Support your local shrimpers!

  Mark brought home forty pounds of beautiful, white shrimp early this morning.  For the next hour or so, he headed the critters while Son and I peeled each one.  These were all weighed and bagged for the freezer. Each bag now holds two pounds of the peeled shrimp.  All in all, the bundle made quite a few meal-sized packets.  Yes, I realize that two pounds of peeled shrimp is a lot of shrimp for three people but we do enjoy our seafood!  

These ten shrimp weigh in at a hefty one pound!  They are Biloxi Beauties!

  While we picked the shrimp, we discussed the plight of the Coastal shrimpers.  These men and women work hard to make their catch, have expensive upkeep on their boats and equipment, pay workers to help with the trawls and pay for licenses to go out onto the waters.  All of this and they do, indeed, literally put their lives on the line so we can enjoy our meals.  What with a terrible "flesh-eating bacteria" called Vibrio vulnificus being found in most coastal waters, just being on the boat puts these folks in danger. Add in rough seas, sudden storms and dangerous work and you will see that they are amazing folks...these shrimpers.  

  What makes this a sad story is the mere pittance that they are paid for their catch.  Whereas folks pay atrocious amounts for shrimp (and other seafood) in restaurants, grocery stores and fish markets, the factories that supply these places literally pay the shrimpers a meager sum.  The owners of the boats barely make ends meet.  Most have to hold other jobs to support their families.  This is a sad plight.  What used to be a booming business for the locals, now has become nothing more than big money for a few.  A few that does not include the shrimpers at all.

  What can be done to remedy this situation is up in the air.  If the shrimpers do not band together and demand more for their catch, soon they will be giving up the trade.  The livelihoods of so many locals along the Coast could come to a screeching halt.  No one thinks of this, though, as they complain of the high costs of seafood.  The shrimpers need to unite and have a voice.  Not the factories, not the restaurants, not the markets...the shrimpers.  They cannot depend on anyone else.  

  While you may think that Mark and I added to the problems of the shrimpers by buying the seafood, we did not.  What seafood we do not catch, we always buy directly from the shrimpers themselves. We do pay more than what the factories pay for the shrimp but we still get a great deal.  If we did make our purchase through a third party, our cost would be staggering.  

  So...all of this said, Folks, if you want to buy shrimp (or other seafood), why not visit the harbor and buy directly from the boats.  The seafood is as fresh as you can ever get, you will be guaranteed a great bargain and you will help the fishermen support their families!  This, my friends, is a win/win situation for sure!