Fisheries Management

The Southern Shrimp Alliance engages in all proposed federal actions that affect the management of U.S. shrimp fisheries for the purpose of advancing the industry’s best interests. It actively contributes to the activities of both the Gulf of Mexico and South Atlantic Fishery Management Councils and their associated shrimp Advisory Panels. It is deeply involved with the development of federal fishery regulations through the rulemaking process, and in any relevant fishery legislative and oversight activities of the U.S. Congress. It also helps to fund and participates in scientific research to ensure that the management of the U.S. shrimp fisheries is based on the best scientific information available.

Ultimately, the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s priority fishery management objectives are to preserve shrimp fishermen’s access to their traditional fishing grounds, and to ensure the sustainability of the U.S. shrimp fisheries for generations to come.

Underlying the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s extensive work to preserve fisherman’s access to traditional fishing grounds and to ensure the continued sustainability of the U.S. shrimp fisheries has been its work to ensure the collection and integrity of scientific data that documents the location and amount of shrimp fishing effort through the installation of electronic logbook technologies on shrimp fishing vessels. Such scientific data is fundamental to everything from assessing the health of shrimp stocks to understanding any impacts the fishery may have on the health of bycatch species and managing the fishery to minimize such impacts. Consequently, the Southern Shrimp Alliance continues its work at all federal levels to ensure that accurate and precise shrimp fishing effort continues to be collected and made readily available for this broad range of essential purposes.