Most years, the mid-winter weeks are high times for the commercial food shrimpers who trawl Biscayne Bay. They train their nets night after night on the plump crustaceans, which ‘‘run’’ out of the estuary through the passes and channels to the Atlantic when the water cools.
Most years, veteran shrimper Jeff Hald of Fort Lauderdale says, a good night’s catch is a couple thousand pounds of mostly pink shrimp in a night of wing-netting, which he does mainly from the Venetian Causeway to Bear Cut in his 17-footer, “Money’s Tight.’’
But this year, three months into shrimp season, his boat’s got the right name. “This is becoming a dire situation,” Hald says, bemoaning the generally meager catch so far.
Prices shrimpers can get from seafood dealers are down by double-figures percentage points. Add in foreign competition, the rising cost of diesel fuel, and an unsubstantiated but nagging feeling that last year’s BP oil spill has something to do with the situation, and shrimpers are feeling anxious.
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