NPR

Still reeling from Ian, Florida shrimpers are desperate to get back on the water

Fishers in southwest Florida are desperate to save their shrimping fleet, and their lifestyle, decimated by Hurricane Ian more than a month ago.
Jimmy Driggers and his wife Shirley pose for a portrait on Oct. 28, 2022 in Pine Island, Fla., where their home was severely flooded by a storm surge from Hurricane Ian in September.

Jimmy Driggers, 85, got into the fishing business when he was just 13 years old. He's a shrimper in Fort Myers, Fla.

"I was a mullet fisherman, [a] commercial fisherman in my younger days," he said.

Driggers walks with a prosthetic leg from an injury he sustained on his boat about a decade ago. It's decorated with a sea lighthouse.

He owns one shrimping boat — the Miz Shirley — named after his wife. It can carry 50,000 pounds of shrimp.

Driggers said the industry has been hurting for decades, and that he was paid more back in the 1980's than he is today. Fuel prices have skyrocketed.

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