The Gulf of America commercial shrimp season for state and federal waters will reopen 30 minutes after sunset on July 15, according to a July 13 news release from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
The reopening date matters to shrimpers up and down the Texas coast, as the department’s Coastal Fisheries Division times the season to maximize benefits both to the shrimp resource and to the industry that depends on it. The division sets the date each year using data collected during routine bag seine and trawl sampling in June, the agency said.
Bag seine sampling targets juvenile shrimp by pulling a net along the shoreline, while bay trawls target subadults by towing a net behind a boat in the open bay, according to the release. Gulf trawl sampling targets adult shrimp and is conducted in the nearshore Gulf within 15 nautical miles of each of the five major Gulf passes, Sabine, Galveston, Matagorda, Aransas and Brazos Santiago, offshore to the edge of the Texas Territorial Sea.
The annual opening date is determined from June bag seine catch rates, bay trawl catch rates and lengths, Gulf trawl catch rates and lengths, and periods of maximum outgoing tides, the department said. Gulf trawl catch rates indicate subadult and adult shrimp migrating from the bays into deeper offshore water, while bag seine catch rates point to late recruits still in the bays that will emigrate later in the season. Growth calculated from the June data is used to predict when shrimp will reach a target size of four inches and when abundance will peak.
These measures, along with other management actions, have ensured and continue to ensure the protection of the shrimp resource in Texas coastal waters, according to the agency.
Federal waters, which extend from nine to 200 nautical miles offshore, will open at the same time as state waters, the department said, noting that the National Marine Fisheries Service chose to adopt rules compatible with those adopted by Texas.