The Shrimping Industry in Fernandina Beach Florida, Once Prosperous is Now Leaving

Here in Fernandina Beach in Northeast Florida, shrimping used to be a good business. I have heard that Fernandina's economy used to be based on the shrimping industry.

My father has lived here in Fernandina almost his entire life, and shrimping was one of the main things that he did for a living. He has been overseas, and even has run his own shrimp boats out of Fernandina.

I have been on one of the 80 foot shrimp boats a few times, and have seen these fishing ships in action.

The fishing that I have done was on my fathers private boats, these boats were from twenty feet, to thirty feet. My father and I used to fish for live bait, we would leave the "Fernandina Harbor Marina" early in the morning, and then return to "Charlie's Fish Camp" in the afternoon to sell our bait.

We used to be able to catch so many shrimp, that the catch was mostly all shrimp. My mother has told me about times when the shrimp would jump out of the water onto the bow of the boat.

The business has been hindered, and now is being shut down. The shrimping laws became more strict, and now the law is setup in such a way that it is not possible to obtain a license to fish in the river.

You have to have had a license from the previous year, to qualify to purchase a shrimping license. If you did not have a license last year, it is impossible to obtain a license this year. This prevents any new shrimpers, and cuts off anyone that did not obtain their license last year. Today no one has a shrimping license to fish for live bait in the river.

Its been said the ocean shrimping is starting to fall because of scarceness with the shrimp. I have heard that it is getting harder to catch shrimp off shore from Florida. I have also heard that shrimp boat owners have been moving to other docks around the world.

As of today on February 28, 2008 you can see the shrimp boats down at the "Fernandina Harbor Marina". It could be that they might all be gone one day, but we never know what God has got planned for us. If we make God our confidence and not the life in the waters, we can have shrimp over flowing from our nets everyday, on every drag.