TYBEE ISLAND — Lazaretto Packing is a no-frills operation, from the simple signage at the foot of the dirt driveway to the splintered planking of the creek-side docks. Digital scales, a decade-old forklift and tractor trailer-size refrigerators rank as high-tech equipment. Security is the domain of two lethargic dogs, brothers from the same litter who don’t bark at strangers and only get upset when a visitor blocks access to their favorite lounge spot in the owner’s seldom-used but always-cluttered office.
The simple setup disguises what for generations has been a thriving business for the Mathews family, a name synonymous with Georgia shrimp. The late Frank Mathews Sr. was among the purveyors that took a local delicacy national in the mid-1900s and made rural waterfront communities such as Tybee, Richmond Hill, Sunbury, Darien, Brunswick and Kingsland familiar to epicureans everywhere.
Today, Frank Sr.’s grandson, Pat, operates the docks and fish house on Lazaretto Creek, a short shrimp net drag from the mouth of the Savannah River. Yet shrimping doesn’t bring the same bounty his ancestors enjoyed.
Farmers in Latin America and South Asia have overwhelmed seafood supply chains this year with increased availability of pond-raised shrimp, depressing wholesale prices from $3.50 to $4 a pound to around 85 cents. For Georgia shrimpers, the daily business decision isn’t where to cast their nets to get the biggest shrimp, but whether to cast off their dock lines to fish at all.
“They’ve destroyed our market,” Mathews said. “It’s a nightmare.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for the AJC
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for the AJC
The situation is being characterized by shrimpers as a man-made fisheries disaster deserving of federal relief funds. A coalition of state groups, known as the Southern Shrimp Alliance, have sought help from local, state and federal elected officials to petition the U.S. Department of Commerce to make such a declaration.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance represents shrimpers in eight states along the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. Georgia typically ranks in the middle of the group — fifth last year — in shrimp caught despite having one of the shortest coastlines.
Governors recently gained authority to request a disaster declaration via a federal legislation change. The revision prompted the alliance to send a letter in late August to Gov. Brian Kemp and his peers in other Southeastern states requesting assistance.
Kemp’s staff reviewed the query and determined so-called “shrimp dumping” by foreign producers does not qualify under the terms of a disaster declaration. The governor instead called on the federal government to explore other ways to protect shrimpers.
Several coastal Georgia government leaders have joined Kemp’s call for action. They include U.S. Congressman Buddy Carter, a cadre of lawmakers in the Georgia General Assembly, and several municipal officials along the coast, such as Mayor Russ Carpenter of Richmond Hill, a waterfront community just south of Savannah.
“The fishery is fantastic; the challenge is the marketplace,” said Georgia House Rep. Jesse Petrea, a Republican whose district includes coastal areas of Chatham and Bryan counties. “Shrimpers are just fishing enough to sell off the dock. They can barely make a living.”
Supply shift shrinks fleets
Ricky Miles built his shrimp trawler, the Amanda Lynn, in his backyard.
The boat drags two giant nets, can haul in more than two tons of shrimp in a single run and can make two trips a day. In past years, he tied off to Lazaretto Packing’s dock or those of other Savannah-area fish houses only long enough to unload.
But on a Tuesday this October, the Amanda Lynn is done for the day and maybe for the week. Several men huddle around a table on the stern deck in the shade of a jerry-rigged tarp. They are “headers” whose job is removing the heads and other inedible parts from shrimp.
“What they’re doing is really the only money we’ll make off this run,” Miles said. “We’ll sell these directly to the markets and some restaurants that I’ve had relationships with for many years. The whole, head-on shrimp we’re delivering to Mathews … that might not even cover the costs.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Miles’ boat is one of nine that offload their catch at Lazaretto Packing, a number that’s dwindled in recent decades. When Pat Mathews took over the family business in the early 1990s, 15 big boats and another 15 smaller vessels called on his docks. Similar-size fleets operated in locales farther south along the coast.
Then came the rise of globalization, sparked by free trade agreements that removed tariffs on many imports. The South American nation of Ecuador pioneered shrimp farming in the 1960s and by 1995 was growing millions of crustaceans in 445,000 acres of ponds. Aquaculturists in Indonesia, Vietnam, China and India launched similar operations.
The growth in overseas competition corresponded with deregulation of gasoline prices and pushed many shrimpers out of business “almost overnight,” Mathews said.
U.S. shrimp imports have increased by nearly 300% since 1995, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. A recent study by Texas A&M University found that more than 90% of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. come from overseas pond farms. According to Petrea, Georgia’s shrimping fleet has shrunk by 90% since passage of the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement, the first in a series of tariff-lifting treaties that have reshaped U.S. trade.
“The saving grace for those who survived was there were so few boats left they now had all the shrimp they could catch,” Mathews said. “And demand was still higher than supply.”
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Shrimp farms continued to expand, though, and in 2004 the Georgia Shrimp Association launched the “Wild Georgia Shrimp” marketing campaign. The slogan, along with advertisements showing off the picturesque Darien shrimp boat fleet, raised awareness of the differences between pond-raised and wild-caught products.
Savannah-based Live Oak Restaurant Group, with six eateries that have specialized in seafood since the mid-1970s, is among those that have remained on board with wild-caught shrimp. Owner Ansley Williams said his customers value quality and “you can definitely taste the difference.”
Still, too few Georgia restaurants, even those along the coast, insist on wild-caught shrimp for their menus, said Petrea. And Williams acknowledged economics and other factors, such as last year’s local outbreak of a parasitic infection known as black gill, have transformed the supply chain.
This year, large-scale wholesalers and processors told shrimpers like Miles they no longer need large catches, unless they’re willing to price shrimp where they’re “giving it away,” Miles said.
“It’s a shame, too, because the product they supply us with is extraordinary,” said Williams, the restaurateur.
Federal fix needed, shrimpers say
Mathews and other Georgia shrimp industry pros supported the call for stop-gap disaster relief funds for the state’s fishermen. They favor longer-term solutions, such as laws that limit the sale of foreign products or tariffs on shrimp imports.
The U.S. can lawfully restrict imports of shrimp and other seafood that do not meet U.S. standards by imposing quotas or tariffs. Yet doing so often affects prices in ways that benefit the producer but increase pressure on retailers, who operate low-margin businesses.
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Credit: Stephen B. Morton for The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Back at Lazaretto Packing, the forecast is for more rough seas ahead. As the Tybee shrimping fleet has contracted, Mathews has rented his surplus dock space to vessels specializing in other water-borne pursuits, such as dolphin tours, booze cruises, even a failed casino boat.
His two young sons, 22-year-old Hunter and 18-year-old Brendan, work with the shrimpers the same way he did when he was their age. But both are looking elsewhere for their futures: One is enrolled at Savannah Tech while the other has aspirations to work the docks of the Georgia Ports Authority, located upriver from Lazaretto.
“It pains me to say it,” Matthews said, “but I don’t know if my boys will have a business to run when I retire.”
The shrimping cycle
Shrimp are a renewable resource, as Savannah-area seafood purveyor Pat Mathews likes to say. Here’s a look at a typical year for a Georgia shrimper. Dates are subject to change due to water temperatures and the health of the fisheries.
January: Georgia waters close to shrimping. Fishermen and other industry pros take time off and work on their boats, nets, docks and other gear.
April: Shrimp spawn on the coastal beaches and in other shallow waters once the water temperature hits 70 degrees, and the larvae float into the tidal sounds and rivers to mature.
June: Shrimp season opens along shallow offshore areas.
September: Peak shrimp season begins as water temperatures approach 90 degrees and mature shrimp migrate into inshore waters.
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