Shrimpers angry over award of Katrina debris removal contracts

[Maddy McCall]

Source: Hattiesburg American/AP

BILOXI – A group of Mississippi shrimpers are angry that contracts to remove debris from Hurricane Katrina from coastal waters have gone to out of state boat owners.

The group, Mississippi Gulf Coast Fishermen’s Organization, demanded either its 365 members get the U.S. Coast Guard debris removal contract or the cleanup be postponed to minimize damage to the coastal shrimp fishery.

“All of us will take our boats out there and get in front of their boats,” said Ocean Springs shrimper Mike Kopszywa, president of the organization. “I hope it doesn’t come down to that, but we’ll do it. The fishermen are fired up. They are endangering the livelihood of Mississippi fishermen.”

Kopszywa and other fishermen protested Monday at the offices of the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources.

Kopszywa said the cleanup is using outside fishermen who are not familiar with local waters or conditions and is being timed to cause the maximum amount of damage to brown shrimp stock.



Read more: http://www.hattiesburgamerican.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/NEWS01/70327007

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Whoa! Mississippi shrimpers planning direct action. Good for them!

[don954]

1. I sincerely believe that the government is trying to depopulate the coast line so it wont have to mo...

so many people when the sea levels rise, but will not say so because if they acknowledge global warming as true then they will be obligated to act on it, which will cause current business interests profits...

[AndyTiedye]

8. No Way. They are Depopulating the Coastline so Repiglican DEVELOPERS Can Buy It Up CHEEP!

and sell it for megabucks a couple of years later.

Even if they do believe in global warming, there's still time to make a few more billions.

[pokercat999]

18. BINGO!!!

[TX-RAT]

2. Who ever had the low bid gets the contract.

[youngdem]

4. Whoever had the CONNECTED bid with the proper kickback gets the contract

Their argument is specious as well though. You can't really damage a muddy flat by scraping up the debris any more than the shrimpers already have. They are just (rightly) pissed that the contracts weren't awarded locally. Dems should propose a local supplier law of some kind for FEMA, asking that local suppliers within 10% of the high bid be awarded to local companies in the affected disaster area. Good policy, and it makes the money work twice as hard, once as project funding and once as income as it trickles through the recovery economy. Lord knows we need more of it here in NOLA.

Shrimping is HORRIBLY destructive to habitat and the bycatch (extra shit they catch instead of shrimp) is 6 to 1, meaning the inshore shrimpers kill six pounds of other organisms (that they toss right back into the water dead) for every pound of shrimp they harvest. The inshore nets drag the bottom with what is called a 'tickle chain' to spur anything on the bottom to jump up into the nets, but the chains, sleds and doors drag the bottom and scour it.

Shrimpers are a big part of the coastal erosion picture and red snapper and other game fish shortages by killing estuaries, and frankly, inshore shrimping should be banned absolutely, or limited to designated areas.

[Jacobin]

5. exactly

[anotherdrew]

7. these shrimpers can't be making any real money with their activities

Look:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp_farm

The world has gone to aquaculture for shrimp farms.

[Xithras]

9. Only about a quarter of shrimp is farmed.

Most shrimp still comes out of the oceans.

[Maddy McCall]

20. Have you ever tasted shrimp from the Mississippi Sound?

Farm raised shrimp is bland and tasteless. Mississippi Sound shrimp is exquisite. Most seafood restaurants in the deep south wouldn't have customers if they served pond shrimp...there's just no comparison. Mississippians' and Louisianans' tastebuds know the difference.

[anotherdrew]

21. I'm not a big fan of shrimp of any kind, so I'll take your word for it

I hope these shrimpers get this sorted out, seems crazy to give non-locals the contracts

[piedmont]

22. What an ignorant comment.

[trof]

25. Doesn't work that way.

I worked for a local FEMA contractor following Ivan.
They bid based on a price-per-cubic-yard for debris removal.
A good friend with years of expertise as a FEMA contractor and a sterling reputation in the business underbid the company who got the bid by 2 bucks a yard.
But my friend isn't part of the local good-ol'-boy, Friends-of-the-Mayor bunch and the other guy was.

[Javaman]

3. Why are they surprised?

since we invaded iraq, were any of the contracts to rebuild ther awarded to Iraqi companies?

HELL NO.

can have the locals maken money and gettin all uppity...

[Jacobin]

6. Heh. Kinda like the contracts to 'rebuild' Iraq go to US

companies instead of Iraqi companies who could do it better, faster and for 10 percent of the cost.

Typical colonialist thinking

[sutz12]

15. And they ship in foreign labor from India and Indonesia....nt

[rainbow4321]

10. "Illegal dumping prolific in New Orleans"

http://news.webindia123.com/news/Articles/Science/20070326/620995.html


The city of New Orleans and surrounding areas are continuously plagued by unregulated trash dumping nearly two years after Hurricane Katrina.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune reports each day hundreds of cubic yards of debris, including shattered housing slabs, are pushed deeper into the wetlands that surround the city.

Despite recent surveillance camera installations by the Department of Environmental Quality to crack down on illegal dumping, it still goes on in broad daylight.

A lack of finances and manpower is largely to blame for the proliferation of illegal dumping in the New Orleans area. Officials also told the Times-Picayune that it could be a cultural problem, as many southerners are known for not seeing illegal dumping as a problem. Some small companies are even believed to be profiting off illegal dumping.

[depakid]

11. As long as Mississippi keeps sending Republicans like Lott

to Washington, all I have for them is crocodile tears. Sorry to have to say that- but you get wht you vote for- in this case, corruption and cronyism

[rudy23]

12. Look at what America's given the world! TWO terms of *. Do you want the world to think of you the

same way you think of Mississippians?

I'll never understand why even here, people want to kick Louisiana and Mississippi when we're down.

[depakid]

13. I actually feel the same way about America

If ever a society deserved the economic and ecological collapse that it's going to experience in the coming decades, America is it. The majority here will never learn until it's too late (and even then we'll have people who believe that their wasteful and unsustainable "lifestyles" are "non-negotiable."

[Chulanowa]

14. Good plan

"Your neighbor voted outside of my party, so you can suffer for it!"

How is this any different from O'Reilly wishing a terrorist attack in San Francisco?

[Maddy McCall]

16. Awesome sig image.

[brentspeak]

23. Everyone in Mississippi votes Republican?

2004 Presidential Election results for Mississippi:

Bush: 672,660
Kerry: 457,766

(from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_U.S._presidential_election%2C_2004)

That's an awful lot of votes for Kerry.

Of the four Mississippi U.S. House seats, two are held by Democrats, and the other two by Republicans.

Lott did win reelection by a 2:1 margin in 2006, but that's still 205,993 Mississippi residents who voted for the Democrat (as opposed to 376,074 who voted for Lott).

I don't understand the "crocodile tears" remark.

[KamaAina]

17. "is being timed to cause the maximum amount of damage to brown shrimp stock"?

As in, cluelessly scheduled at precisely the wrong time? Or is someone trying to damage the shrimp stock on purpose?! :grr:

If the latter, gumbo, jambalaya and po'boys are in imminent danger! To the barricades!

[Maddy McCall]

19. :thumbsup:

:thumbsup:

[trof]

24. You don't wanna mess with no shrimpers.

They are one tough bunch.
And it is goddamed hard work.
Been there.