Saving Seafood

U.S. shrimpers struggle to compete as cheap foreign imports flood domestic market

January 22, 2024 — Shem Creek, South Carolina — Off South Carolina’s coast, shrimper Rocky Magwood has a jumbo problem: plummeting prices for his catch.

“It’s worse right now than we’ve ever seen,” Magwood told CBS News. “…I mean, people are dropping like flies out of this business.”

The cause is cheap shrimp imported from Asia, grown in pond farms and often subsidized by foreign governments. It’s idled many of this state’s roughly 300 shrimpers.

“I would love to be out here at least six days a week,” Magwood said.

Instead, he’s shrimping only two or three days a week because, as he explains, there’s “no market.”

Read the full article at CBS News

 

U.S. Appeals Court’s unanimous decision supports shrimp trawling in state sounds

August 8, 2023 — Commercial shrimpers in the state’s sounds received an overwhelming vote of confidence Monday, Aug. 7 with a unanimous decision by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirming a lower court ruling dismissing complaints against shrimp trawling under the Clean Water Act.

The case stems from a 2020 complaint filed by recreational fishermen, Joseph William Albea, David Anthony Sammons, Capt. Seth Vernon, Capt. Richard Andrews, Dwayne Bevell and the North Carolina Fisheries Reform Group.

The Reform Group states on its website that its mission, in part, is “in association with our conservation partners, to change how the State of North Carolina manages our public trust marine resources. We will support the implementation of a new comprehensive management plan to restore our fisheries back to the world-class fishers that they once were.”

The plaintiffs contend that shrimp trawlers in Pamlico Sound are violating the Clean Water Act by engaging in two types of unpermitted activity, “throwing bycatch overboard and disturbing sediment with their trawl net.”

Read the full article at NEWS-TIMES

Gulf shrimp season closing Wednesday

May 8, 2019 — The Gulf of Mexico commercial shrimp season for both Texas and federal waters will close 30 minutes after sunset on Wednesday, May 15, 2019, until a still-to-be-determined date in July.

The closing date is based on samples collected by the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) using trawl, bag seine, and other information gathered from the shrimping industry.

Data collected regarding TPWD bag seine catch rates of brown shrimp, mean lengths of shrimp in April 2019, percent of samples containing shrimp, and periods of maximum nocturnal ebb tidal flow indicate a May 15 closing date is appropriate. Typically, once the shrimp reach about 3½ inches long, they begin their migration to the gulf.

Read the full story at the Victoria Advocate