Plenty of shrimp, no profit: San Carlos Island's fleet fights imports, diesel, and Ian's long shadow

Four years after Hurricane Ian wrecked the docks, Lee County is down to one commercial shrimping operation. The shrimp are as plentiful as ever — what's disappearing is the economics that let Florida families make a living catching them.

• Erickson & Jensen Seafood, running more than 75 years, is Lee County's last remaining commercial shrimping operation since Trico Shrimp Co. closed after Ian.
• Florida's west coast pink shrimp harvest was worth $27.8 million in 2021; by 2024 it was $8.1 million. Preliminary 2025 numbers show $12.8 million (NOAA Fisheries).
• More than 90% of the shrimp eaten in the U.S. is imported, much of it farm-raised — while diesel costs climbed and dockside prices fell.
• Lee County's $7.5 million federal dock-rebuild project at San Carlos Island Maritime Park isn't expected to finish its first phase until summer 2028.
• The survivors are adapting: retail markets on the dock, shorter trips, and direct sales to compete with imports.

When the Big Daddy came into San Carlos Island on September 9, it carried 55,000 pounds of Gulf pink shrimp from a 24-day trip to grounds more than 100 miles offshore. Its captain, Michael Frost, 44, is a fourth-generation commercial fisherman. His family's company, Trico Shrimp Co., closed after Hurricane Ian tore through the island on September 28, 2022 — and Frost now fishes as an independent, trying to rebuild. Next door, Erickson & Jensen Seafood, run by Grant Erickson and his daughter Anna, is still standing after more than 75 years. Since Trico closed, it is Lee County's last remaining commercial shrimping operation.

The numbers describe an industry repriced, not just damaged. NOAA Fisheries data shows Florida's west coast pink shrimp harvest brought in $27.8 million in 2021; by 2024 the catch had fallen to $8.1 million, and Lee County dropped from the state's second-highest-grossing commercial landing site to ninth. Preliminary 2025 figures tick back up to $12.8 million — a partial recovery, nowhere near whole. Erickson & Jensen says it was bringing in about $1 million a month before the storm and has clawed back roughly half.

The squeeze comes from both directions. More than 90% of shrimp consumed in the United States is imported, much of it farm-raised overseas, and that flood holds dockside prices down. Meanwhile diesel — the lifeblood of a shrimp boat — has gotten more expensive. A University of Florida Sea Grant economist calls the combination of high fuel costs and low dockside prices "a horrible combo," and the Southern Shrimp Alliance notes some operators are making the economic choice to stay tied to the dock. The shrimp, everyone agrees, are still out there in the same abundance as the good old days.

So the families are changing the business instead of leaving it: Erickson & Jensen opened a retail market where the shrimp are unloaded, the Galas reopened theirs down the road, and Frost cuts trips shorter to save fuel. Lee County is rebuilding the destroyed public docks at San Carlos Island Maritime Park with $7.5 million in federal money — mooring and offloading space for shrimp boats, plus a barge landing for disaster response — but phase one isn't expected to finish until summer 2028, and the shrimpers are, in Frost's words, "just waiting to see what's going to happen." Florida's storms don't only damage what's standing when they hit. Four years on, they are still rearranging what work exists on this waterfront — and who gets to do it.