When an ecosystem, species or individual is faced with changes to its environment it adapts or faces extinction. Societies, governments and industries do the same thing. As events over the last 50 years will attest things have changed on the Gulf Coast. Our population especially in the coastal areas has increased greatly. Baldwin County’s population has increased from 49,088 in 1960 to 98,280 in 1990 and 179,878 in 2010 with Mobile County’s going from 314,301 to 378,643 and to 411,721 over the same time period.

Because of this population increase the pressure on our marine environment has grown along with the population. Not only are commercial shrimpers using the marine waters, but crabbers and gill-netters, recreational boaters and anglers are out there too. House developments and condos are covering up coastal land and adding their share of pollution the aquatic ecosystem. We tend to view our local communities on the Gulf Coast as isolated from the events taking place around the world - perhaps, years ago that was true but not anymore. The recent unpleasantness with the BP oil spill and it's future impact on the Gulf Coast has literally brought this fact home to all Gulf residents.

According to NFMS information only 20% of the shrimp eaten in the US come from our waters. Global shrimp farming along, with foreign capture fisheries are producing shrimp at prices on the world and local markets that our commercial shrimping industry is having a hard time competing against. State and Federal regulations that restrict what type of gear can be used, when and where, plus Turtle Excluder Devices (TED) and By-catch Reduction Devices (BRD) are impacting the shrimp catch. Recent news - BBP (Before British Petroleum) about the shrimping industry was focused on ways of dealing with imported shrimp. A proposal was put forth in the US Congress to enact a tariff on imported shrimp, which would serve to support and protect American shrimp markets from the alleged dumping of foreign shrimp. Controversy is not just limited to economic impact of foreign shrimp. Imported farm raised shrimp are tested for antibiotics banned for use in food animals and feeds in the US. Due to the oil spill shrimp imports from Vietnam to the US increased by 240,000 metric tons - 15%.

People who are involved directly or indirectly with the shrimping industry have been looking for ways that they can get involved to help out but just don’t know how. The usual methods such as writing your US senators and congressmen are always there. Letter writing campaigns and petitions are some other ways. Another way is not to buy or eat foreign produced shrimp. Right now there isn’t a very good method of telling whether a shrimp you’re eating in a restaurant or buying from a supermarket from overseas or caught in US waters. Maybe labeling would be a good way to tell? We see labels on clothing telling us it was “Made in the USA”, why not “Caught in the USA” on fresh and frozen shrimp products? Maybe signs in our cafes and restaurants saying, “We serve only shrimp caught in US waters” or words to that effect might help. It’s worked before.

What kind of future is in store for the US shrimp fleet? Only time will tell.

Think Global – Act Local!