The fall white shrimp season has just peaked in the Gulf waters near Biloxi, Mississippi. Captain Nam of the Lady’s Y, a 95-foot trawler, readied his vessel this morning in the Back Bay for a three-week trip offshore. “Fuel is too high and shrimp prices low,” he told me. “I can buy shrimp in the store cheaper than what it costs me to catch.”
White shrimp spawn in September on the ocean floor. The hatchlings winter in the bayous and return to deeper water in the spring. The white shrimp season runs from August to December in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Shrimp are considered an “annual” crop because the populations replenish each year.
“Me and my four crew, we’ll get paid for the trip. We better,” Nam said in heavily accented English. “The owner of the boat, I’m not so sure.”
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