Yesterday, the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center released shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for the month of February.
In February, 2.9 million pounds of shrimp were landed by commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. This was a significant increase from the 2.1 million pounds of shrimp harvested in February of 2019 and was above the prior nineteen-year historical average for February of 2.8 million pounds.
The increased volumes reported for February appear to be due to Texas, where 1.5 million pounds of shrimp were landed last month. This was the highest amount of shrimp reported for any February since 2007 and over 36 percent above the prior nineteen-year historical average of 1.1 million pounds.
The increase in reported shrimp landings in Texas comes at the same time as a change in the reporting methodology for NOAA’s monthly report. For the first time, landings for Texas were reported by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
For the first two months of this year, 5.1 million pounds of shrimp have been landed in the Gulf of Mexico, up from 4.5 million pounds in 2019 and 4.6 million pounds in 2018 over the same timeframe. However, even with this increase, the total volume of shrimp harvested in the Gulf remains significantly (24 percent) below the prior nineteen-year historical average of 6.7 million pounds.
Ex-vessel prices for shrimp landed in the Western Gulf were reported by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, while no ex-vessel prices were reported for the northern (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) Gulf. For the Western Gulf, the prices reported for every count size were significantly higher than the prices reported in February 2019 and February 2018. Ex-vessel prices for just three count sizes (15-20 count; 21-25 count; and 26-30 count) were reported by NOAA for ports in the eastern Gulf (Florida west coast ports), with each of these prices reported as being higher than they were in February 2019.
As in past months, NOAA’s monthly reporting of shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico continues to include the following disclaimer:
“BE ADVISED THAT THE SUMMARIES IN THIS REPORT ARE COLLECTED OR ESTIMATED BY THE FEDERAL PORT AGENTS AND MAY NOT REFLECT THE LANDINGS FROM THE STATES”
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of February 2001-2020 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for February 2001-2020:
https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/February-2020-Landings.pdf