STAYING AFLOAT

LOUISIANA SHRIMPERS ARE FIGHTING TO PRESERVE A HISTORIC GULF INDUSTRY AMID TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES

- ALANA AL-HATLANI

IT'S HARD TO NAIL DOWN DINO PERTUIT. I finally catch the Louisiana seafood legend early in the morning, and we chat while he drives back from a shrimping expedition, the phone call dropping at least three times along the way. His rich Cajun accent and the rumblings of his truck in the background make it hard for me to decipher everything he's saying. But one sentence stands out crystal clear: "I'm going to do it until I die," he says of shrimping. And at 57 years old, he's one of the younger ones who keep it going.

A third-generation shrimper, Pertuit has watched as prices for his Gulf catch have stagnated, but the hard work of harvesting it has stayed the same. He says his shrimp commanded about $3.50 a pound in the 1980s and today they still hover around that price-while the costs for everything else, like fuel and boat insurance, have only gone up. His product remains highly coveted; he supplies shrimp to many of New Orleans' top restaurants, including Herbsaint and Cochon. And he's not the only one out on the water casting nets for this delicacy.

Taking Action

Louisiana native Lance Nacio has a slightly different approach to shrimping. He's been in the industry full-time for over 25 years and grew up in a trapping camp on Grand Bayou, an area that's accessible only by boat, where people spent winters capturing animals for fur and summers catching seafood. His great-grandfather immigrated to the United States from the Philippines and landed in Manila Village, a historic Filipino fishing community in Jefferson Parish. Nacio follows in his family's footsteps, alongside his son, David. "Shrimp is not just our industry-it's a way of life," reads his website. And this is clear immediately.