Georgia's largest seafood industry opened today, with shrimpers expecting more boats on the water this year. You won't want to call it a Rennaissance with the long-term decline that Georgia's shrimp industry has suffered, but this year shrimpers are more optimistic than in the past.
Fuel prices are down from last year. Department of Natural Resources surveys have shown above-average catches in the pre-season. And some shrimpers are returning to the water, since construction and other jobs on land have dried up in the recession.
Shrimpers have been in federal waters for weeks. Andy Amason sells them ice.
"Catch wise, they're having a decent year," Amason says. "They have so far."
Amason is one of those in the shrimping industry rolling with the changes. Shrimp boats need ice. And ice-maker Andy Amason is one to give it to them. His workplace is a 25-degree freezer filled with rows and rows of torso-high ice-blocks in McIntosh County.
"They pull up to a dock at their packing house," Amason says "We back up with our truck and we take the blocks and slide them off the truck into the blower. It turns the block into snow."
Amason's grand-father started the ice business in the 1940's and for many decades, the family also processed seafood: crabs, shrimp and whelk. But in the 1980's, the seafood business started to decline and Amason noticed an interesting niche in the ice business.
"We occasionally got calls for ice sculptures," Amason says. "I didn't really know anything about the ice carving business, but what I found was that there are a lot of nice resorts in the area that we can serve."
Amason quit processing seafood in the 1990's and today his business is just ice. Only about 40% of it is for shrimp boats anymore. Most of his business these days is ice sculptures for special events. Amason uses molds, lumber-saws and drill bits wired to computers to make his icy shapes and cut names and logos into window-clear ice.
Amason's is far from the only shrimp business to make a move away from shrimp into something else. Over the past 30 years, the industry has declined by about 80%, mostly because of foreign imports and the rising price of fuel. The recession is prompting some to return to shrimp since construction and other work has dried up and fuel is down from last year's peak. But Amason says, he sees the long-term decline continuing and believes he'll be the last Amason to work in ice.
"The funnest part of the business is the snow business, where we go and blow the snow on the ground," Amason says. "It's amazing how kids who grow up in South Georgia instinctively know how to make a snow ball and throw it and hit me in the head with it."
Shrimping in state waters usually lasts until the New Year. Last year's harvest was about two million pounds, worth about seven million dollars.
Audio: Andy Amason gives a tour of his business and explains how the ice is made and shaped. (Amason's business is called Snow South and he can be reached at 912-832-4437.)
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Shrimp season opens with optimism
