| More
than two thousand years ago, Great King Canute stood on
the shores of the North Sea and commanded the tides to halt.
He ordered them to not wet his sandals. To the surprise
of his followers, the sea did not obey. As one focuses on
the coming tide, one is forced to wonder what the future
holds for Louisiana’s Vietnamese shrimping industry.
To better understand the state of affairs, I will write
a three part series examining where the industry came from,
where it is and where it is going. King Canute failed to
halt the coming tides. However, the fate of the shrimping
industry is far less certain.
The
story of the Vietnamese shrimping industry is personal to
me because it is the story of my family. My father has been
a shrimper all of my life and now my husband is a part of
that industry, as well. My parents were one of the many
"boat" people who fled Vietnam during the war.
A majority of these people were fishermen by trade. These
Vietnamese fishermen had very little education and so when
they came to Louisiana their means of survival was to resort
to what they knew best, which was fishing. Before 1984 these
fishermen worked with Americans as deckhands. At the time,
they were inexperienced on how the shrimping industry operated,
so with the help of their employers they learned a new method
of survival.
After
1984, with the help of family and friends, many Vietnamese-Americans
embracing the American dream started their own businesses
and became their own bosses. They started their fleets with
small 70-foot boats with two nets which carried boards on
them (typically ice boats). Then in 1987, they expanded
to larger boats, with more horsepower, which had four nets
carrying double doors. And the trend continued through 1997
as vessels became powerful enough to trawl the treacherous
waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
Shrimping
was an industry that helped many fishermen support their
families. These were ideal times for these young entrepreneurs.
With fuel prices being at an average of 75-cents and shrimp
prices of 16/20 white tails selling for $6.80 to $7 per
pound, the future of the shrimping industry looked bright.
From 2000 to 2001, the big boom of IQF boats was occurring.
However,
Sept. 11 was not only felt in New York City, Washington,
D.C., and Pennsylvania, its impact resonated along the Atchafalaya
into the Gulf of Mexico. Shipbuilding came to a halt.
After
being hard hit by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the high
cost of fuel and the drop of prices at the docks, many fishermen
began to fall into bankruptcy. Many could not meet their
large monthly mortgages and so lost their boats and livelihood,
and 2002 began the winter of the Vietnamese shrimping industry’s
discontent.
The
next article will examine the state of the shrimping industry
today. Until then I wish you well.
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