Perspectives on the Gulf of Mexico Shrimp Fishery

This case study explores the social and environmental ramifications that exist in a dynamic fishery, and provides an opportunity for students to perform a series of exercises involving socio-environmental synthesis. Developed for upper-level undergraduates and graduate courses, students assume and develop the persona of a shrimp fisher in the Gulf of Mexico whose demographics, values, worldview, community, and experiences are markedly different from their own. Students are provided with data on Gulf anthropologies, Environmental Regulations, and Environmental Policy. Throughout the course of the case, students individually present their persona as it develops based on learning about evolving environmental, regulatory, and cultural dynamics. After immersing themselves in their shrimper persona; at the end of the case, students work together as members of the Southern Shrimp Alliance to develop a persuasive testimony prepared for a representative to present at the next hearing on the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act.