Seventeen years ago, leaders of the shrimp industry from across the country’s southern coastline came together in response to what they saw as an immediate threat to the continued existence of the commercial fishery. Volunteering their time, their money, and their reputations, these industry veterans built a national response to the challenges facing shrimpers throughout the South Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico.
One of the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s original organizers, Elaine Walker Knight, passed away last week on July 15, 2019.
Miss Elaine was a founding Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance and served two terms as the President of this organization. She was also a founding Director and the first President of Wild American Shrimp, Inc., the shrimp industry’s first national marketing initiative. Miss Elaine served the industry in a broad range of capacities, spending several terms as the Vice-President and Secretary of the Georgia Shrimp Association, acting as part of the National Sea Grant Review Board for two terms while also participating for many years on the National Sea Grant Assessment Team, and serving as a member of the South Atlantic Fisheries Management Council for three consecutive terms, two of them as Council Chair.
“The shrimp industry has lost one of its most formidable and capable advocates with the untimely passing of Elaine Knight,” said John Williams, the Executive Director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Miss Elaine was a rock-solid pillar of our industry to whom we all owe a huge debt of appreciation and gratitude.”
Read Elaine Walker Knight’s obituary as published in The Brunswick News (July 18, 2019): https://www.legacy.com/
Read “Knight’s Seafood – ‘Since 1975’,” including an extensive profile of Elaine Walker Knight’s life here: https://shrimpalliance.com/