Facing pressure from cheap imported shrimp, changing environmental conditions and rising costs, Louisiana's shrimpers are experiencing a crisis that threatens their very existence, according to Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture and Forestry Mike Strain, who is calling on state lawmakers to do more to help save the industry.

“The shrimping industry is on its knees,” said Strain on Monday in an annual speech to the Press Club of Baton Rouge. "They're asking us to step in and take a look at what we can do."

As recently as a decade ago, shrimp hauled in from the state's briny waters had a dockside value of nearly $250 million. Last year, that value had plummeted to $38 million. Meanwhile, the number of shrimpers in Louisiana has continued is slide from 6,900 in 2000 to fewer than 1,400 l

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