Increase in Vietnamese Fisherman
Kenneth Roberts
Wyatt Winnie: What about social changes?
Kenneth Roberts: In my particular subject matter, it wasn't
terribly paramount because the commercial fishing industry and the
trapping industry and the wetlands owners, and anybody else you kind
of deal with in my subject matter were overall heavily dominated by
Caucasians. There was very little racial mix I ever had to deal
with; until late in my career and that's when Cambodian and
Vietnamese fishermen came over after the war. And were being
sponsored by Catholic charities and many other organizations and the
atmosphere here in south Louisiana was very similar to coastal
Vietnam and Cambodia, evidently. And they were artisanal fisherman
and boat builders and people like that. And they came in and that
was a big challenge for society in Louisiana. There were several
incidents of boat rammings and sabotage and conflicts at sea and
conflicts at the dock. But that went away pretty quickly, probably
in five to ten years. And the majority of the commercial shrimping
fleet in the Gulf of Mexico now is Asian oriented.