Shrimpers, Processors, and Common Property in Mississippi

Many factors determine the decisions and actions of Mississippi shrimpers. What appears to be a typical problem of an open access resource – overexploitation – is not a consequence of shrimpers' decisions. The demands of processors shape the fishing methods and gear of fishermen as well as the number of fishermen. Fishermen sell their catch to processors who offer them access to credit and docking space. Local, state, and national policy affects shrimpers and processors. Such policy may be directed at inappropriate elements of the system if policy makers do not understand how the system works. Because statistical or economic analysis alone may be quite misleading, such understanding requires ethnographic and historical insight. In this paper I examine the relations among indebtedness, dependency, ethnicity, and locale among Mississippi shrimpers in the context of this system.