Make Shrimpers Great Again
Now is the time to bring shrimping back to America.
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Bring it on home!
Shrimp are being outsourced to Ecuador, Southeast Asia, Indonesia, India, Thailand, and Argentina. 94 percent of the market is imported from foreign countries. Now we are sounding the alarm.
Craig Reaves, owner of Sea Eagle Market, Beaufort, S.C., second-generation shrimper, and Board Member of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, says, “It’s killing us.” And they have had to endure this unfair competition for decades.
It’s time for Southern Shrimpers to unite and bring shrimping back to our coastal towns and villages, support local businesses, and rebuild our infrastructure.
The glut of farm-raised shrimp has been plummeting prices for decades. It must stop for the industry in America to survive.
Is this happening because foreign shrimp are tastier and more nutritious? Absolutely not. Reaves tells us foreign shrimp are raised in polluted ponds, filled with chemicals and illegal hormones. No care is being given to the environment. They sell only because they are cheap.
Yet, restaurant owners are often telling customers they are from local shores. Recent DNA testing has proved this to be true. The fraud rate for shrimp is staggering. In some places along the coast, it’s 82 percent, according to Erin Williams, chief operations officer of SeaD Consulting. “This is not simply mislabeling; it’s about eroding consumer trust, undercutting local businesses, and threatening the livelihood of hardworking American shrimpers. They’re hanging on by a thread when they should be flourishing.”
Reaves believes the tariffs will provide immediate relief.
May God bless our American shrimpers.
Share this post and help our shrimpers win this battle.
Here is what readers have to say:
@susannaCdonovan23
My Grandfather made his livelihood as a commercial fisherman decades ago. I had no idea these imports were replacing American Fishermen. He'd go to Alaska for half the year. That's top-quality fish, and he'd bring home fish and store them in a salt barrel. He was born in Norway but ran away from home at 12, with a couple of his brothers, and worked on board a fishing vessel, until he came to the United States in the early 20th Century. He lived in Tacoma Washington near the Point Defiance Park which is surrounded by Puget Sound Bay, has one of the deepest harbors in the world.
@carolyncrider8217
The Asian shrimp has been injected with a solution to increase its weight. Our waters are the cleanest. I live on the coast and used to watch shrimping boats fish all night on Core Sound. All the shrimpers are gone and three shrimp houses are shut down. Crying shame here in North Carolina.
@c.christman9649
U.S. Wild Caught shrimp is all I will buy. People just don’t realize how poor the nutritional content is contained in the farm shrimp, which is always imported. Raised in filthy ponds and fed chemicals, sewage, and more. When the ponds no longer sustain life, the huge hole is just abandoned and more ponds are dug.
@lindabest9623
This is the United States of America. We must UNITE and support our citizens. It may be tough and higher prices for a while, but if we unite it will be better in the long term.
@Mike-uu1dl
I'm so sick of imported crap and throw away junk I will gladly pay more for quality USA products
@richardrose9943
Here on the Mississippi gulf coast the shrimping industry has been devastated over the last 40 years
@alexperkins1263
Even the restaurants that advertise Gulf shrimp are importing farm raised shrimp.
Alabama and Louisiana have placed restrictions on the use/labeling of shrimp. South Carolina needs to pass the same limits on their shrimp. One would think that state legislators from the coastal counties would be working hard to get this done!
Right. Thank you, James.