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This year’s brown shrimp season is in full swing, with boats small and large trawling and skimming the bayous, lakes and canals of Louisiana’s central coast since 6 a.m. Monday.
Early reports were somewhat encouraging, but there are indications that policy-makers will need to consider more flexibility when charting seasons to come.
“If we have another warm February or March we will be giving everybody a heads up,” said Jeffrey Marx, the biologist who manages the shrimp program for the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. “It is pretty much a year-to-year thing.”
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission usually considers when the spring season during which brown shrimp are traditionally harvested at a meeting in early May. This year the commissioners considered an early opening for April, but industry voices including fishermen did not make their voices heard, and so the idea of an unusually early opening was scuttled.
When Marx made his presentation to the Commission last Thursday, the data his employees gathered through salinity, temperature and trawl samples showed that the crop not only was ready, but that conditions were good at least a week before.
The commission must give a 72-hour notice for the season start, which is usually on a Monday from early to mid-May. Last year the opening was unusually late. This year, the average water temperature in Barataria Bay exceeded 70 degrees in April, with the overall temperatures for this year to date markedly higher than they were last year, according to Marx’s presentation before the commissioners.
Temperatures are not the only markers for determining a shrimp season. In addition to salinity and the size of shrimp – the bulk of the test catch must exceed 100 to the pound – there are commercial considerations.
Smaller shrimp may not be what processors, a big voice in the industry, are looking for. Some may have small shrimp in cold storage or otherwise backed up, making the smaller sizes not attractive, and not likely to earn good prices.
No specific studies have been done to determine whether climate change – whether man-made or otherwise – is fooling with shrimp biodynamics.
Fishermen, meanwhile, satisfied with the May 8 opening, are hard at work.
“The shrimp was bigger last month than they are today,” said Barry Rogers, a Houma fisherman. “I think the shrimp season should open in April.”
