For several hours one day last week, about 20 Gulf Coast shrimpers sat indoors on an unusually warm December morning in lower St. Bernard Parish, learning about a program that could net them $12,000 apiece in subsidies because of increased shrimp imports, smaller domestic catches and plummeting shrimp prices in the past five years.
It is the first time the U.S. Department of Agriculture has offered the subsidy program since Hurricane Katrina, and it's doing so because of the downturn in Gulf and South Atlantic states' shrimp catch and value.
More than 14,000 Louisianians, including about 800 from the New Orleans area, signed up by Sept. 23 for the first round of the program. The deadline for the second and final round is Thursday.
Formally known as Trade Adjustment Assistance for Farmers, the program focuses only on the years 2005 through 2008. People who quit the shrimping industry after this year's BP oil spill can qualify, if they can show they were involved in the industry in 2008 and at least one of the three prior years: 2005, 2006 or 2007.
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