GALVESTON, Texas -- Hundreds of shrimpers dismantled a coastline boat blockade Sunday but warned it would resume Tuesday unless the federal government eases a law requiring them to use turtle excluder devices in their nets.
Hundreds of shrimpers dismantled a coastline boat blockade Sunday but warned it would resume Tuesday unless the federal government eases a law requiring them to use turtle excluder devices in their nets.
Tee John Mialjevich of Gretna, La., founder of the 2,000-member Concerned Shrimpers of America and organizer of the blockades that began Saturday, asked the shrimpers on marine radios to move out of shipping channels while Gulf Coast congressmen meet Monday with Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher.
The Coast Guard said most shrimpers from Cameron, La., to Port Aransas, Texas, complied with the request by Mialjevich, who warned that the blockade could resume Tuesday. Some shrimpers continued to block the Brownsville Ship Channel near Port Isabel at middday, the Coast Guard said. But 85 to 90 shrimpers continued Sunday night to block the Brownsville Ship Channel near Port Isabel.
'Basically, they say they're going to stay there until the whole issue on TEDs is resolved, is the statement they've been making to us,' said Petty Officer Clifton Vigus.
'We have accomplished what we set out to do,' Mialjevich told UPI. 'I think the public now realizes how this has been a frame-up of the shrimping industry. What we have done is put Secretary Mosbacher back at the bargaining table with our congressmen.'
Mialjevich said shrimpers want Mosbacher to postpone laws requiring fishermen to use the devices, known as TEDs, until a study by the National Academy of Sciences determines the effect on sea turtles of shrimping operations and whether TEDs can cut their mortality rate.
'We believe that is a good compromise,' he said. 'If not, Tuesday is going to be the end of the world for the shrimping industry.'
Mosbacher on Thursday ordered the Coast Guard to enforce the use of TEDs, designed to retain shrimp in nets while allowing larger objects, such as environmentally endangered sea turtles, to escape. Shrimpers, some flying the 'Jolly Roger' skull and crossbones pirate flag and others flying large sheets with a slash through a picture of a TED, responded with Saturday's blockade.
The Coast Guard earlier had said it would not cite shrimpers who refused to use TEDs. Fishermen claim the devices cost them from 10 percent to 20 percent of their catch.
Coast Guard spokesman Mark Kennedy said Coast Guard Rear Adm. William F. Merlin met with shrimpers Saturday night and told them Mosbacher would meet Monday with Gulf Coast congressmen led by Rep. Dave Touzan, D-La.
Virtually all of the 200 shrimp boats that blocked the Galveston Ship Channel on Saturday left the area Sunday, although some were moored in the Bolivar Peninsula area of Galveston Bay. Shipping traffic resumed on the channel, including a Soviet vessel headed into the Houston-Galveston area to pick up freight.
'Several large container and freight ships have come in through the blockade, and none of the shrimpers attempted to interfere,' Kennedy said. 'Everyone seems to be taking a breather until Monday.'
A similar blockade that shut down the port of Lake Charles, La., was lifted and the port reopened Sunday, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Michael Ashdown in Port Arthur, Texas. A blockade involving 200 shrimpers at the Corpus Christi, Port Aransas and Lydia Ann ship channels in southeast Texas also ended Sunday. ---
Mialjevich said shrimpers also want a showdown debate with four men he identified as behind the effort to force shrimpers to use TEDs -- Dave Brennan with National Marine Fisheries in Silver Spring, Md., and Ed Klina with the fisheries agency in Galveston, Chuck Oravetz of St. Petersburg, Fla., who heads a group that studies endangered species, and David Cottingham with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration.
'These four men have been lying about TEDs and turtles,' he said. 'The public has been misled, and we want the public to understand we're not the problem for turtles. I'm calling them (the four men) liars. I hope they sue me. I would love to meet them in court so I can prove how wrong they are.'
Mialjevich said it is incorrect to say Congress has required the use of TEDs by shrimpers. He said shrimpers were under the impression the National Academy of Sciences would study the question and report to Congress before use of the devices was required.
'We are not going to use our living,' he said. 'We have to feed our famillies and pay bills. We're tired of lies and misrepresentation and backstabbing. We want to continue our way of living, but we're not going to pull TEDs based on a pack of lies.'
Klina said he was not interested in talking with the shrimpers and said Mialjevich was not telling the truth.
'There are mountains of scientific evidence to refute that individual,' he said. 'Factual information demonstrates very clearly just the oppositie of what Mr. Mialjevich says.'
Scattered confrontations marred Saturday's protests. A protester in Cameron rammed an offshore vessel that tried to run the blockade, and in Galveston a 600-foot tanker collided with a shrimper, but in both cases, damage was minor and there were no injuries, the Coast Guard said.
In Port Aransas, two men in a pleasure craft were arrested after they threw a 'foreign object' through a window of a 41-foot Coast Guard cutter.
In Cameron, La., shots reportedly struck an oil company crew boat and a 22-foot pleasure boat ran into the West Pass jetty of the Calcasieu River at Cameron near the protesting shrimpers, injuring two people, said Coast Guard Lt. Marty Paul.
Tee John Mialjevich of Gretna, La., founder of the 2,000-member Concerned Shrimpers of America and organizer of the blockades that began Saturday, asked the shrimpers on marine radios to move out of shipping channels while Gulf Coast congressmen meet Monday with Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher.
The Coast Guard said most shrimpers from Cameron, La., to Port Aransas, Texas, complied with the request by Mialjevich, who warned that the blockade could resume Tuesday. Some shrimpers continued to block the Brownsville Ship Channel near Port Isabel at middday, the Coast Guard said. But 85 to 90 shrimpers continued Sunday night to block the Brownsville Ship Channel near Port Isabel.
'Basically, they say they're going to stay there until the whole issue on TEDs is resolved, is the statement they've been making to us,' said Petty Officer Clifton Vigus.
'We have accomplished what we set out to do,' Mialjevich told UPI. 'I think the public now realizes how this has been a frame-up of the shrimping industry. What we have done is put Secretary Mosbacher back at the bargaining table with our congressmen.'
Mialjevich said shrimpers want Mosbacher to postpone laws requiring fishermen to use the devices, known as TEDs, until a study by the National Academy of Sciences determines the effect on sea turtles of shrimping operations and whether TEDs can cut their mortality rate.
'We believe that is a good compromise,' he said. 'If not, Tuesday is going to be the end of the world for the shrimping industry.'
Mosbacher on Thursday ordered the Coast Guard to enforce the use of TEDs, designed to retain shrimp in nets while allowing larger objects, such as environmentally endangered sea turtles, to escape. Shrimpers, some flying the 'Jolly Roger' skull and crossbones pirate flag and others flying large sheets with a slash through a picture of a TED, responded with Saturday's blockade.
The Coast Guard earlier had said it would not cite shrimpers who refused to use TEDs. Fishermen claim the devices cost them from 10 percent to 20 percent of their catch.
Coast Guard spokesman Mark Kennedy said Coast Guard Rear Adm. William F. Merlin met with shrimpers Saturday night and told them Mosbacher would meet Monday with Gulf Coast congressmen led by Rep. Dave Touzan, D-La.
Virtually all of the 200 shrimp boats that blocked the Galveston Ship Channel on Saturday left the area Sunday, although some were moored in the Bolivar Peninsula area of Galveston Bay. Shipping traffic resumed on the channel, including a Soviet vessel headed into the Houston-Galveston area to pick up freight.
'Several large container and freight ships have come in through the blockade, and none of the shrimpers attempted to interfere,' Kennedy said. 'Everyone seems to be taking a breather until Monday.'
A similar blockade that shut down the port of Lake Charles, La., was lifted and the port reopened Sunday, said Coast Guard Cmdr. Michael Ashdown in Port Arthur, Texas. A blockade involving 200 shrimpers at the Corpus Christi, Port Aransas and Lydia Ann ship channels in southeast Texas also ended Sunday. ---
Mialjevich said shrimpers also want a showdown debate with four men he identified as behind the effort to force shrimpers to use TEDs -- Dave Brennan with National Marine Fisheries in Silver Spring, Md., and Ed Klina with the fisheries agency in Galveston, Chuck Oravetz of St. Petersburg, Fla., who heads a group that studies endangered species, and David Cottingham with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Admistration.
'These four men have been lying about TEDs and turtles,' he said. 'The public has been misled, and we want the public to understand we're not the problem for turtles. I'm calling them (the four men) liars. I hope they sue me. I would love to meet them in court so I can prove how wrong they are.'
Mialjevich said it is incorrect to say Congress has required the use of
