Coastal Empire shrimpers struggling to stay afloat due to shrimp dumping

BRYAN COUNTY, Ga. (WTOC) - Richmond Hill City Council recently ed a resolution calling for an economic disaster declaration because of imported shrimp, causing something known as shrimp dumping.

Shrimpers that have been in the business for decades now struggling to stay afloat.

Traci Arnsdorff has been shrimping for more than 20 years.

“I am very ionate. We come and go every day, so we always have fresh product,” Arnsdorff said.

Now that more imported shrimp are being put into Georgia’s markets, Arnsdorff’s business is becoming more difficult.

“They just dump their shrimp in for a little amount of money and then it stops our market.”

Which impacts her financially as she says it’s harder to compete with these foreign producers.

“Years ago, we would come into the co-op before it was closed down, we could offload our shrimp, get a very good price for it and go home. Now, because processors are not buying shrimp, we have to catch the shrimp, bring them home, sell them or throw them back and we’re not going to throw them back.”

That’s something that caught the attention of Richmond Hill’s mayor.

“I have often thought, if the demand for shrimp is up, which obviously it is, and we see the price going down, well it doesn’t take an economist to understand that something’s wrong in the market,” Mayor Russ Carpenter said.

That’s why he approved a resolution to declare an economic disaster.

“And what the resolution does is ask the state to step in and investigate and perhaps declare a disaster for the local shrimping industry,” Mayor Russ Carpenter said.

Which he hopes will give local shrimpers a better chance at surviving.

“All of the owners and all of coastal Georgia and really all over the state, to just get a fair crack at the market.”

Arnsdorff says if things don’t change soon, she’s worried for the future of shrimping.

“People ask me all the time about my son shrimping. He’s 14. And I don’t think there will be an industry for him if we don’t do something now,” Arnsdorff says.

Arnsdorff is hoping that with this recognition from local politicians, this issue will be able to make it to the governor’s desk where he might be able to set limits on shrimp dumping.

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