Shrimpers in both Georgia and South Carolina started this season struggling to haul in a catch big enough to make a living.
In the end, only South Carolina’s industry turned out all right.
Frank Blum, head of the S.C. Seafood Alliance, said his state did not submit an application for federal aid.
“It looked bad at first,” he said. “But after all the data were in, we did not meet the requirements.”
In February preliminary numbers showed South Carolina’s shrimp catch was 40 percent less than the five-year average.
Blum said poor shellfish harvesting had also worried some fishermen, but that, too, did not rise to a disaster level.
“The science was not with it,” said Blum. “We wrote a letter to the governor that said, ‘stand by.’”
Georgia did apply for disaster aid with the backing of the governor, said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
“From what we know right now, it’s still in the U.S. Department of Commerce’s hands,” said Williams. “Unfortunately that’s all we know at the moment.”
It’s uncertain when a decision could be made.
Kim Amendola, spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said Gov. Nathan Deal sent in Georgia’s application in February.
“We are actively reviewing the Georgia disaster request, along with supplemental information we’d requested from the state to aid in our analysis of the impact to fishermen,” she said on Friday.
“We are working closely with the state and working on the request as quickly as possible, because we understand the importance and implications of such a request.”
If NOAA finds that Georgia shrimpers deserve disaster relief, the next step is for Congress to review it and then appropriate the money.
At that point the federal agency and state officials would decide how to give out the funding.
What that aid would look like is uncertain.
Amendola said state officials typically consult with the affected industry before deciding on the best type of relief.
“However, for example, we have issued direct payments to compensate for lost income and funded projects to help benefit the resource such as habitat restoration, etc.,” she said.
As for the causes, some suspected heavy rains had reduced the water’s salinity, while others pointed to black gill disease.
High fuel prices, insurance and foreign imports have also added to shrimpers’ financial strain in recent years.
As for the latter, the U.S. imports more than 90 percent of its seafood, and shrimpers acknowledge there isn’t enough domestic wild shrimp to satisfy the consumer demand.
But there’s reason to be wary, according to the Florida-based Southern Shrimp Alliance.
Banned antibiotics have been discovered in shrimp imported from Vietnam, which is the fourth largest shrimp supplier for the U.S.