For the second straight month, shrimpers in the Gulf of Mexico reported historically low landings.
Fishermen in the five Gulf states harvested just 8.2 million pounds of shrimp in November, according to data released Tuesday, 5 February, by NOAA Fisheries Southeast Fisheries Science Center. That’s roughly 700,000 pounds off the November 2017 total and more than 3.7 million pounds short of the 16-year average tracked by the Southern Shrimp Alliance.
The previous low for November was the 8.5 million pounds caught in 2011.
Louisiana reported its lowest November since the SSA began tracking totals in 2002, with 3.1 million pounds caught. The total represents a 50.2 percent decline from the state’s historic average for the month. For the year, the state has reported just 34.3 million pounds of shrimp harvested, a decrease of 37 percent over the average. That’s puts Louisiana on track for its worst year since 2010.
Texas, meanwhile, reported landings of 3.3 million pounds, a slight increase from November 2017 and about 7 percent off the historic average. For the year, Texas has reported 35.8 million pounds, up 1.7 million from 2017 and down 1.2 million from its 16-year average.
Alabama was the only state to report an increase over its November average. The 1.1 million pounds, was down slightly from November 2017 but roughly 50,000 pounds higher than its average.
Mississippi shrimpers reported 655,000 pounds, nearly double their haul from November 2017 but still down 4.7 percent from its average. Florida’s Gulf Coast reported just 231,00 pounds, nearly 400,000 pounds off from the year before and down 61.7 percent from the average..
For the year, Alabama is above its annual total by 40.6 percent, and its 13.5 million pounds reported a record high for the first 11 months. Year-to-date totals on Florida’s Gulf Coast are off by 37.8, percent with the 3.7 million reported the lowest since 2012. At 4.5 million, the cumulative total in Mississippi is down more than 23 percent from its year-to-date average
For the year, Gulf shrimpers have harvested 91.8 million pounds. That’s roughly two million pounds fewer than last year and down by about 21 million pounds – or 18.6 percent – from the historical average.
Just before Thanksgiving, the Alliance reported 10.4 million pounds of Gulf shrimp were caught in October. That marked the third straight year shrimpers reported a record low for that month, according to the SSA.
The release of November’s shrimp landings data was delayed due to the federal government partial shutdown that affected NOAA Fisheries operations. Totals for December and the year will be released at a later date.
