North Carolina posted a five-percent increase in shrimp landings in 2017, as figures from the state’s Division of Marine Fisheries indicates it is now the top species for commercial fishermen.
Last year, fishermen landed nearly 13.9 million pounds of shrimp with a value of nearly USD 29.6 million (EUR 25.5 million). It’s a modest gain from last year, but it continues an upward trend and shows a dramatic increase from just five years ago.
In 2013, North Carolina fishermen landed 4.9 million pounds of shrimp with a value of USD 12.9 million (EUR 11.1 million). By 2015, those numbers vaulted to 9 million pounds and USD 16.8 million (EUR 14.5 million).
“While shrimp landings increased by only 5 percent from 2016, they remained the highest since the N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries’ Trip Ticket Program began in 1994, and were 34 percent higher than the five-year average,” the agency said in a press release last week.
However, as more shrimp flows into the state’s docks, fishermen are bringing in less blue crab. Only 18 million pounds of hard blue crabs were landed in 2017. That was down from 24.7 million in 2016 and 31 million from 2015.
Last year’s hard blue crab landings were worth USD 17.8 million (EUR 15.4 million). In 2015, the blue crab haul brought in USD 29.6 million (EUR 25.5 million).
State officials said the totals vary annually due to several reasons, including the environment and the focus of commercial fishermen.
Overall for 2017, North Carolina fishermen landed 54.4 million pounds of seafood. While that represented a 9.3-percent drop from the previous year and a seven-percent decrease from the five-year average, the value of the product rose to nearly 3 percent in 2017 to USD 96.5 million (EUR 83.2 million) from USD 94 million (EUE 81.1 million).
Besides shrimp and blue crab, other top products landed included summer flounder (1.6 million pounds), bluefish (1.5 million) and southern flounder (1.4 million).
