ST. MARY PARISH — If you’re in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway of St. Mary Parish, you may notice fewer shrimp boats out this year during Shrimp Season.
I caught up with two shrimpers who told me why we don't see as many people as we are used to working in this industry.
Donald Ribardi had people coming and going all afternoon to purchase his shrimp at the dock in Berwick.
He takes his boat “Mama D” out anywhere from two to three days a week.
“Wherever it takes to go I mean all on the Gulf Coast, Vermillion Bay, along the gulf, back of Houma, Dulac, whatever it takes you know?" Ribardi said.
Guaranteeing freshness for his customers.
“After three days it’s time to come in and get ready, you want fresh shrimp,” Ribardi said.
“There’s a lot of people put a lot of chemicals on they shrimp and they stay out for 2 weeks.”
Ribardi has been a shrimper for nearly 60 years and does this part-time. It costs him quite a bit to make a single trip.
“$3,000 that’s without even blinking an eye,” Ribardi said.
“Your price of your fuel, your ice, your groceries, that's just including that that ain't including your other stuff. You got your oil,”
His problem after returning from a trip is the value his shrimp is worth at the dock.
“For what they giving us a pound at the dock, it’s a shame man,” Ribardi said.
“Right now, for a 10 -15 I think it was like a $1.40 I heard this morning I’m not sure,” Ribardi said.
“I’m not gonna go out there and I can’t afford to go out there to go give my shrimp for 40 cents a pound.
Across the Atchafalaya at a Morgan City dock is shrimper Kermit Duck.
Duck has been a full time shrimper since he’s 19-years-old and sells straight to consumers like Ribardi.
“Last year and this year has been really bad with the imports,” Duck said.
“I mean you can’t afford to go out. If you do you have to retail like we do.”
Ribardi also feels imported shrimp is hurting the shrimp industry.
“What’s hurting us right now is all that imported shrimp,” Ribardi said.
“It’s a shame right now we gotta suffer over here and like I said people losing their homes. They don’t know when they’re gonna pay their next bill cause of them all imported.”
As for where the industry currently stands, they don’t see a bright future.
“Something gotta change, I mean shrimping industry is going down it's pretty much dead right now,” Ribardi said.
“It’s gone. I mean it ain’t where it's gonna end up,” Duck said. “It's gonna be if we can bring it back.”
Both men said there is a misconception that local shrimpers can’t bring in the demand the shrimp the market needs.
“It’s not a problem with us bringing product in, like everybody tries to make it sound, that they need to import all their shrimp,” Duck said.
“Our numbers are going down in the United States we’re bringing in less product year by year because people can’t afford to stay in the business."
“Well they claim we can’t catch enough shrimp, I guess not!” Ribardi said.
“All our boats can't afford to go out are at the dock. But if they stop imported shrimp, then all my fishermen are gonna go out all my buddies and all the shrimpers!”
According to a statistic from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in 2023 nearly 800,000 metric tons of shrimp were imported into the U.S.
NOAA indicates that the U.S. imports shrimp from 54 countries; the countries that send us the most shrimp are Ecuador, India and Indonesia.
In 2023, the US imported:
205,915 metric tons of shrimp from Ecuador
296,104 metric tons from India
146,259 metric tons from Indonesia
