This morning, the Fishery Monitoring Branch of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center released shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for April 2019.
With the disclaimer that reporting issues may have delayed or otherwise limited commercial shrimp landings data in Louisiana, NOAA indicates that 254,000 pounds of shrimp were landed in that state last month. This represents the smallest commercial catch of shrimp reported in Louisiana for the month of April since at least 2002 and well below the 1.6 million pounds of shrimp landed in the state last April. At the same time, shrimp landings in Texas, Alabama, and the West Coast of Florida were slightly below the landings reported in these states in April 2018. No shrimp landings data was reported for Mississippi.
Over the first four months of this year, 9.5 million pounds of shrimp have been landed in the Gulf of Mexico, an amount that is 21.1 percent below the prior eighteen-year historic average of 12.1 million pounds. This is the lowest volume of shrimp landings reported for the first third of a year in the Gulf of Mexico since 2014.
Total Gulf of Mexico landings reflect a massive divergence in the experiences of states within the region. Landings in Louisiana for the year thus far have been aberrational and are by far the lowest ever reported for the state at 1.5 million pounds. Similarly, landings in Mississippi (164,000 pounds) and the West Coast of Florida (1.2 million pounds) are the lowest ever recorded for those states. However, shrimp landings in Texas, at 4.3 million pounds, are higher than they were last year (4.2 million pounds) and are nearly five percent above the prior eighteen-year historic average of 4.1 million pounds. Landings in Alabama, at 2.4 million pounds, are 58.9 percent above the prior eighteen-year historic average of 1.5 million pounds.
NOAA was unable to report ex-vessel prices for three count sizes of shrimp (U15; 36-40; and 41-50) landed in the eastern Gulf (the west coast of Florida) and one count size of shrimp (41-50) in the northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) in April. For all count sizes that were reported, the ex-vessel prices last month were below those reported in April 2018 and April 2017.
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of April 2001-2019 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for April 2001-2019: http://www.shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/April-2019-Landings.pdf
About the Southern Shrimp Alliance
The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is an organization of shrimp fishermen, shrimp processors, and other members of the domestic industry in the eight warmwater shrimp producing states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Texas.
