If Tampa Bay diners really cared about wild-caught shrimp, then they’d actually know about Versaggi Shrimp Co. [PHOTOS]

Tampa’s Versaggi Shrimp Co. is a over-century-old family busines which originated in Fernandina Beach. It’s seen a gradual decline from its heyday, when its shrimping empire stretched from Texas, along the Gulf Coast, and down to South America, with ports in French Guiana and Brazil. The Tampa Tribune said that in 1969, the company had 33 boats. Today, just five boats call a single port authority dock home.

“It’s a shame because those shrimp docks could be a little tourist destination. They’ve been here for this long. People go to the Fulton Fish Market or The Wharf in Washington,” Andrew Huse, Special Collections Librarian at the University of South Florida and food historian, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay.

The shrimp docks have come back to the forefront after a study funded by the Southern Shrimp Alliance found “that a mere two out of 44 sampled restaurants serve authentic, wild-caught Gulf shrimp” across Tampa and St. Petersburg.

Read more about the existential challenges facing Versaggi Shrimp Co., and see photos from the dock—located at 2633 Causeway Blvd. in Tampa—below.