According to data from NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center, shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico got off to a better start in 2019 than 2018, but the total landings still lag behind previous years.
January’s landings for 2019 totaled more than 2.4 million pounds, according to data released last week. That’s more than 500,000 pounds higher than the January 2018 harvest, but 39 percent below the 17-year average compiled by the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
Alabama fishermen led the way in January, collecting 843,000 pounds. That more than doubled their output in January 2018 and represented an 87 percent increase over the historic average. It’s also the second-best January ever for Alabama, trailing only the 960,000 pounds landed in 2006.
While Alabama reported a near-historic high, Mississippi and Florida reported record lows for January. The 193,000 landed by Florida’s Gulf shrimpers was the lowest since the SSA started tracking data in 2002 and nearly two-thirds off the historical average for January.
In Mississippi, fishermen collected 104,000 pounds, also the lowest reported total for January in that state, although there were two years when totals weren’t reported. January’s landings represent a more than 60 percent decline from the monthly average.
Texas saw its landings increase by nearly 150,000 pounds from last January, to 754,000. That, however, still ranked below the January average by more than 18 percent.
Louisiana’s shrimpers caught 548,000 pounds of shrimp in January. It marked a nearly 170,000-pound increase from last January’s historic low, but it still registers as the second-worst January the state has reported since 2002. The monthly landings also are about 70 percent off from the state’s January average.
January is not considered a top month for shrimp in the Gulf as historic data shows it accounts for less than five percent of the annual landings.
