, he could make $5800 a day trawling for shrimp in the channels close to his home but also far out in the rich vastness of the Gulf of Mexico.
October 3, 2022 — 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.
Huge swells tossed shrimp boats into the mangroves and washed away docks. 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. “This is life-changing.”
Just three of the company’s 12 boats are still in the water, he said, and one has a hole in the side. Clapham is sure he can patch it.
What to do with the others, however, is overwhelming.
Joined by a handful of coworkers, Clapham, 47, gathered tools and set to work repairing the flooded engine of a front-end loader, so he could clear debris. A mash of rubble fringed the Double E, a 96-foot, steel-hulled shrimp boat left listing sharply to port on the ground.
Clapham’s head mechanic, Jerry Richards, 54, had stayed onboard during the hurricane with a captain and the captain’s wife and five kids. He watched the swelling sea overtop his Chevy Silverado, parked nearby on land. The waves lifted the Double E onto an old dock, before the surge rushed back out, he said. The force caused the ship to lean so far over that they decided to climb down a ladder and off the vessel Wednesday night.
“When they said it was going this way, it was too late to do anything,” Richards said, recalling forecasters’ predictions for Hurricane Ian. He had avoided evacuating to Tampa, where he worried his mother’s home would face intense storm surge in Town ‘N Country. The Erickson and Jensen crew hadn’t even had enough time to drive all the boats up to a safer spot in the Caloosahatchee River before Ian descended.
October 27, 2017 — October is National Seafood Month, and there’s no better place to celebrate seafood than right here in the Magnolia State.
What Mississippi may lack in coastline length, it more than makes up for in seafood heritage and pride. Popular delights like oysters, shrimp, flounder and blue crabs — just to name a few — are all pulled from the briny waters off our coast and shipped fresh to seafood lovers across the state and this great nation.
The Mississippi seafood industry had a profound impact on the Gulf Coast by establishing itself as a diverse immigrant community that led it to be called the “Seafood Capital of the World” as far back as 1869. In 1890 alone, local canneries reportedly processed 2 million pounds of oysters and 614,000 pounds of shrimp. Twelve years later, those numbers had skyrocketed as 12 canneries reported a combined catch of nearly 6 million pounds of oysters and 4.4 million pounds of shrimp.
Over the years, Slovenians, Cajuns, Eastern Europeans and Vietnamese are among those who came to Mississippi for its seafood bounty, its canning industry and its promise of opportunity for all.
Read the full story at the Sun Herald
January 20, 2017 — The following was released by the Southeastern Fisheries Association (SFA):
SFA President Peter Jarvis Says: “Eat More Sustainable Seafood for Health and Taste Benefits”
WASHINGTON — Soon after he’s sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, Donald Trump will dine on Maine lobster, Gulf shrimp, and Seven Hills Angus beef, to name a few dishes.
These foods are all on the menu for the inaugural luncheon, a long-standing tradition in which the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies hosts a meal for the president and vice president at the Capitol following the inaugural address.
The committee organized its first luncheon in 1953, when lawmakers welcomed President Dwight Eisenhower for creamed chicken, baked ham and potato puffs in the Capitol’s Old Senate Chamber.
Dishes, consumed between toasts, gift presentations and speeches, often encompass foods from the home states of the new leaders, though Trump’s menu owes heavily to California, not his home state of New York or Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s state of Indiana.
President Barack Obama’s 2013 luncheon boasted a menu of steamed lobster, grilled bison and apple pie.
Trump’s, which will be held in the Statuary Hall, will feature three courses.
The first, Maine lobster and Gulf shrimp with saffron sauce and peanut crumble, will be accompanied by a J. Lohr 2013 Arroyo Vista Chardonnay.
The Gulf shrimp may be a tribute to Florida, where Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort is located and which the President-elect has called his “second home.”