At a time when shrimping has become a culture of complaint about cheap imports, oppressive regulations and other problems, Cao says he tries not to worry. His complaints are few. It's go, go, go until we come back. Then we go out again. With iron bonds of family and community, they have weathered the shrinking industry's changes.
Some competitors resent the newcomers, who tend to keep to themselves.
But many have grudging admiration for their work ethic and persistence. This is the land of opportunity, and a lot of what we complain about, they see as opportunity,'' said Joe Rodriguez, a boat owner and owner of Rodriguez Boatyard in Bayou La Batre, Ala., which in the last year has had a small boom in building for Vietnamese-American shrimpers. It wasn't always that way. Arriving as refugees in several waves during the late 1970s, they at first were considered interlopers by local shrimpers. Their use of Asian-style push nets was quickly banned in Louisiana waters when other shrimpers complained.