J.B. Riffle lost tens of thousands of dollars in the last shrimping season but survived because of personal loans from friends.
“I’ve been fishing for 42 years, and we had the worst year ever last year,” said the Tybee Island man.
“It’s really kind of amazing what we’ll put up with and go through to stay doing this,” he said. Riffle supplies restaurants in Atlanta and Tybee and a farmer’s market in Athens.
In October, there was talk of federal disaster aid for shrimpers such as Riffle, who estimated his catch dropped off by 70 percent. But struggles for independent shrimpers started much earlier. Most would say years earlier, when cheap imported shrimp crowded the market in the 1990s.
Yet, Riffle acknowledged there’s a place for imported shrimp in Georgia.
“If there were no imports, we couldn’t provide the shrimp that’s needed,” he said.
“But people should be willing to pay more for domestic shrimp because it’s a better product. It’s about as American as you can get.”
Competition from cheap imports hasn’t been the only challenge. Rising fuel costs and regulations intended to help the industry recover from overfishing have also taken a toll.
But the last few months have been particularly hard on shrimpers.
In South Carolina, preliminary data show the shrimp catch is down 40 percent from the five-year average.
Some suspect last year’s heavy rainfall had something to do with it.
The rainy months ruined crops and prompted federal officials to approve disaster status for South Carolina and Georgia farmers. Farming operations had to show their losses were bad enough that state officials would submit the data to their governors, who sent them up to the federal government.
But something else could be affecting the shrimp.
Black gill disease, which impairs shrimps’ breathing, has long been implicated in area waters. The infection that strikes shrimp but doesn’t hurt human consumers has been around since the 1990s with fluctuating severity.
As for blaming the rainfall, it’s hard to pinpoint a clear cause-and-effect relationship, said Robert Boyles, who heads the the Marine Resources Division of the S.C. Department of Natural Resources. He said it’s too early to prognosticate on the 2014 season.
“But we do believe that the very wet spring and early summer had something to do with the poor catch,” he said.
When there were reports of extensive die-offs of oysters and clams on the southern coast, the worst cases were found in the upper reaches of river systems. That suggested the water’s salinity had decreased, which would be linked to the excessive rains.
The rainfall may have also worsened the damage from black gill disease, said Frank Blum, executive director of the S.C. Seafood Alliance. Pollution swept into waterways by months of heavy downpours may be another culprit.
“There could also be a problem with so much construction on land, and the water runoff and all it carries into the estuaries that’s doing some damage,” said Blum.
‘They’re hurting now’
To receive low-interest loans, shrimpers have to prove they need the help. The Georgia Shrimp Association has asked Georgia officials to gather information that Gov. Nathan Deal could use as proof of a fishery failure.
It’s part of the process of seeking a disaster declaration from the U.S. commerce secretary and approval from Congress. DNR spokesman Doug Haymans said Georgia is waiting for details about losses from the shrimpers.
John Williams, head of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, said shrimpers in South Carolina are also working with state officials to put together the data to support a request, which could expand to shellfish if those losses meet the threshold.
On Thursday, Blum with the Seafood Alliance said Gov. Nikki Haley’s office had yet to be notified that a request could be sent to her. Her office did not respond to an inquiry last week.
Even if help arrives for Georgia and South Carolina, the timing is almost certainly to be off.
Blum said he wasn’t aware of any political opposition to granting the states’ disaster status, but “a lot of of things are being cut back in Washington.
“It may not come in time. It may not come at all. It’s never going to come in time, because they’re hurting now.”
That’s true for Riffle.
“We don’t need relief and help in July,” he said. “Next July I’ll be making money. We need help right now.”
Reporter Walter C. Jones contributed to this report.