Cameron shrimpers complain LNG dredging ruining prime shrimping spot

LAKE CHARLES, La. (KPLC) -LNG may be king, but Cameron fishermen would like to still be able to make a living shrimping this time of year in Gulf waters. They say a favorite shrimping spot is no good this year due to dredging for Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG. Weeks Marine is doing the dredging.

Shrimper Ronald Gaspard says the situation poses a drastic financial hardship.

"Somebody just needs to do something because prime time from now to right past Christmas, that's the place to be. You could catch a thousand boxes, not necessarily all right there. But you could catch a thousand boxes for the season and you see, right now we're looking at no boxes,”said Gaspard.

He and other fishermen say the problem is because of dredging west of Cameron at the jetties to create a berthing area and two loading docks for Calcasieu Pass.

Fishermen like Phillip Dyson say if they try to fish their nets come up full of salt grass and the shrimp are covered with mud.

"What they're doing, they're messing up our trawling, where we trawl at. If they're going to pump the spoil there, pump it on the beach where they'll save the beach. All they're doing is fouling everything up," said Dyson.

The Dysons are a family of fishermen for generations. His nephew Clarence says there is so much working against them.

"They need to re-think what they're doing with this spoil before they do it and try to figure out who this is going to impact. Is it going to impact the shrimping industry? This plant being here, they're already worried about them impacting them already, worried if they're going to get pushed out of Cameron," said Clarence.

The fishermen say they are not aware of any efforts to hear their concerns and hope something can be done before their industry is beyond help.

We reached out to Weeks Marine, which is doing the dredging, along with officials from Venture Global Calcasieu Pass for comment, but have not heard back.

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