High oil prices, fish farms, imports, pushing US fishing to near-extinction

High oil prices, competition from aquaculture and foreign imports are pushing US fishing to near-extinction.

With 2,000-gallon fuel tanks and US$4 per gallon gas, the US shrimping industry is fining it difficult even to put their boats out to sea. Fishing quotas, low prices offered by processors due to competition from foreign shrimps and Hurricane Katrina were the final straws that broke the camels' back.

An editorial in the Meridian Star in Mississippi noted that this year at the opening season, there was just one shrimp boat in the waters in the Gulf of Mexico covered by the local TV station where the same spot would have seen hundreds ten years ago.

Other fishermen are making fewer trips, reducing speeds or not travelling as far out to save on fuel.

Unlike livestock farmers, fishermen could not pass the costs to consumers easily as their products have a very short shelf life.

Higher diesel prices are forcing fishermen to stay home while in Texas, shrimpers have to make a 30-hour trip to Mexico to fill up their tanks before embarking on their trip. Prices in Mexico were half that in the US.

US fishermen have been facing rising costs for years, meaning profit margins are stretched ever thinner by competition from aquaculture and cheap imports.

While the sea is teeming with fish, catch quotas are not being met due to the higher costs associated with such an activity.

Although US legislators are seeking relief such as tax breaks for the fishermen and tax credits for buying fuel-efficient equipment, the measures may not be enough, industry watchers said.