The movie Forrest Gump made the shrimping industry seem an easy way to become a millionaire. But times have changed since the simple minded Gump made his fortune on the big screen.

With the price of gasoline climbing seemingly daily, shrimpers are seeing their fuel budgets grow and their pockets empty.

Nikki Tran said the shrimping industry is so bad, she hasn’t shrimped since 2007. And diesel prices nearing $5 a gallon doesn’t help, she said.

“With shrimping, you do the math and there’s not enough to pay bills, insurance and the banks. Sometimes our notes are $10,000 a month,” Tran said. “It’s very hard on people; they’re suffering. They’ve been suffering for a number of years. It’s from gas and other things like the new laws. I know the new laws are for our safety, but a lot are going out of business.”

The Texas Legislature web site states the House passed the Shrimp Marketing Program which permits a surcharge on certain shrimp-related licenses issued by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. The surcharge was limited to an increase of up to 10 percent of the license fees established by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission effective to Sept. 1, 2002. The Senate’s bill extends the date until Sept. 1, 2009.

Tran said Hurricane Rita put many more shrimpers out of business. She admits she doesn’t miss the business but her husband, who has shrimped for over 20 years, does miss it. They have since opened a restaurant - J. Martin Seafood on Nederland Ave.

“We did it for over 20 years and with no profit. Why do it?” she asked. “The only thing that will help is for fuel prices to go down. The shrimp prices will not go up,” Tran said.

Anh Pham is manager of Marie’s Seafood in Port Arthur. She said the shop had to go up on shrimp prices “just a little bit.” She added they have kept their prices low, but it has cut into their profit margin somewhat.

Nikki T. Tran, no relation to the aforementioned Tran, is the manager of Kim’s Seafood. She said the price of shrimp has been going up for over a year. The prices haven’t gone up as much as she thought they would considering they’re still importing shrimp from overseas.

“The market value is not as high it could be because of the price of diesel. They don’t go and there’s not as many in the market,” she said.

The season runs from July to November/December.