Texas shrimp harvest season began July 15 and the Gulf Coast is crawling with shrimp boats from Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, and, of course, Texas. These shrimpers are optimistic for the season’s catch, even though their job is ranked at having the highest mortality rate of all commercial fishing. Gulf waters can be very rough during harvest season.
“The shrimping business is competitive, financially risky and highly dangerous for crew members, said Tony Reisinger, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (AgriLife) agent for coastal and marine resources. In the last 10 years, 55 men have died in the U.S. on shrimp boats, most of whom were thrown overboard, reported by Valley Morning Star.
So far, the shrimping has been good with nightly catches averaging roughly 2,000 pounds. A two-month off-season allows shrimp to migrate from bays to estuaries to grow before returning to the Gulf. Only Texas closes the Gulf for off-season shrimping and it has been very effective in keeping Texas shrimping sustainable.
This season’s brown shrimp harvest in the western Gulf of Mexico is estimated to be 53.2 million pounds. The first 45 days of shrimping is the meat-and-potatoes of the business with crews working around the clock—24 hours with only short nap breaks.
Reisinger noted, “Shrimping can be a lucrative business that helps our state economy.”