SHRIMPERS, CONSERVATIONISTS, AND COASTAL DEVELOPMENT - A CASE FOR DEPENDENCY THEORY

In 1989, the shrimpers of the Gulf and South Atlantic staged the large st protest of fishery regulations in the history of the United States. Arguing that the mandated turtle excluder devices (TEDs) were still a nother ploy to remove commercial harvesters from the coasts of America , many shrimpers refused to ''pull'' TEDs. In order to examine the mar ine resource conflicts among competing users, we interviewed parties t o, not only the TEDs conflict, but other marine resource conflicts as well. We argue that commercial harvesters are being challenged by recr eational/leisure/tourist interests and that traditional fishing and fa rming communities in coastal America are giving way to recreational us e patterns. We further contend that this transformation has not been u niform and that the variation in the rate and extent of coastal change is related to the amenities coastal communities enjoy. We suggest tha t dependency theory is one way to explain the ascendancy of recreation al use patterns.