Shrimpers, regulators often at loggerheads

By John McQuaid,
Staff writer

One of the big gest challenges facing fishery managers in the Gulf of Mexico region is history: the longstanding mistrust and suspicion between shrimpers and the government agencies that regulate them, and the agencies’ inability to devise policies everyone can live with.
  Like other fisheries, shrimping has seen an enormous increase in regulation in the past 20 years. Shrimpers often disagree with government decisions, but they accept many regulations without protest. In Louisiana, for example, shrimpers follow state shrimping seasons, and few object to the annual six-week closure of Texas’ offshore waters, which allows shrimp to grow bigger.
  But many shrimpers still harbor resentment from the decade-long fight over turtle excluder devices. Federal rules require TEDs in offshore waters to let endangered sea turtles escape from nets. Officials think the rules, devised under the Endangered Species Act, save thousands of turtles each year.
  Shrimpers fought the regulations for years, saying TEDs were an onerous
burden because they allow shrimp as well as turtles to escape, they can get twisted or clogged, and they’re an additional expense in a time when every dollar counts. By the early 1990s the government had won, but at the price of lingering bitterness in shrimping communities across the Gulf Coast.
  ‘‘This is a tough industry to regulate because the shrimpers are doing what their fathers have done, only with more regulation,’’ said Dan Foster, a National Marine Fisheries Service biologist. Even so, he said, ‘‘TEDs would probably be a minor thing if people were making more money at this.’’
  The Fisheries Service says TEDs cause a 5 percent loss of shrimp, but shrimpers say it’s worse — anywhere from 10 percent to 40 percent. Whatever the real figure, TEDs have been yet another factor in shrimping’s economic decline. At a time when shrimpers are working more hours, they say the hassle is significant too.
  ‘‘The biggest problem is the junk we catch — tires, drums or something. A 55-gallon drum or a 5-gallon bucket hits the TED, breaks it, tears it up, it doesn’t go into the bag. You pick up, you tear the net, you tear the TED. It’s a lot of work,’
’ said shrimper Mike Lorraine.
  Enforcement also has caused bitterness, and managers contribute to the problem with seemingly arbitrary decision-making. Last summer, for example, when a surprising number of dead turtles washed up on Gulf beaches, the Fisheries Service declared an emergency and temporarily expanded TED regulations.
  Shrimpers were incensed, not only at the action, but also that it came with no warning. Prodded by U.S. Sen. John Breaux, D-La., and U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., Fisheries Service chief Rolland Schmitten flew to the region and convened a series of meetings with shrimpers to work out a compromise.
  After its experience with TEDs, the Fisheries Service has put more effort into having shrimpers participate in developing rules requiring the use of by-catch reduction devices in trawls. But a lot of opposition remains among shrimpers.
  ‘‘They tend to be very independent, living in isolated communities,’’ Foster said. ‘‘Generally, they don’t like an idea that comes from outside. They can accept it if they do it themselves.’’