This doesn't faze Deehan. If we get two or three long-liners, fine, if we don't fine. Other shrimping boats, he predicts, will take up the slack. It's no secret that the shrimp industry could use help. Imports from huge shrimp farms in Thailand and Ecuador are driving down prices.
Shrimpers complain that recreational shrimp baiters cut into their take.
In 1975, South Carolina had 906 shrimp boats. In 1995, there were 809 - an 11 percent decline. Moreover, the average catch per boat in 1975 was 9,235 pounds of shrimp. In 1995, a boat caught an average of about 8,479 pounds - down 8 percent. For a long time it was dogma that the shrimp industry was overcapitalized, though the ones that stay in it still seem to be making money.