Shrimp season opens with disappointing results

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) -The opening of the 2019 shrimp season was as disappointing as expected for the shrimpers that dropped their nets beginning around 6 a.m. Thursday.

“You gotta play the cards your dealt,” said shrimper Cary Cannette.

Unfortunately for local shrimpers, the deck is stacked against them. That stacked deck includes fresh water intrusion from the Bonnet Carré Spillway, choppy seas Thursday morning and little to no shrimp to catch in our local waters. The Commission on Marine Resources recently made an emergency declaration and opened the 2019 season despite smaller shrimp samples in the Mississippi Sound.

“That’s what we’ve been seeing in our samples. We’ve seen the lowest catch in several years,” said Rick Burris, Department of Marine Resources marine fisheries director. “It’s pretty disappointing. If the spillway is closed and the fresh water stops coming into our system and everything can get back to normal, that obviously would help, but I think we’re too far into it.”

Cannette said he made it back to the dock and sold a paltry six pounds of shrimp.

“You really expect better,” he said. “To go into your hometown and get skunked, it’s heartbreaking. That’s not even going to cover the ice, the fuel, the salt and everything we’ve got into it.”

Recreational and commercial shrimp season north of the Intracoastal Waterway runs until the end of the year. In areas south of the Intracoastal Waterway and west of the Gulfport Ship Channel, shrimp season will close next May.