Louisiana's seafood industry is experiencing a crisis.
Some shrimpers in Delcambre said they are exploring other careers and getting out of the business, before it gets worse.
74-year-old Joseph Sauce said he has been shrimping since he was 19, but now foreign imports may be pushing him towards being a pastor.
"I go out on a trip for a week, Monday through Friday, usually," Sauce said. "I go Saturday morning, either that or sometimes a little earlier on Fridays and we shrimp when the tides are right and the shrimp is right."
Sauce said the last few weeks have been disheartening, after the ice house closed at Ocean's Harvest, a wholesale seafood business on May 22 in Delcambre.
Since then, Sauce said he has been exploring alternative solutions to keeping his shrimp cool and trying to make a profit.
"I just bought ice once last Monday and it cost me 880 dollars for my ice," Sauce said.
Congressman Clay Higgins (R-LA) sent a letter to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) on Tuesday, advocating for Louisiana's shrimping industry.
"That's my people," Higgins said. "I know them well, many of them personally and I've been on the water with them and the industry is struggling because imported shrimp is being dumped into America and Americans are consuming that shrimp."
Higgins said flash-freezing and new package technologies have provided the world with access to the seafood market, putting a damper on the way traditional shrimpers conduct business.
"This program of asking the USDA to buy all of that shrimp, all of that frozen, excess shrimp...I do not see that as a permanent solution," Higgins said. "I see it as a temporary uplifting measure that can help the shrimpers that are hanging on."
Over the next few weeks, Higgins said he anticipates a response from the USDA.
