Saving Seafood

FLORIDA: Southwest Florida shrimpers battle an economic storm

September 30, 2026 — The Big Daddy shrimping vessel arrived at its San Carlos Island port Sept. 9, ready to unload 55,000 pounds of Gulf pink shrimp.

Capt. Michael Frost, 44, is deeply familiar with the event. A fourth-generation commercial fisherman, Frost has worked for his family’s shrimping operation — Trico Shrimp Co. — since childhood.

Trico closed after Hurricane Ian decimated the Gulf pink shrimp industry Sept. 28, 2022.

The industry remains centered on San Carlos Island in Lee County, where Matanzas Pass offers a port with convenient access to ever-reproducing seabed fields of “pink gold” southwest of the shoreline.

Like other independent contractors, Frost continues to harvest shrimp. He and his family members plan to rebuild their livelihood against increasing economic headwinds.

“It’s going to take a while to build back everything, but that’s our goal,” Frost said. “It’s just hard to walk away from something that you’ve been doing for so long.”

Meanwhile, Grant Erickson and his daughter Anna Erickson still run Erickson & Jensen Seafood, next door to the former Trico operation.

Since Trico closed, the more than 75-year-old Erickson & Jensen has been Lee County’s last remaining commercial shrimping operation.

Both the Ericksons and the Gala family, which co-owned Trico, run retail seafood markets near Fort Myers Beach.

The Ericksons, too, are determined to rebuild even though most of the San Carlos shrimping docks, their boats and other infrastructure were destroyed by Ian.

Read the full article at Gulf Shore Business

FLORIDA: Fishing industry in Lee County ‘wiped out’ by Hurricane Ian

November 2, 2022 — Matlacha is among the places in Southwest Florida hit hardest by Hurricane Ian: buildings were destroyed, roads were washed out and debris is everywhere.

Among the wreckage, a small lime-green building – the Island Seafood Market – is somehow still standing. Owner Casey Streeter has had to tear out everything that was once inside.

“The front was washed out,” he recalled first seeing it after the storm. “We came in through the window on this door. Our coolers floated up, tipped over. We had about two-and-a-half feet of mud in the shop.”

But the biggest hit was to what’s behind the shop. Streeter said all of their grouper boats were damaged by Ian, and even worse, they lost their docks and ice house to the hurricane.

Read the full article at NBC

FLORIDA: Hurricane Ian devastated Lee County’s commercial fishing industry

October 14, 2022 — Southwest Florida’s commercial fishing industry has been struggling for some time from the recent red tide and the graying out of the fleet. But now, Hurricane Ian has put the fishing industry on the ropes.

“Lee County’s seafood industry took a major hit,” said Casey Streeter, a commercial fisherman and the owner of Island Seafood Market on Matlacha.

Hurricane Ian’s powerful storm surge destroyed a large portion of Southwest Florida’s fishing industry from boats to docks to fish houses.

“Fort Myers beach, our shrimp fleet is decimated, that’s about a 200-million-dollar loss with what they do,” said Streeter. “Their boats are obviously tanged up onshore…Here on Pine Island, we lost four of our five fish houses. We lost many of the grouper boats. The infrastructure of our fishery is gone.”

Read the full article at Fox 4