Rarely has quantifying Louisiana's annual shrimp harvest generated as much interest as it has this year, as scientists, shrimpers and even the general public nervously await news of how many shrimp were pulled from coastal waters battered in recent years by drought, flooding and the massive BP oil spill.
The reality of the 2011 Gulf of Mexico shrimp season likely won't be known for several more months, but preliminary numbers compiled by the state for The Times-Picayune this month show the Louisiana brown shrimp season garnered about 35 percent more pounds of headless shrimp than any season since 2007.
Definitive numbers for the white shrimp harvest aren't yet available, but it appears that catch dropped.
Nonetheless, while the overall Louisiana shrimp stock did dip last year, the 49.6 million pounds harvested was about on par with 2008, according to recently released preliminary annual numbers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service. Also, the annual numbers likely will rise significantly, because they include only shrimp sold at docks, not shrimp sold directly to local consumers or retail markets.
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