1. Review of the Mississippi Shrimp Fishery and a Look at the 2016 Season American Shrimp Processors Association Annual Meeting
April 8, 2016

2. Economic Impact of Mississippi Shrimp Fishery Based on 2014 MSU study
Produced:
$132 Million in Sales*
$52.3 Million in Income*
$10.26 Million in Taxes*
2,929 industry related jobs *
* Source: Posadas, Benedict C Economic Impacts of the Mississippi Seafood Industry in the Year 2011 by Major Species. Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Bulletin 1209, Mississippi State, Mississippi.

3. Landings and value from the last 20 yrs all species head on
Landings and value from the last 20 yrs all species head on. As you can see they declined significantly in 2005 (katrina) you can also see the year of the oil spill in Last year MS reported around 9 million pounds with a value of around 15 million

4. This chart shows all MS shrimp licenses sold (Res, Non Res, and Comm and Rec) Before Katrina we averaged 1800 licenses, post Katrina we have averaged 900, in 2015 we sold 750

5. Mississippi Shrimp Fishery Conservation Directives
Annual seasonal closures
- December 31st : North of ICW
- April 30th : All MS waters close
- Other closures based on sampling
Area closures
- Not permitted within ½ mile of shoreline, bays
- Not permitted within 1 mile of GINS Barrier Islands
Gear limitations where appropriate
- Net and door size
- TED and tow time requirements to protect sea turtles
I will talk about how and when we open our season in a minute

6. ICW intersects the center of the MS Sound

7. Open on 68 count brown shrimp, so that can vary annually based on environmental conditions….. earliest May 25, latest June 25. Average June 10

8. MDMR is able to gauge the effort of the fishery with opening day vessel counts on the water and through the air. Opening day is typically the highest effort we have on any one day during the entire season.

9. Opening Day of Mississippi Shrimp Season Vessel Survey
Aerial vessel count, we fly over all MS waters with the help of the Civil Air Patrol

10. Opening Day of Mississippi Shrimp Season Vessel Survey
MDMR Research Vessel
We also count travel state line to state line on the water counting vessels on opening day

11. Opening Day of Mississippi Shrimp Season Vessel Survey

12. Opening Day of Mississippi Shrimp Season Vessel Survey

13. Mississippi Shrimp Season Opening Sampling
February –April post larval sampling
Standardized beam plankton trawl sampling at historical stations
April – June juvenile/adult sampling
Standardized trawl sampling at historical stations
Chart the growth of Brown Shrimp from juveniles to adults
Season opens when Brown Shrimp reach legal requirement of 68 count
We just started this week with our trawl sampling so we don’t have any current data, but I can show you our Post Larval Samples for this year

14. (Post Larval less than 1” or 25 mm) (Juvenile 1’- 1
(Post Larval less than 1” or 25 mm) (Juvenile 1’- 1.5” or less than 40mm) (Adults larger than 1.5”) Legal shrimp 68ct is 4”

15. We use Biloxi Bay for our Post Larval Sampling mainly due to the lack of variability in salinity as it is only affected by localized rainfall These shrimp are now in the MS Sound, and we will soon be picking them up in our trawl samples

16. So our post larval samples show a much greater abundance for this year than in previous years, however, this is not a good indication of the season, but it is encouraging if these post larval shrimp survive and grow in the MS Sound

17. Once these post larval shrimp enter in to the MS Sound they begin to grow, and with optimum conditions they can grow around 1mm/day Optimum Temp is 68 we have had a warm winter so our temps from last month were higher than average

18. Optimum salinity is 10ppt, salinity is rainfall dependent and with the amount of rain we had last month, salinity was lower than normal

19. So as you can see we received significant amounts of rainfall in the Biloxi Bay area for the month of March, hopefully that trend does not continue and we can get some higher salinities so our brown shrimp can achieve their optimal growth and we have a good 2016 season

20. ADD PICTURE OF SHRIMP BOATS