Three weeks ago, the Southern Shrimp Alliance released historical monthly shrimp landings volume data for Florida from January 1986 through March 2020 and for North Carolina from January 1994 through April 2020. Based on information recently made available from Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources, the Southern Shrimp Alliance is pleased to also release monthly shrimp landings volume data for Georgia from January 2000 through April 2020.
These data from the South Atlantic supplement information from the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center providing data on monthly shrimp landings in the Gulf of Mexico. Similar information regarding monthly shrimp landings in the South Atlantic is not published by NOAA, but, to date, has been made available by the state governments of Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina.
Through the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation, the state of Florida currently makes monthly commercial fisheries landing data obtained from trip tickets, including shrimp landings, available through its “Commercial Fisheries Landings Summaries” page (https://public.myfwc.com/FWRI/PFDM/ReportCreator.aspx). These data are available from 1986 through 2020, with the most recent reporting subject to further revision and not final. Because revised numbers have now been released by the state for the first four months of 2020, the Southern Shrimp Alliance has updated monthly summary data for Florida through April 2020.
Further, the Division of Marine Fisheries of the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality has provided the Southern Shrimp Alliance with updated monthly shrimp landings data through April 2020 and these revisions are now reflected in the updated monthly summary data linked to below. Note that monthly data reported for 2020 are preliminary and are likely to be subject to further revisions.
Similarly, the data released by Georgia’s Department of Natural Resources for 2020 are also preliminary and likely to be subject to further revisions. Nevertheless, these preliminary data confirm that the shrimp industry remains robust in Georgia. The volume of shrimp landed in the state in April was the fifth highest total for any April over the last twenty years. Landings in January were the highest for that month since 2010, while landings in March were the sixth highest for that month over the last two decades. Whatever is ultimately reported for shrimp landings in Georgia for the month of May, these figures are unlikely to reach the heights of what was landed in the state in May 2019 (660,700 pounds), the highest volume reported for the month since at least 2000.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance has compiled these data in charts accessible at the links below. For all three of these states, recent landings information, reported in historical context, show the continued significance of the U.S. commercial shrimp industry to the economy of coastal communities. Substantial quantities of fresh, wholesome, local, wild-caught shrimp continue to be available to American consumers from shrimpers in each of these states.
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of monthly shrimp landings in the state of Florida from 1986 through April 2020:
https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Florida-Monthly-Shrimp-Landings-Jan-1986-to-Apr-2020.pdf
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of monthly shrimp landings in the state of Georgia from 2000 through April 2020: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Georgia-Monthly-Shrimp-Landings-Jan-2000-to-Apr-2020.pdf
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of monthly shrimp landings in the state of North Carolina from 1994 through April 2020:https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/North-Carolina-Monthly-Shrimp-Landings-Jan-1994-to-Apr-2020.pdf