Nancy Edens
Wild Caught: The Life and Struggles of an American Fishing Town
For 300 years, the fishermen of Sneads Ferry, N.C., have practiced sustainable, small- scale commercial fishing, passing on the traditional lore of the sea from generation to generation. In the early 21st century, imported farm-raised shrimp, skyrocketing coastal development, and complex regulations threatened to push many fishermen to the brink of disaster. Wild Caught captures the wisdom and resilience of an extraordinary community.
National Capital Contracting
In 2003, Matthew Barr interviewed Nancy Edens for the "Wild Caught" oral history project. Nancy is an activist for fishermen and a promoter of "Wild-Caught" shrimp. She is actively involved with the Southern Shrimp Alliance and has a background in the shrimping industry, with her husband and family being long-time commercial fishermen in Sneads Ferry. The interview covers significant challenges faced by the shrimping industry in the early 2000s, focusing on the impact of imported shrimp on domestic prices and the formation of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. Edens explains that the influx of imported shrimp around 2000 started to severely affect local shrimp prices, leading to the establishment of the Southern Shrimp Alliance in 2002 to combat these challenges. This organization, comprising eight states, was formed to address issues such as the use of banned chemicals in imported shrimp and to advocate for more rigorous testing and tariffs on imported shrimp. Edens details the efforts and struggles of the Southern Shrimp Alliance, including the implementation of tariffs in 2005 on shrimp imports from countries like India, China, and Thailand. These measures aimed to create fairer market conditions for domestic shrimpers. Despite these efforts, Edens highlights that the tariffs have only slowed down imports, not stopped them, and domestic shrimpers continue to face numerous challenges, including high fuel costs and low shrimp prices. The interview also touches on the marketing efforts to promote wild-caught domestic shrimp, with initiatives like the Wild American Shrimp (WASI) program. Edens describes the ongoing battle to educate the public about the benefits of domestic shrimp over imported ones, which often contain banned chemicals and are produced under questionable conditions. Edens also discusses the broader implications of these challenges on the local community and the way of life in Sneads Ferry. She notes the impact on local fishermen, many of whom are being forced to sell their boats or find alternative employment due to the industry's decline.
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