shrimpers

Louisiana Shrimpers Look To Technology To Increase Profits

By • Mar 30, 2016
Tegan Wendland / WWNO

Families who fish for a living in Louisiana struggle to remain competitive in a changing market. They’ve seen prices fluctuate wildly over the past decade and have been hit repeatedly by hurricanes, and then the BP oil spill. It’s hard to make a living. Now they’re looking for new ways to make money by selling direct.

Louisiana Shrimpers Strike Over Too-Low Prices For Their Catch

By • Sep 9, 2014
Eve Troeh / WWNO

This week, hundreds of Louisiana shrimpers say they’re leaving their boats parked, and their shrimp nets dry.

The Louisiana Shrimp Association announced a voluntary five-day work stoppage. The goal? To get shrimp processors to pay a higher price.

Louisiana brown shrimp season started with high prices in May. They stayed up for a while, but recently dropped, by up to a dollar a pound. Rocky Morales works out of Delacroix, La. He says blaming the big price drop on imports doesn’t account for the drastic change.

UNO Receives Grant To Improve Device Protecting Sea Turtles

By • Jun 11, 2014
University of New Orleans

The University of New Orleans has been awarded an 18-month $200,000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to protect sea turtles.

The project is aimed at improving a device used on shrimp boats.

That device is called an “excluder.”

It allows a captured sea turtle to escape when it’s caught up in a net.

Since 1978, all sea turtles in U.S. coastal waters have been classified as either threatened or endangered.

Shrimp Trawling Comes With Big Risks

By editor • Mar 7, 2013

Think your job is bad? Quit whining, unless you're a shrimper in the Gulf of Mexico.

Commercial fishermen have the highest rate of on-the-job fatalities of any occupation in the country — 116 deaths per 100,000 workers in 2010. A majority of the deaths happen when a fishing vessel sinks. About a third occur when someone goes overboard.

BP Settlement Hearing Set in Federal Court

By • Apr 25, 2012

BP is heading back to federal court in New Orleans on a proposed settlement over its oil spill two years ago. Shrimp processors are objecting to some terms.