Kyle Kimball's shrimp boat is seen docked in Sabine Pass. (courtesy photo)

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The Texas Legislative session has ended and with it the passage of Senate Bill 823 and House Concurrent Resolution 76, both bills aimed at helping Gulf area shrimpers. Unfortunately, the problems still persist. 

 

Tricia and Kyle Kimball, leaders of the Port Arthur Area Shrimpers Association, have traveled various times to Austin to be a part of the legislative process to help shrimpers in SETX, as they have continued to have various issues competing with various countries importing large amounts of shrimp into the United States.

 

“It’s not just about the shrimpers; there are all the supplies that go on the vessels, like nets and other equipment,” said Tricia Kimball. “Shrimpers buy diesel fuel, often thousands of gallons at a time. They have to stock groceries for the crew, and they employ deckhands. There are all sorts of other industries that support shrimping, and many of them are struggling too, or have disappeared entirely from the area.”

 

SB 823 relates to the labeling and representation of imported shrimp during purchase at wholesale stores. The bill is similar to laws other Gulf states have, where shrimp must be labeled according to what country they are from. Unfortunately, there are no guidelines on how big or small these labels must be, meaning some packaged shrimp may have tiny text stating they are from a foreign country rather than locally caught in the Gulf. The labeling also does not extend to restaurants where they are not required to label whether the shrimp being served is local.  

 

Many of the issues in the local shrimp industry come from being outpriced at restaurants and stores. 

 

HCR 76, authored by various representatives to encourage the federal government to curb the mass importation of foreign shrimp into the United States. These resolutions are often meant to honor a person or bring attention to a topic at large; in this case, this brings the issue of shrimping to the federal government.

 

“It’s a start of a conversation,” said Kimball.  This is not going to be the be all end all but what HCR 76 does is it tells the federal government, ‘Hey, if we have a problem, you need to pay attention to this, because this industry’s having trouble,’ and it outlines a lot of the different problems.”

 

While the changes are a step in the right direction, there is still much to be done to help the industry.

 

“We know people that have lost their boats, they’ve lost their homes, and it’s because of all of these crashing pressures from other countries, and uh, in other situations, again, it’s not just one thing and one thing won’t fix it,” said Kimball. “There’s a lot of different things that need to take place in order to make the situation better.”