The following is a letter from Louisiana Shrimp Association President Acy Cooper, Jr. in response to a letter from Tom Mazzetta, "Time to crack down on Louisiana shrimp bycatch."

I am writing in response to the letter to your website from Tom Mazetta. His statements are so far from the truth.

Of course a person that imports foreign seafood into our great country America would make a statement saying “Eliminating skimmer boats would be a big step forward in that direction." I would ask, 'Which direction? The failure of yet another American Industry to imports?" I feel that the downfall of our domestic seafood industry would most likely benefit his way of life while destroying ours.

I will not use this platform to bash Mr. Mazzetta or his imported seafood. I would like to say that the article that Tom Mazetta sent to your website is full of false statements. He is surely misinformed about the structure of our industry and has now brought these falsehoods to the public. He did not give accurate information about the Louisiana Shrimp Industry.

Our industry sustains a large part of the coastal economy. The shrimp industry accounts for 15,000 jobs and an annual impact of $1.3 billion for Louisiana. Many of these jobs are in family-owned-and-operated businesses. Our skimmer vessels are far from small recreational vessels that catch 100 pounds of shrimp a day. Our shrimp industry harvests on average from 80 to 100 million pounds of shrimp each year. We are a very large industry with a unique way of life. As an industry, the harvesting, handling, processing, distribution and retailing of shrimp provides a great contribution to our state’s economy.

We are a proud industry. This is our heritage, our culture and our way of life.  

Right now skimmer and butterfly nets are exempt from [turtle excluder device] use; however, federal regulations require skimmer and butterfly net fishermen to limit tow times if they do not use TEDs. The tow time is measured from the time the cod-end of the net enters the water until it is removed from the water. Maximum tow times are 55 minutes from April 1 – October 31 and increase to 75 minutes from November 1 – March 31. Our vessels comply with these regulations.

The majority of our shrimp vessels that pull skimmer nets have installed “BRDs” which are “by catch reduction devices." The fishermen find that these devices greatly reduces the by catch in their nets. We do this voluntarily. So for anyone to imply that we are not trying to be a sustainable fishery is false.

We are assisting with studies and scoping being conducted by NOAA. NOAA is collecting public comments, data and observing skimmer boat activity at this time.  We have been complying with NOAA’s testing and observing of sea turtles. As of date no determinations have been made on using TEDS in skimmer nets. Even though we do not agree with everything in the scope of this issue such as how data is being collected and how it is being used to present to the public, we have asked NOAA to do an economic impact study as required by the Magnesium-Stevens Act before implementing these new regulations on our fishermen. After all requirements are final they will make their determination.

We are sustainable fishermen that are NOT out to kill sea turtles or any other marine life.

Our Louisiana State Wildlife agents have the authority to enforce the Federal TED regulations. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and the Louisiana Shrimp Task Force worked to implement this ruling. We are working with our fisheries agencies to develop and maintain a sustainable fishery without destroying our fishermen and their livelihoods.

We are far from “backward” on our fisheries management as Mr. Mazzetta stated. We are an industry moving forward and complying.

Oceana has put out a statement that calls on the Obama administration to implement a “simple solution” to ensure domestic, wild-caught shrimp are more sustainably caught by requiring the use of improved TEDs. There is no simple solution to this issue. We, the fishermen and the federal and state agencies are working together on this issue.

We are and will continue to assist federal and state agencies in making our fisheries more sustainable. Everyone must remember that we also have to protect our Fishermen and our United States Seafood Industry while we protect our sea turtles and marine life.

Acy J. Cooper, Jr., President

Louisiana Shrimp Association