Speak Your Piece: To Fish Another Day

editor — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 07:46:35 -0700

A day's catch off the Louisiana coast.

Photo: Four Winds Seafood

I'm a commercial fisherman. I started my fishing career in the late 70's when diesel fuel was less than 50 cents a gallon, and the shrimp commanded a good price. The industry was healthy and viable. Domestic shrimpers supplied the nation with delicious wild-caught shrimp.

In the mid 80's, foreign, farm-raised shrimp started to gain market share and this began the downslide in prices. The proliferation of world-wide aquaculture from Third World and communist countries has led to a flood of cheap, imported shrimp. Today, domestic shrimp accounts for only ten percent of the total shrimp consumed in this country.

In the heyday of this industry, we had over 16,000 licensed commercial fishermen in Louisiana. Today, our numbers hover a little over 2000.

My wife and I have constantly battled these forces by marketing our product. We had a retail seafood shop for 22 years and sold at local farmers markets. And then Hurricane Katrina came. It destroyed and flooded our home, our business, our entire community. It even sank my shrimp boat.

By Ray Brandhurst

Speak Your Piece: To Fish Another Day