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Another Two Million Pounds of Shrimp Landed in the Gulf of Mexico in April

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 April.
Last month, 2.2 million pounds of shrimp were landed by commercial fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico. Just as with March, this was the third consecutive year in which the volume of landings reported for the month of April were lower than the previous April and was 18.5 percent below the prior eighteen-year historical average for April of 2.8 million pounds.
Also similar to March, the majority of shrimp landings last month took place in Texas, where 1.3 million pounds of shrimp were harvested. This was the third highest volume of shrimp reported as landed in Texas during the month of April in the last nineteen years. In contrast, the volume of shrimp landed on the West Coast of Florida (0.2 million pounds) was the lowest amount reported in the past nineteen years for any April.
The increase in reported shrimp landings in Texas for the third straight month comes at the same time as a change in the reporting methodology for NOAA’s monthly report. As previously noted, landings for Texas were reported by the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department.
For the first third of this year, 10.4 million pounds of shrimp have been landed in the Gulf of Mexico, up from 9.5 million pounds in 2019. However, even with this increase, the total volume of shrimp harvested in the Gulf remains significantly (13.0 percent) below the prior eighteen-year historical average of 11.9 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 eastern (Florida west coast ports) Gulf and ex-vessel prices were reported for only two count sizes (15/20; 21/25) for the northern (Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi) Gulf. For the Western Gulf, the prices for three count sizes were reported to be higher than the prices reported in April 2019, while the prices for the remaining four count sizes were reported to be below the ex-vessel prices from last year.
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 April 2002-2020 Shrimp Landings and Ex-Vessel Prices for April 2001-2020: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/April.pdf

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