75th annual Blessing of the Fleet: The last for some shrimpers

Haylee Kennedy
·2 min read
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BAYOU LA BATRE, Ala. (WKRG)- Thousands gathered at St. Margaret’s Catholic Church in Bayou La Batre Sunday for the 75th annual Blessing of the Fleet.

Archbishop Thomas Rodi led the town in prayer for safety and fruition over the waters in Bayou La Batre. After the prayer, the Archbishop, the Blessing of the Fleet Queens, and Father Micheal Long Vu boarded a boat.

Father Vu dropped a blessed wreath into the water to honor the souls who were lost at sea.

However, despite the yearly tradition, shrimpers say the blessings are not going very far.

“It’s just a living down here, everybody in the bayou really shrimps and they feed their families with all of that shrimping money. It’s just not good anymore,” Peyton Appleby explained.

The shrimping industry has been going downhill for the past few years, hitting shrimpers in Bayou La Batre hard.

“We’re all probably going to have a little cry it’s our last year doing it and we will probably not be going to be able to do it again,” Haleigh Keith lamented.

For the past 20 years, Haleigh and Peyton have gone shrimping with their grandfather on the family’s shrimping boat called “God’s Blessing’s”. However, that boat is going on sale at the end of the season.

“It’s really not worth it anymore really shrimp prices are low; gas prices are high,” Keith said “So it’s not necessarily worth it anymore.

That’s why they convinced their grandfather to enter the boat into the blessing at least once before they sell it. They spent $500 to decorate the boat in flags. Then, everyone boarded as the boat took part in the parade for the first and last time.

This Bayou La Batre family are not the only ones feeling the toll the shrimping industry has taken. Blessing of the Fleet attendees say they noticed the lack of boats in the parade.

“There’s not even a lot of shrimping boats in it, there’s probably three big ones in this year’s parade,” Appleby said.

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