In coastal areas, the ability to obtain and/or provide fresh, high-quality seafood is often taken for granted. But that is changing within the Hospitality State due to the numerous and continual disasters that plague Mississippi’s commercial fishing industry, and Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United (MSCFU) is attempting to counteract. 

Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United is a nonprofit organization for fishermen that focuses on finding solutions to issues within the seafood industry, such as advocating for better conditions, funding programs and members, or cleaning up coastal Mississippi waters. MSCFU creates a common interest that fishermen can feel comfortable supporting. 

Because MSCFU’s board of directors are fishermen themselves and understand that commercial fishermen are the best stewards of fisheries, members of the coalition are encouraged to provide input on the organization’s function and mission – from how funding should be used to managing a fishery and other projects.

The organization recognizes the abundant hardships fishermen have faced and still are facing as they attempt to make a livelihood and sustain a healthy business to pass down to their children within Mississippi’s struggling fishing industry. 

Biloxi, Miss. was once known as the seafood capital of the world, but it has since fallen a long way in terms of seafood production to what it was historically. In recent decades, Mississippi has transitioned into a gaming and recreational area, which has caused a lot of the fishing industry’s processing and infrastructure along the Gulf Coast to be displaced or lost to casinos and tourism. 

This is exemplified in how the 26 miles of man-made beach in Long Beach, Miss. was originally an estuary for marine life. “Oysters were growing there, shrimp, crabs, fish in the marsh grass. They pumped over it with sand,” says Ryan Bradley, executive director of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United. 

Now, MSCFU’s members and staff are “fighting to keep fresh, local seafood on dinnerplates” for the “American public for generations to come” as well as “secure the lasting generational ability for our fishing families” in Mississippi.

Formed in 1974, Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United was originally named Mississippi Gulf Coast Fisherman’s Organization before Bradley renamed the organization eight years ago when he first took over as Executive Director. 

Having grown up shrimping and oystering, Bradley was keen to assist Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United and the fishing industry however he could. After volunteering his time for three years and working aggressively on a number of issues fishermen face, he caught the attention of Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United’s board of directors. Subsequently, it was decided that Bradley would take the helm as MSCFU’s executive director. 

Since then, he has secured various grants and contracts for the nonprofit and is collaborating with different organizations to sustain the work of the MSCFU. Bradley’s primary job as executive director is to sustain the organization by “represent[ing] the commercial fishing industry and the members of our organization and their interests,” which includes facilitating necessary information out to members along with being aware of and reviewing the regulatory meetings that occur each month. In addition, he advocates for good policy regarding fishermen and the industry through consultations.

MSCFU seeks to keep its members engaged, of which there are between 225-250.

Bradley states that despite shrimp being a big industry in Mississippi, he has seen a dramatic decrease in the number of shrimpers as of late. 

“Twenty years ago, we had over 2,000 shrimpers in Mississippi alone. Now we have less than 200.” 

Having not had a productive oyster season since 2018 or 2019, Bradley claims that it is arduous for many fishermen and shrimpers to sustain a livelihood due to the level of production in the industry being so low, especially with imported shrimp depressing the price further and making it even more difficult for MSCFU members to compete at market.

Moreover, BP Oil spills and most recently the Bonnet Carré Spillway dealt a heavy blow to MSCFU’s second biggest crop – the oysters, as the majority of them were wiped out by the disasters, and the recovery is slow.  

Despite the fishing profession being a multi-generational type of business, there is a lack of young people entering into the industry due to the older generations not wanting their children to be subject to the hardships they themselves are currently facing within the industry. 

“We’re getting to a point here pretty soon where there’s no young people to continue…these fishing operations. And that’s not going to be good,” says Bradley. Though alarms have been raised about this predicament and development programs to support young fishermen proposed, there has not been enough funding to implement the programs. “[W]e really have to get the initiative back profitable.” 

One such initiative MSCFU works aggressively on is advocating to help get its members paid – especially for fishing-related disasters.

Bradley notes that historically, when fishery disasters occurred such as oil spills, hurricanes, and spillway openings, the state would be awarded a certain amount of money for the disaster, which was calculated off of the losses commercial fishermen experienced. But often, the funds would then be used for programs that were not beneficial to the people most affected by the disaster – the fishermen. 

Bradley reveals that a highlight of his work with MSCFU that is not advertised much is “helping people get the relief they need for the families that have been affected by these disasters.” 

MSCFU has been successful in procuring millions of dollars in direct payments to Mississippi fishermen for federal fishery disasters and will continue to do so under the belief that “it’s the right thing for the government to do when they’re making these decisions that harm our [fishermen’s] interests.” 

Along with advocating for fishermen along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, MSCFU has created a variety of programs with the intention of preserving Mississippi’s coastal waters and fishing industry for coming generations. 

The Marine Debris Removal Program is MSCFU’s most engaged project and is funded through the Environmental Protection Agency. More than 60 fishermen actively participate in the program. 

“You find that our guys love to participate in the marine debris programs,” says Bradley. “People get engaged, especially when there’s opportunity on the line.”

It is open to all fishermen – whether members of MSCFU or not – and incentivizes them to assist with the proper catching, removal, and disposal of marine debris. 

The Marine Debris Removal Program has seen the collection of over 3,000 derelict crab traps.

Five years running, the Marine Debris Removal Program has seen the collection of over 3,000 derelict crab traps – each of which can be redeemed for $5 by placing a unique tag marker specific to each fisherman on the trap while being disposed of at one of the approved sites. When the kennels reach capacity, the tags are collected and payment for traps distributed. 

While derelict crab traps are the most common type of marine debris encountered, fishermen are also incentivized to remove other marine debris including plastic tubs, bags, cables ropes, FADs – Fish Accumulator Devices, etc., from the water as well. 

Disposal sites are located across Mississippi in Bayou County, Pass Christian, Biloxi (Small Craft and Biloxi Back Bay specifically), and Ocean Springs. 

Recently, MSCFU wrote a grant and received funding to expand its Marine Debris Removal Program to include the cleanup of lost and broken oyster gear from around Deer Island. The project is funded through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Debris Program.

South of Deer Island, oyster farmers have been off-bottom oyster farming – the process of growing oysters in cages above the seafloor. But a problem they face is that “sometimes their gear breaks loose, boats run into it, knock it loose,” says Bradley. As a solution, MSCFU sends a contractor out once a month to scout the island and recover any derelict gear.

For this project, MSCFU has partnered with Mississippi State University (MSU) to fly a drone over the island periodically in order to locate the gear. MSU then provides coordinates for MSCFU’s team to retrieve the lost/derelict oyster gear. The ones that are salvageable and identifiable are returned to the oyster farmers. But much of it is not, so it is temporarily placed in storage. 

“We’ve literally collected tons of pounds of derelict oyster gear that has washed ashore on Deer Island,” Bradley attests.

According to Eric Sparks, the director of Coastal and Marine Extension for MSU who works at the university’s Coastal Research and Extension Center (CREC) in Biloxi, he feels as though there is “a really good, mutually beneficial relationship between us and the fishing industry.” 

MSU’s Coastal Conservation and Restoration Program’s goal with assisting the Marine Debris Removal Program in particular is to collect and provide science-based information on problems fishermen face, which anyone interested will then be able to access and use to address issues within Mississippi’s fishing industry and community. 

Furthermore, based on scientific data gathered from MSU’s drones, Sparks estimates that a million dollars per year, or roughly 7 percent of the total revenue of Mississippi’s fishing industry, was previously lost dealing with marine debris – untangling nets, disengaging traps, losing catch – by shrimpers and oyster farmers. He goes further and adds that “from what the shrimpers have told us…even without an incentive anymore, they would still be interested in removing these traps because they see it’s really benefited them as a whole.” 

In addition to its own programs, MSCFU has also advocated for other marine-related projects. Bradley has personally advocated for the Save Our Shells Program (SOS) – an oyster shell recycling program that the Nature Conservancy and Mississippi’s Department of Environmental Quality partnered to create. Save Our Shells is funded through the RESTORE Act. 

Aiming to restore the Gulf’s formerly abundant oyster reefs, the program works with local restaurants for the collection of shells that the Nature Conservancy then stores until they can be redistributed into the ocean. Bradley discloses that an “important part of having a successful and continuous oyster crop” is to return the shells to the reef.

In the past, oyster dealers would take the used shells and send their boats out to the water with them and put them back out onto the reefs to replenish the crop, but as oysters began being shipped out of state in the sack whole, un-shucked, it has made it much more difficult to retrieve shells, leading to a massive decline of oysters in the Gulf Coast area. Additionally, the harvests from Mississippi’s oyster reefs have been lacking for the past several years due to various fishery disasters. Where there used to be crops of 400,000-500,000 oysters a year, now there is hardly anything. 

Since Mississippi has the highest concentration of oyster-serving restaurants, Bradley says he hopes the program will be beneficial to the Gulf Coast, as it will allow a lot of material to be collected over a long period of time. He expects to see much good come from the oyster shell recycling program. 

“Recycling…one oyster shell can help create a dozen more oysters,” states Bradley. 

MSCFU has also partnered with the Nature Conservancy in other instances – such as when both organizations jointly accepted the donation of a truckload of oyster shells from Las Vegas casinos. And while Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United collected oyster shells during the Gulf Coast Oyster Cookoff Festival at the Town Green in Biloxi for several years, the Nature Conservancy has since taken over that operation. 

But Bradley assures that MSCFU members still “love to participate in shell recycling type activities because it’s helping to improve their livelihood, where they work.” 

When asked how the public can assist MSCFU’s mission, Bradley states, “Right now we’re juggling the sustainability of our catch with trying to make a profitable business,” and the best way people can support local fishermen is to ask where the seafood is from every time they go out to eat. “Don’t just ask, ask for proof. Tell them you want to see proof of where it is from,” says Bradley.

The reasoning behind this is due to fraud being such a tremendous issue inside the fishing industry. Foreign, imported seafood is often passed off as high-quality, local catch. This not only is dishonest to customers but is also extremely damaging for local commercial fishermen.

Yet if businesses hear from consumers the demand for fresh and local seafood (emphasis on local) they will then begin demanding that from their suppliers, which in turn will support Mississippi’s fishing industry and help sustain future generations of fishermen. 

Join Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United in fighting for the consumer and for Mississippi fishermen’s businesses and livelihoods. MSCFU is a 501(c)6 tax-exempt nonprofit under a business alliance. Each individual fishery associated with the organization is considered to be a small business. 

MSCFU has two classes of membership: voting and non-voting. To join MSCFU and be a voting member, you must have a commercial fishing license and pay a $100 fee or adhere to two hours of volunteer service per year in lieu of the fee. Non-voting members are comprised of retired fishermen, consumers, restaurants, industry partners, supply houses, and other people or organizations MSCFU has partnered with.  

MSCFU’s Board of Directors consists of Franklin Parker, Mark Kopszywa, Derick Ross, Bobby Barnett, and Can Nguyen. The board is nominated by voting members. Staff include Ryan Bradley, executive director; Chris Rhodes, chief information officer; Rebecca Parker, treasurer; and Dawn Ross, assistant.

For more information, visit MSCFU’s website: mscfu.org.

Also, check out the organization’s Facebook MSCFUnited and Twitter under the same handle or search directly for Mississippi Commercial Fisheries United to stay up to date on most things fishing-related along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.