The Mississippi Gulf Coast was once the shrimping capital of the world. Biloxi alone processed more shrimp than any city on earth through the mid-twentieth century — the factories lined the back bay, and the smell of boiling shellfish carried for miles. The industry drew waves of immigrant labor: Slavic, Vietnamese, Cajun, and Central American workers who shaped the coast's food culture as much as any planter or politician. The Blessing of the Fleet, held each spring, dates to the early 1900s when the local Catholic bishop began blessing the shrimp boats before the season opened. The fleet is smaller now — imports, hurricanes, and the 2010 oil spill hit hard — but working boats still tie up at the Biloxi Small Craft Harbor, and the Vietnamese shrimping community remains one of the largest on the Gulf. When you eat Gulf shrimp on this coast, you're eating the remnant of an industry that built half the towns you're driving through.
