Preliminary records from NOAA Fisheries indicate that 2019 ranks as the worst year for U.S. shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico, although a trade organization has tempered its comments about what that may mean.
Fishermen in Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and the western shores of Florida reported harvesting just 80.8 million pounds of shrimp for the recently completed calendar year, according to NOAA Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center’s Fishery Monitoring Branch. That’s more than 35 percent off the region’s average annual production, based on figures tracked by the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA).
The 2019 total also is a 17.8 percent drop from the 2018 total, which is the fourth-lowest total since 2000, according to SSA records.
Four of the five states reported yearly totals in 2019 that ranked either as its worst year or third-worst. In Louisiana, shrimpers reported collecting just 29.6 million pounds in 2019, less than half the state’s annual average.
Florida reported a 49.7 percent decline from its average as its fishermen reported taking in just 3.5 million pounds, making 2019 the state’s worst year for shrimp fishing since catch total began being recorded.
Mississippi suffered a 35.4 percent drop from its average as its shrimpers announced 4.3 million pounds, and the 30.4 million pounds reported in Texas was more than a 25 percent off what it has typically reported.
Federal officials have noted, as with other monthly statements, that the figures are collected or estimated by port agents and may not reflect the actual total landing in each state.
The SSA also said NOAA Fisheries has yet to produce its Fisheries of the United States report for 2018. That report is typically released in the fall after the calendar year and would likely show a different picture.
“Ultimately, the harvest volumes reported in NOAA’s monthly reporting are likely to be significantly revised when the agency issues a Fisheries of the United States covering 2019 commercial landings,” the group noted in the statement. “A historical comparison of the final numbers included in the Fisheries of the United States and the preliminary numbers included in NOAA’s monthly reporting shows that the final harvest figures have had to be significantly revised upwards in 2016 and 2017.”
The Gulf’s 5.5 million pounds in December also was its lowest ever, according to NOAA and SSA records. It was 34.7 percent off the average for the month, about a million pounds lighter than December 2018’s report.
Photo courtesy of Bonnie Taylor Barry
