Shrimpers, conservationists, and coastal development: A case for dependency theory

Abstract

In 1989, the shrimpers of the Gulf and South Atlantic staged the largest protest of fishery regulations in the history of the United States. Arguing that the mandated turtle excluder devices (TEDs) were still another ploy to remove commercial harvesters from the coasts of America, many shrimpers refused to “pull” TEDs. In order to examine the marine resource conflicts among competing users, we interviewed parties to, not only the TEDs conflict, but other marine resource conflicts as well. We argue that commercial harvesters are being challenged by recreational/leisure/tourist interests and that traditional fishing and farming communities in coastal America are giving way to recreational use patterns. We further contend that this transformation has not been uniform and that the variation in the rate and extent of coastal change is related to the amenities coastal communities enjoy. We suggest that dependency theory is one way to explain the ascendancy of recreational use patterns.