A man called shrimper: Who is he? 



The hours are poor. The benefits are 

 sunburn, tired muscles and red eyes. 

 The pay swings like a pendulum from 

 good to bad. Who is the man who takes 

 on this job of shrimping? 



He's just under 49 years old with 

 about 11 years of education. He most 

 likely owns or is buying a house, is 

 married, has two to three children and 

 was born and raised in coastal North 

 Carolina. 



These are some of the facts gleaned 

 from interviewing 97 full-time shrimp 

 boat captains and 78 part-timers. The 

 interviews were conducted as part of a 

 UNC Sea Grant research project 

 piloted by sociologists John Maiolo 

 and John Bort of East Carolina Uni- 

 versity. Maiolo and Bort are trying to 

 find out more about shrimpers and 

 their crews so resource managers like 

 the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries 

 will have a better idea of how their 

 management plans affect the fisher- 

 men. 



Maiolo, Bort and a research team in- 

 terviewed fishermen in their homes in 

 seven North Carolina fishing ports — 

 Sneads Ferry, Morehead 

 City/Beaufort, Atlantic, Oriental, 

 Engelhard, Southport and Holden 

 Beach. Assuring the fishermen their 

 identities would not be made public, 

 the research team asked some delicate 

 questions about family, income and 

 related fishing topics. 



Maiolo and Bort found that a 

 relative, usually the shrimper's father, 

 was responsible for the fisherman's en- 

 try into fishing. The full-timers seem 

 to have more family members involved 

 in maritime occupations than did the 

 part-timers. 



About half of the full-time and part- 

 time shrimpers interviewed said their 

 wives work full or part-time, too. 

 Thirty percent of the full-time fisher- 

 men's wives who work, do so within 

 the fishing industry. Among the 

 families where the wife works, she con- 

 tributes 40 percent of the family in- 

 come. 



Most of the fishermen interviewed 

 (79 percent of the full-timers, 93 per- 

 cent of the part-timers) owned the 

 boat they were shrimping from. 

 Among the full-time shrimpers, 29 per- 

 cent owned a second boat and 16 per- 

 cent a third vessel. The figures were 

 slightly lower for the part-timers (28 



percent owned a second craft, 8 per- 

 cent a third vessel). 



Most shrimpers indicated shrimping 

 was the first or second most important 

 fishing activity of their primary vessel. 

 Full-timers were also engaged in crab- 

 bing and clamming. Part-timers also 

 oystered and gill-netted. Maiolo says 

 the full-timers own a greater variety of 

 fishing gear — nets, trawls, pots and 

 dredges — than do the part-timers, in- 

 dicating that fishing was their chief 

 source of income. 



To get fishermen to answer tough 

 questions about income, Maiolo asked 

 shrimpers: Given a fisherman of your 

 experience, how much income could he 

 expect in a good, average and poor 

 fishing year? Maiolo believed the 

 fishermen would base their answers on 

 their own earnings. 



Average expected earnings for full- 

 time shrimpers are like this: $21,500 in 

 a good year; $16,500 in an average 

 year and $10,000 in a poor year. In a 

 good fishing year, 28 percent of the 

 full-timers said a fisherman of similar 

 experience could expect more than 

 $25,000 in income and 21 percent said 

 they could expect to make more than 

 $30,000. On the other hand, in a poor 

 year, three-fourths of the fishermen 

 said a fisherman could expect less than 

 $10,000 in total earnings, and 44 per- 

 cent said to expect less than $5,000. 



Maiolo says earnings from shrimp- 

 ing and crabbing comprise the ma- 

 jority of the full-timers' income. He 

 found 64 percent of the full-time 

 shrimpers earn all their income from 

 fishing and only 10 percent would quit 

 fishing as a first alternative if condi- 

 tions became worse. 



Average expected earnings for part- 

 time shrimpers are less: $11,900 in a 

 good year: $8,200 in an average year; 

 $5,000 in a bad year. Only six percent 

 of the part-timers estimated a fisher- 

 man of like experience would earn 

 more than $25,000 in a good year. 



Maiolo and Bort found part-timers 

 earn 30 percent of their income 

 through fishing — mainly shrimping 

 and gill netting. 



One complaint that ran rampant 

 among full-timers interviewed was 

 against fishermen who "double dip," 

 or earn income from two sources, one 

 of which is fishing. Maiolo says some 

 fishermen feel these double-dippers 

 have all the benefits of commercial 

 fishing, but few of the hassles. 



But in a survey of recreational 



shrimpers, Maiolo and Bort found the 

 threat from recreational fishermen to 

 be minimal. Based on the survey, 

 Maiolo estimates 12,200 pounds of 

 shrimp are caught by recreational 

 shrimpers and sold; another 78,620 

 pounds are caught but not sold. Even 

 in the worst of years (1978), Maiolo 

 reports the recreational catch to be less 

 than three percent of the total repor- 

 ted commercial catch. In 1980, a 

 record year, it would have been less 

 than one percent. 



In light of their grievances against 

 part-time and recreational fishermen, 

 it is not surprising that full-time 

 shrimpers surveyed said they would 

 like for the state to up license fees for 

 full and part-time commercial fishing 

 as well as recreational fishing. "It is 

 clear that those who make part or all of 

 their earnings from fishing are looking 

 to the fee structure to solve the 

 problems associated with harvesting 

 pressure," Maiolo says. 



After completing preliminary 

 analysis of the captain's survey, 

 Maiolo writes, "an image of a commer- 

 cial fisherman who sees himself embat- 

 tled and surrounded by a hostile 

 physical, social and economic environ- 

 ment has emerged. He sees his fish 

 stocks in a state of decline, wants help 

 from the state government on his 

 terms, but wouldn't change his job for 

 anything." 



—Kathy Hart 



"He sees his fish stocks in a state of decline, wants help from 

 the state government on his own terms, but wouldn 't change 

 his job for anything." 



— John Maiolo 



