Commercial shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico for September were up sharply from last year, but lagged well behind the region’s historic average for the month, according to a release from the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
Last month, shrimpers harvested 10.3 million pounds, up three million pounds from last year. However, it’s also a 21-percent decline from the historic average of 13.1 million pounds. Part of that decline can be attributed to neither Mississippi nor Florida reporting any results.
Texas reported more than 5.4 million pounds harvested in September, just off its historic average of 5.7 pounds. For the year-to-date, commercial landings are ahead of last year (26.9 million pounds to 25.3 million pounds), but down five percent from the historical average of 28.3 million pounds.
Louisiana had its fourth-worst September since 2002. The 3.3 million pounds collected was an improvement from last year’s 2.6 million, but it was nearly 38 percent off the historic average of 5.3 million pounds. Similarly, the state’s year-to-date total of 27.6 million pounds is the state’s third-worst tally since 2002 and nearly 32 percent off its historical average of 40.6 million.
Alabama continued to show signs of a strong year. The state’s 1.6 million pounds collected were up from last year’s 1.1 million pounds and a more than 30 percent increase from the historical average. The state is also on pace to have its best year since the SSA began charting data in 2002. The 11.8 million pounds collected is up from last year’s 11.5 million and a nearly 59-percent spike from the historic average.
For the year, the Gulf region is down roughly 800,000 pounds from last year’s 73.1 million pounds collected. The 72.3 million tally is also 16 percent off the historic average.
Ex-vessel pricing for September showed gains in U15 as both the Western Gulf (Texas) and Northern Gulf (Alabama and Louisiana) reported prices of USD 9.42 (EUR 8.22), up from USD 7.78 (EUR 6.78) in the North and about USD 8.80 (EUR 7.67) in Texas. Northern Gulf shrimpers, however, did see declines in 26-30, down to USD 3.19 from 3.85 (EUR 2.78 from 3.36), and 41-50, down to USD 1.73 from 1.99 (EUR 1.51 from 1.74).
