LOUISIANA (KLFY) — Recent findings by the Southern Shrimp Alliance uncovered that United States taxpayer dollars were being used to finance foreign shrimp operations through international financial institutions.

Cheri Blanchard is a Louisiana board member with the Southern Shrimp Alliance.

“We find these situations like we’ve been ringing the bell about the World Bank and about international financing going into foreign shrimp aquaculture and with taxpayer money,” said Blanchard.

According to Blanchard, this contributed to the eventual downfall of the local industry.

“The value of U.S. Shrimp has been cut in half from 2021 to 2023, and it’s still about that value because people have had to tie up their boats,” she said.

Based on what the Southern Shrimp Alliance uncovered, lawmakers are reintroducing the Save Our Shrimpers Act to make sure it does not continue.

“Also, they put it in the legislation that the GOA should investigate and make sure that they’re actually complying with the law,” she said.

The act was previously introduced in 2024 but was never passed. Blanchard and the rest of the organization hope and believe it can finally go through.

Blanchard advises everyone to go to the Southern Shrimp Alliance website for more details on the industry moving forward.

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