Shrimp season opening date coming soon

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - Mississippi is one important step closer to opening this year's shrimp season.

On Tuesday, the Commission on Marine Resources gave the DMR executive director the authority to open the season, once the shrimp reach legal size.

Legal size is 68 count per pound and the shrimp are getting close to that.

Historically, the season opens around the first week of June. And it appears that will be the case in 2012.

Traci Floyd gave commissioners an overview of last year's season and talked about the conditions for growing shrimp this year.

They need a water temperature of at least 68 degrees.

"We've had that since March. Our waters warmed up very quickly. Also our salinities need to be above ten parts per thousand. And we've had that so far, all along this year, even though we had heavy rains at the end of March and early in April," Floyd said.

Floyd predicts just an "average" shrimp season this year, following last year's "average" harvest, which was impacted by the opening of the Bonnet Carre spillway.

Shrimpers are the first to tell you, it's a tough way to make a living and their numbers have dropped dramatically the past 20 years.

"We've seen a lot of competition from foreign imported shrimp. Fuel costs have gone up dramatically. And also Hurricane Katrina. We lost so much of our infrastructure for our industry," Floyd explained.

When discussing shrimp season, often the elephant in the room is the BP oil spill and what impact did the spill have on the shrimp population and on subsequent shrimp harvests?

Many shrimpers will tell you they believe the BP oil spill was certainly detrimental to the shrimp catch following that spill in 2010.

But for scientists, the verdict is not in yet.  It is part of the NRDA process, the natural resource damage assessment process.

WLOX News talked with Commissioner Steve Bosarge, who represents shrimpers on the commission.

"And hopefully this year will possibly tell us a little more.  But I still believe that, yes there's been an effect in my opinion. But it's gonna take time," he said.

Last year's opening day of shrimp season, May 25, was the earliest in recent history.

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