re: Shrimpers plan to tie up boats over dropping prices

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quote:Also Viets can afford to work because the government hands everything they need to them. New boats, equipment, etc No one has explained this yet

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It's true to some extent. My dad had a commercial seafood dock for 25 years and we saw it. The goverenment subsidized big boats for them back in the 80's and 90's. Not sure if they still do it now. A lot of the vietnamese came over here and worked on local fisherman's boats until they could buy their own or some of them got loans from the government.

On average they do work hard but so do a lot of white commercial fisherman.

Fisherman get a bad reputation and some of it is justified. I know because I dealt with them for years. Some of them would make $40,000-$50,000 in 1-2 months during mullet season in Venice and be broke a few months later.

But just like anything and any industry, there are good ones too that save their money and are fiscally responsible. It's not easy making a living as a fisherman anymore. With imports (which started in the late 80's on), it has made it hard for them to survive. Probably more than 50-60% of them are out of the business compared to the 80's-90's.