In Baton Rouge last week I shared the stage with a very vocal third-generation shrimper, George Barisich, who has been working the Gulf his entire life, first for fun, crabbing as a kid. Barisich has been in the fishing, shrimping and crabbing business since 1966.
He inherited his 50-foot shrimp boat, the “FJG,” which his father named after his three sons: Frances, Jefferson and George.
Today he’s president of the United Commercial Fishermen’s Association, representing 139 shrimpers who are still all every disappointed by both the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its follow-up.
While the fisheries have largely been opened, and Barisich and his peers are out there every day catching shrimp, the market for has mostly disappeared.
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Photo by Hans Deryk, Reuters