Hurt by low prices, fewer shrimpers open Ga. season

<p>The commercial shrimping season in Georgia opened to a slow start Tuesday, with fewer trawlers in the water and shrimpers reporting catches too small to make a profit.</p><p>"It's a bad start. There's not very many shrimp," said Teddy Smithwick, a commercial shrimper for 27 years, as he dragged his nets Tuesday morning off Sapelo Island. "All of us are one breakdown shy of being out of business. It doesn't look good to me."</p><p>For the fourth year, shrimpers are struggling against a flood of cheap imported shrimp from Asia that has slashed the prices at which they can sell their catch.</p><p>Smithwick said he expects to sell jumbo shrimp for up to $4.50-per-pound this year, compared with $6.10-per-pound in 2000.</p><p>Add to that diesel fuel prices up 20-cents a gallon and the shrimp season being delayed one week because heightened security during last week's G-8 summit closed Georgia waters, and shrimpers say they're already struggling to catch up. Others are quitting altogether.</p><p>"Every year we see more and more boats dropping out," said Patrick Greer, commercial fisheries program supervisor for the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.</p><p>As of Tuesday, the DNR had sold 308 licenses to trawl for shrimp in Georgia waters this season. Last year, it issued 455 licenses. Greer said some shrimpers may still get licenses, but a decline wouldn't surprise him.</p><p>"We are seeing the number of licenses decline because of the economics with this fishery," Greer said. "They're just getting killed by the imports. It's making it harder and harder for these guys to make a living."</p><p>The Southern Shrimp Alliance, an eight-state industry group, has been lobbying the government to impose penalty tariffs on importers found to charge unfairly low prices.</p><p>The alliance has said that $2.4 billion in imported shrimp was illegally dumped on the U.S. market in 2001 and 2002.</p><p>"The way we look at it is the price we get at the dock is the same price we got in the early '70s," said George Marra, executive director of the Georgia Shrimp Association. "We can't even keep up with inflation anymore."</p><p>An association representing shrimp consumers in the United States has argued foreign competitors have done nothing illegal, and the low-cost imports have made shrimp the nation's No. 1 seafood product.</p><p>The Commerce Department plans to make a recommendation on the tariffs next month.</p><p>Smithwick, 46, of Bellville said he's still hopeful the new season will turn around. Swapping news of the day's catch by radio with other trawlers Tuesday, he noticed fewer of them than ever.</p><p>"There's 15 or 16 boats total _ that's the least amount of boats I've ever seen on opening day in my life," said Smithwick, counting off the trawlers within sight. "You've got to go try. You just can't give up."</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/6/166797