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Shrimp Landings Data for September and October Shows that Louisiana Commercial Fishing Industry Severely Impacted by Hurricane Ida

Yesterday, the Fishery Monitoring Branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Southeast Fisheries Science Center released preliminary shrimp landings data from the Gulf of Mexico for October.
As with NOAA’s preliminary release of data in August, the agency explained that, with regard to shrimp landings data from Louisiana: “Due to the [extent] of Hurricane Ida’s impact Not All landings were received.” Further, in a note accompanying the release of the October landings data, an agency official explained that due to the damage caused by Hurricane Ida, commercial fishing has been substantially curtailed in three areas of Louisiana – Terrebonne Parish, Lafourche Parish, and parts of Jefferson Parish.
After reporting no landings of shrimp in Louisiana in September, the October report also appears to have included a preliminary figure for September as well. Consistent with the agency’s observations regarding the impact of Hurricane Ida, these amounts – 1.4 million pounds in October and 0.7 million pounds in September – are extraordinarily low in terms of the historical experience of landings in Louisiana.
For the month of October, NOAA reports that 8.4 million pounds of shrimp was landed in the Gulf of Mexico, above the 7.5 million pounds of shrimp preliminarily reported as landed during the month of October last year, but still the second lowest total for any October since 2002.
For September, NOAA reported that 6.1 million pounds of shrimp was landed in the Gulf of Mexico, slightly above the 6.0 million pounds of shrimp preliminarily reported as landed during the month of September last year. Just as with October, the landings volume reported for September 2021 was the second lowest total for any September since 2002.
Over the first ten months of 2021, NOAA reports that the total volume of shrimp landed in the Gulf of Mexico, 61.7 million pounds, is slightly higher than what it had preliminarily reported for the same time period last year, 58.0 million pounds, while lower than what the agency preliminarily reported for the first ten months of 2019 – 69.2 million pounds.
As with the agency’s July and August reporting, the numbers released by NOAA for September and October include substantial revisions to the agency’s previous preliminary reporting of shrimp landings in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. These revisions reflect changes to past preliminary reporting such that they now reflect the actual, final shrimp landings data reported by the states. Accordingly, the numbers included in NOAA’s September 2021 and October 2021 Shrimp Statistics report published by the agency and available on its website are inconsistent with the Shrimp Statistics reports issued for those two months in the previous four years.
Because the revisions reflect final rather than preliminary figures, the Southern Shrimp Alliance has not made conforming adjustments in its compilation of historic data reported by NOAA. The current monthly data being reported is preliminary and, as such, is more appropriately compared to the preliminary data for prior years. The extent of the difference between NOAA’s preliminary and final reporting for past months varies by state. Nevertheless, the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s analysis of the difference between preliminary and final reporting of shrimp landings data indicates that NOAA’s estimates have consistently substantially undercounted the total volume of shrimp landed by the domestic shrimp industry.
Ex-vessel prices for shrimp landed in September and October in the western Gulf for all count sizes were reported by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department, while ex-vessel prices were reported by NOAA for two count sizes (15/20 and 21/25) in the eastern Gulf (Florida west coast) in October and for three count sizes (15/20; 21/25; and 26/30) the northern Gulf (Alabama, Louisiana, & Mississippi) in October. For the western Gulf, the ex-vessel prices reported for every count size in September were substantially above the ex-vessel prices reported in September 2020. For October, the ex-vessel prices reported in the western Gulf for larger sized shrimp (U15; 15/20; 21/25; and 26/30) were significantly above the ex-vessel prices reported for the same count sizes in October 2020, but prices for smaller shrimp (31/35 and 36/40) were below those reported in October 2020.
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of September 2002-2021 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for September 2001-2021 in the Gulf of Mexico:  https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/September-2021-Landings.pdf
Please click the following link to view SSA’s compilation and summary of October 2002-2021 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for October 2001-2021 in the Gulf of Mexico:  https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/October-2021-Landings.pdf

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