Southern Shrimp Alliance: NOAA Economic “Snapshot” of the U.S. Shrimp Industry Confirms Need for Immediate Action 

In response to the newly released NOAA Fisheries report, Snapshot: Economics of the Gulf of America Federal Shrimp Fishery, the Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) is sounding the alarm, citing the federal agency’s own data as irrefutable evidence that the American shrimp industry is in the midst of a policy-driven disaster.

The Crisis by the Numbers

NOAA’s economists have now put hard numbers to a disaster that has been unfolding for years:

• Revenue collapse: Total Gulf shrimp revenue fell more than 50 percent in just two years, from $489 million in 2021 to $221 million in 2023.
• Historic price lows: Adjusted for inflation, the average 2023 dockside price—under $2.00 per pound—was the lowest ever recorded, down from over $6.00 per pound in the 1980s.
• Negative margins: The federal fleet posted a negative 6.1% profit margin in 2023, leaving producers unable to reinvest in aging vessels and infrastructure.
• Job losses: An estimated 1,200 jobs were lost on federal shrimp vessels between 2021 and 2023 as active vessels dropped 19%.

“For more than two decades, America’s shrimping families have been telling policymakers that it is economically unsustainable to compete against double standards and counterproductive policies,” said Blake Price, director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “Give us a fair playing field, and we will win every time. Farm-raised shrimp from halfway across the world will never match the superior quality, and sustainable management of wild-caught shrimp from our local waters.”

Inviting Fair Competition

American shrimpers have everything it takes to compete and win in a fair market. U.S. wild-caught shrimp is a sustainable product prized for its ocean-fresh flavor, natural firmness, and responsible harvesting. NOAA recognizes the U.S. shrimp industry as a world leader in shrimp trawl bycatch reduction. Consumer demand for local, naturally raised, and ethically produced seafood is growing, and no shrimp product fits that profile better than Gulf and South Atlantic shrimp.

The economic problem is not the product—it’s the playing field. Foreign competitors in the largest shrimp-supplying countries benefit from government subsidies, hundreds of millions of dollars in development funding that U.S. taxpayers help finance, and illegal or unethical cost-cutting shortcuts—banned antibiotics, forced labor, and severe environmental harms. NOAA’s data confirm that the only period of profitability for the Gulf fleet in the past two decades came when the federal government took meaningful action to offset unfair trade. Remove unfair and unethical shrimp from the U.S. market, and American shrimpers will deliver a fresh, better-tasting, high-quality protein product for consumers and good-paying jobs for coastal communities. 

“When NOAA says the U.S. shrimp industry is consuming its own capital just to stay afloat, they are describing multigenerational shrimping families spending their life’s savings waiting for Washington to act,” said Price. “Shrimpers want to invest in their way of life so the trade and culture can be passed down to the next generation. They aren’t afraid of a fair fight. But policymakers need to give them one.”

The Mandate for Change: President Trump’s Executive Order

President Trump’s Executive Order Restoring American Seafood Competitiveness is clear: “The erosion of American seafood competitiveness at the hands of unfair foreign trade practices must end.” 

The U.S. shrimp industry is grateful for that directive to reverse counterproductive policies and end double standards. SSA will continue to work with federal officials, eager to see the mandate translated into concrete policy. The President has also signed an Executive Order to restore U.S. shipbuilding and working waterfronts that addresses additional barriers to investing in the U.S. shrimp industry.

Grounded in NOAA’s data that clearly demonstrates the cost of inaction to American workers, the SSA calls on the Administration and Congress to act on these five priorities:

1. Enforce existing laws at the border. Drive aggressive enforcement against imports. Give FDA the authority to destroy hazardous imports, including shrimp contaminated with banned antibiotics and fungicides. Block market access to shrimp supply chains using IUU fishing or forced labor and fund the SIMP traceability program to back it up.
2. Stop funding our competitors. Pass the SOS Act to halt IFI financing of foreign shrimp aquaculture. The U.S. Treasury cast its first-ever vote against a shrimp aquaculture project last year. America needs to always use its voice and vote to stop non-market-based overproduction of shrimp.
3. Put import duties to work. Direct shrimp import duties toward increased FDA import testing, expanded USDA procurement of domestic shrimp, and a national marketing program that distinguishes American wild-caught shrimp from commodity imports.
4. Protect the ‘U.S. wild-caught’ label. SSA-funded genetic testing has found that the majority of shrimp sold as U.S. wild-caught in sampled coastal restaurants was actually farm-raised imports. State and federal agencies must enforce transparent country-of-origin and production-method labeling so consumers can trust what they buy. 
5. Establish a national seafood office within USDA to make existing USDA programs accessible to the seafood industry, including the domestic shrimp sector. 

“NOAA’s clear documentation of the shrimp industry’s attrition through 2023 should motivate government officials to act quickly,” stated Price. “Ensuring that multigenerational fishing families continue to produce healthy protein is a matter of national food security. We look forward to a unified federal response to the counterproductive trade policies that have hindered U.S. shrimp and seafood production. Let’s move America’s fisheries from surviving to thriving.”

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.