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South Carolina shrimpers are in a fight for their industry's future . Facing pressures from foreign countries shipping in cheap, frozen catches in abundance, domestic shrimpers have been unable to compete. A once-thriving trade has dwindled to a skeleton crew, with more fishermen tying up their trawlers and fewer coming in to pick up the torch.
Bipartisan efforts from South Carolina lawmakers and leaders seek to give fishermen some avenues to relief. Today's Top Headlines Story continues below Pilot error caused missing F-35 jet and ejection over North Charleston, investigation finds Why is International Paper closing its Georgetown mill? Here's what the CEO said. FBI searches home of Myrtle Beach pastor JP Miller.
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A King Street bar manager survived 'an unspeakable episode' of assault at work, lawsuit alleges Lindsey Graham 'nervous' about Trump's prospects while confident GOP will reclaim Senate In the meantime, pressures remain constant and financial help can take years to reach fisheries. For an industry that’s at its tipping point, it could be too late. Despite requests, Gov.
Henry McMaster hasn't declared an emergency on shrimp dumping. Here's why. When it comes to wild-caught shrimp, Palmetto Tide Shrimp and Seafood owner Paul Galimitz says nothing can compare.
Galimitz has spent the past eight years selling fresh shrimp from the docks of McClellanville, Mount Pleasant and Beaufort. There was hardly ever a lull in business when he started out. Now, things can be touch-and-go each week.
"Man, year-round, I was selling lots of shrimp, and now, I don't know why, not so much. We used to never have a lull in supply and now it's like week-to-week because these guys aren't going to go out and lose money," Galimitz said. South Carolina's shrimping fleet is facing pressures from the increase of foreign-caught shrimp imports.
Overall, fewer trawlers are operating in South Carolina, and the ones that have stuck around are going out less frequently. The costs associated with the trip, such as fuel and labor, can't be offset by the going rate for their catch. The stark decline in shrimp prices can be attributed to the rise of foreign shrimp imports, which reached new heights in recent years.
An October report from the Southern Shrimp Alliance showed the overall weight of shrimp caught in South Carolina was 567,000 pounds in June 2002. In June 2023, South Carolina shrimpers brought in just 150,000 pounds. A NOAA report from the agency's Fishery Monitoring Branch revealed that over 119 million pounds of warmwater shrimp was imported to the United States in 2022.
Despite requests, Gov. Henry McMaster hasn't declared an emergency on shrimp dumping. Here's why.
Foreign, frozen shrimp is sold for far less than wild-caught native shrimp, and to local shrimpers and fishmongers like Galimitz, the price is hard to beat. That cost-cutting is what is hurting the more expensive locals. "Nobody wants to buy it because it's $2 more a pound," he said of a South Carolina catch.
"Tastes 10 times better, no preservatives, no chemicals, it's U.S.-caught.
But nobody wants it because they're going to save $1.50 or $2 a pound," Galimitz said. Bryan Jones is a first-generation shrimper in McClellanville.
Before his life became centered around nets and saltwater and fresh catch, he was a vice president of a wealth management firm in Florida. The work is exhausting and the days on the deck of his trawler, the Pamela Sue, are long, Jones said. There are risks involved with shrimping — financial, environmental, physical — but he saw an opportunity to create a livelihood for his family and couldn’t resist.
He joins at a time when fishermen are struggling, and more are deciding to leave the trade altogether. “The average age of a shrimp boat captain, I believe, is 65," Jones said. "What we need is an injection of youth in the industry to sustain it.
" The shrimper is the vice president of the South Carolina Shrimper’s Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting and protecting the shrimping industry in the Palmetto State. Boats approach the dock at the public platform in Shem Creek, July 16, 2024, in Mount Pleasant. The SC Shrimper’s Association, joined by the Southern Shrimp Alliance and other activist groups, have called on local, state and federal leaders to declare an economic disaster due to the impacts of shrimp dumping.
A bipartisan bill in the U.S. House of Representatives, co-sponsored by a handful of representatives of the nation’s coastal communities including Lowcountry Republican congresswoman Nancy Mace, would create a new avenue for declaring a fisheries disaster.
$3 million Shem Creek dock renovations aim to boost shrimping, fishing fleet Declaring an official disaster would allow commercial fisherman and shrimpers to apply for direct funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association. The Protect Our American Fisheries Act would amend the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, adding economic causes as a reason to declare a fishery resource disaster. Currently, only natural causes, man-made causes such as oil spills, and undetermined causes are grounds to declare a fishery disaster, per the Magnuson-Stevens act.
The last time a fishery disaster in South Carolina was formally declared was in 2018. After an unexpected cold spell , complete with snow, the local water temperatures plunged, killing off fish and white shrimp. NOAA declared a fishery disaster in 2019 at the request of Gov.
Henry McMaster, triggering the creation of a $3.9 million relief fund, of which $1 million was set aside for infrastructure improvements, like dock or vessel repairs. At start of season, shrimpers are 'cautiously optimistic' despite market concerns But it would be years before shrimpers would see the money for those improvements.
Shrimpers were required to apply for this infrastructure assistance, and those applications still were being reviewed in July. “Five years, six years, that's way too long when there's a disaster. That aid is meant to shore up the industry and get to the people affected quickly,” Jones said.
He hopes the Protect our American Fisheries Act would speed up disaster relief. "I'm an eternal optimist, and I think it's definitely still salvageable there," Jones said. "It's something definitely worth fighting for and worth saving.
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