Shrimp trawlers scuttled
January 30, 2007 at 11:57 pm by Web Editor in News
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Pam Davidson, a lobbyist who represents commercial trawler fishermen, fought a losing battle Tuesday to stop passage of House Bill 100, which in her view hurts the 100 Georgia shrimpers she represents.
Offshore trawlers pull 3 million to 4 million pounds of shrimp out of Georgia waters each year.
Spud Woodward, who helps oversee coastal resources for the state of Georgia, told the House Game, Fish and Parks Committee he’s convinced the bill, sponsored by State Rep. Cecily Hill, R-St. Marys, adequately balances the needs of recreational and commercial cast and trawler shrimping.
Davidson wasn’t buying it.
The bill, she said, would allow recreational shrimpers with modified nets greater access to immature shrimp in the state’s sounds, where commercial trawlers are not allowed. She’s worried about the environmental impact of those recreational fishermen, who could deplete numbers of young shrimp "before they wander out to sea." She’s also worried that some of those nonprofessional shrimpers will harvest shrimp and sell them, undercutting what Davidson calls a "struggling but thriving $15-$20 million-a-year industry" in Georgia.
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State Rep. Bob Lane, R-Statesboro, committee chairman, tried to assure the lobbyist that the sale of recreationally harvested shrimp is illegal in Georgia. She wasn’t pacified, and reiterated her concern about nonprofessionals packaging and unsafely selling shrimp.
"Have we had a problem with bootleg shrimp?" Lane asked Woodward.
Woodward backed up the chairman with a "no."
"The commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources can close state resources to the harvest of shrimp," Woodward said. "Under the law he has the flexibility to protect the resource. There’s nothing in this bill that’s going to impact the resource."
The committee seemed satisfied.
"We need enforcement," Lane said, "and aggressive prosecution."
The committee passed the bill unanimously and Davidson left the room discouraged, bemoaning the legislation as harmful both to the commercial fishing trade and to the environment.
"I would rather spend the time on a good environmental bill to protect those waters, but there’s a powerful development lobby in the state that doesn’t want that," Davidson said. "To try to get a good environmental bill is not politically palatable."
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