Interviewer: Preetam Prakash

Affiliation: University of Arizona

Jeremy Zirlott had been referred to me by his parents who had been involved in the local seafood industry for a long time. They had said that Mr. Zirlott operated large freezer boats that went shrimping in the deep waters of the Gulf and that he could give me some insight into the historical and current state of this particular facet of the seafood industry. I had tried contacting Mr. Zirlott soon after speaking with his parents but he was out on the water at the time. After I interviewed Mr. Zirlott’s brother in February, I attempted to contact him again and this time we agreed to meet at his home in Coden for an interview.

Mr. Zirlott was born in 1972 and had grown up in Coden. He recalled that both the shipyards and processing plants were important to the local economy while he was growing up in the area. Mr. Zirlott had grown up working with his parents on the water and had gone to work shrimping full time after he had gotten out of school. Mr. Zirlott regretted what he perceived as the steady decline of interest among younger people in the area in the local seafood industry. In response to the rise in imports, increased fuel prices, and other factors which had impacted the industry over the years, Mr. Zirlott had gotten further into the retail side of the seafood industry. He had recently purchased his own dock space and maintained storage space to stock his own shrimp. In the course of the interview he expressed his uncertainty about what the oil spill might portend for these investments and for the future of the shrimping industry more generally speaking.