For the month of September, roughly 7.2 million pounds of shrimp were reported as landed in the Gulf of Mexico, well below the 11.2 million pounds landed in September of last year. Total landings were 46.5 percent below the prior fifteen year historical average (13.4 million pounds) and were the second lowest recorded of any September over the last sixteen years. In Louisiana, shrimpers reported landing 2.6 million pounds of shrimp last month compared to 5.0 million pounds in September 2016. In Texas, shrimpers reported landed 3.2 million pounds of shrimp last month compared to a fifteen year historical average of 5.9 million pounds for September – a decline of 45.8 percent.
For the Gulf of Mexico as a whole, even with the sharp decline in shrimp landings in September, more shrimp have been caught this year than last (73.1 million pounds compared to 67.3 million pounds in the first nine months of 2016) and total landings are 15.6 percent below the prior fifteen year historical average (87.0 million pounds).
No ex-vessel prices were reported by NOAA for the eastern Gulf (the west coast of Florida) for the month of September. For both the northern (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) and western (Texas) Gulf, ex-vessel prices reported for last month were generally lower than those reported in September 2016. The softening of ex-vessel prices was most pronounced in the western Gulf.
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