In the town of Delcambre, the shrimping business has always been one of its largest assets. Since the BP oil spill five years ago, the entire shrimp industry along the gulf coast took a hit.

Ruth Pitre with Ocean Harvest Wholesale says, “Everything was growing everything, it was full! You used to have seven or eight businesses over here unloading boats and now we’re only down to two.” Pitre has been employed with ocean harvest wholesale for over fifty years. She says, for the first time, the company was left with a surplus of shrimp from last season. “We were always out of inventory, now we have a good bit of inventory on our hands.” She also believes that the struggling oil and gas industry plays a factor. “And if you’re laid off and you ain’t got no money, shrimp is a luxury! So what are you going to go buy? You’re going to make sure your kids have their milk or cereal, things that you can afford it right now.”

News 10 caught up with one local fisherman, Jimmie Dupuis, who is that the owner and operator of the boat you see here, the t-turbo, to find out what exactly he is expectations for the upcoming season. “I will be doing a lot of fishing, but it’s not going with the boat, it’s going to be with my rod and reel.” Nonetheless, Dupuis is preparing the nets and giving his boat a tune up. “Just getting it ready, just in case but from what we’ve heard we might have a good fall season but the spring season ain’t going to be worth nothing.”

The Department of Wildlife and Fisheries will set this year’s shrimping season toward the end of April.