Gulf shrimpers want help from congress as fuel costs climb

National Gulf shrimpers want help from congress as fuel costs climb May 26, 20263:18 PM ET By  Drew Hawkins Acy Cooper eats lunch out of his pickup truck at the Myrtle Grove Marina in Port Sulphur, La. on Friday, May 15, 2026. Cooper had just returned to the marina after a shift ferrying oil rig workers from offshore platforms — a job he's taken because of falling shrimp prices and increasing fuel costs. Jay Marcano for NPR hide caption toggle caption Jay Marcano for NPR PORT SULPHUR, La. — When Acy Cooper finished building a new 31-foot trawler, he had a problem: his wife had just given birth to their daughter. And it's tradition to name boats after a woman. "So how do you do that and cover both of 'em?" he asked. Cooper found a simple solution. He took his newborn daughter's first name and his wife's middle name and christened the vessel the Lacy Kay. That was in 1983. For the next 40-plus years, the Lacy Kay was the main ship in Cooper's three-boat fleet, hauling in thousands and thousands of pounds of shrimp from the Gulf. But not this year. Sponsor Message These days, the Lacy Kay remains tied to the dock in Venice, Louisiana, about an hour's drive south of Port Sulphur, where Cooper is now piloting rented vessels, ferrying oil rig workers to and from the platforms that dot the Gulf. He's been shrimping since he was 15, working alongside his father before getting his first boat. He's still adjusting to having a boss instead of being one. "I'm making money," Cooper said. "Not what I would be making, but you take what you can get." He took the second job to help make ends meet after his fuel costs spiked more than half in just three months. Diesel prices jumped from roughly $3.50 a gallon to more than $5 by spring, driven by the war with Iran and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. For a shrimper already operating on slim margins, that's not just an inconvenience. It's an existential threat. Acy Cooper and his grandson Caleb Hanson fill the cooler on their...