Interviewer(s): T. McGuire. Galliano, LA

Affiliation: University of Arizona

I called Mr. Jimmie Martin for referrals to shrimpers; he recommended Steven Charpentier as a man who had really made a living on the water. He's been retired for 6 years, and is 71. He is an avid duck carver, on the board of directors of a carving club. After the interview he showed me around his workshop; he intends to donate many of his carvings to the Cajun Heritage Museum that is being set up in Larose. He introduced me to his wife, but she didn't participate in the interview. During the interview, his uncle came over from next door to ask for help loading a huge TV into the car to take back to Wal-Mart. Later in the interview, the uncle returned, saying that Wal-Mart had to order a replacement 35-incher, so we unloaded the TV into the carport.

Steven shrimped on wooden boats for 47 years until he bought his last boat, a steel, 72 footer, Mom and Dad. His son-in-law crewed with him on that boat, and Steven sold the boat to him, at no interest, telling him to pay him back when he could. The son-in-law also has a license to run crew boats. Under Governor Edwards, Steven served on a task force attempting to set up sanctuaries and revise the inshore season so that shrimp had time to grow larger before capture. Both of these efforts failed because the offshore shrimpers, such as Steven, were outvoted by the inshore/bay shrimpers on the task force. During the interview, Steven kept coming back to the main problem with Louisiana shrimping: the ever-growing number of inshore shrimpers are catching small shrimp. But, he said, this is a democracy and you can't control the number of shrimpers. He sees the trend of big-boat trawlers converting to small boats - much cheaper to operate - so the problem will get worse. The inshore May season was a disaster, due to low prices caused by a flood of imports.