Shrimper Keo Nguyen displays a sample of wild caught Gulf of Mexico shrimp while on his boat docked east of Lake Borgne prior to bringing it to a seafood market Tuesday, Oct. 24, 2023. (Photo credit: Wes Muller/Louisiana Illuminator)
Inshore shrimp season in Louisiana will open a couple weeks later than usual this year, and shrimpers are all for it.
The Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission set Aug. 11 as the opening date for the inshore fall 2025 white shrimp season on Monday, pushed back from the typical Aug. 1 start date based on testimony from state biologists and the public.
The date was moved to make sure shrimp get to a marketable size, which will fetch higher prices for shrimpers as well as ensuring the shrimp population remains stable.
Louisiana Shrimp Association president Acy Cooper Jr. said that, for the majority of the shrimpers he represents, the wait is worth it.
“We really need bigger shrimp in order to try to make money with it. Try with the smaller shrimp, and they just don’t pay us enough,” Cooper said.
For 2025, shrimping waters from the Mississippi-Louisiana border to the eastern shore of the Mississippi River’s South Pass open at 6 a.m. Aug. 11. Waters east of South Pass to the Atchafalaya River Ship Channel at Eugene Island, marked with a red channel buoy line, open at 6 p.m. From the buoy line westward to the Louisiana-Texas border, shrimping opens at 6 a.m.
A shrimp’s life cycle and how much it grows is heavily dependent on water conditions, such as salinity, temperature and oxygen content, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.
Biologists work to measure these conditions and, with input from the Wildlife and Fisheries Commission and the state’s Shrimp Task Force, can determine where and when shrimp will be the right size to harvest.
In order to gauge when white shrimp reach a marketable size of 100 shrimp per pound, biologists trawl the state’s estuarine and inland waters, sampling shrimp and testing the conditions. They then plug their measurements into mathematical models to predict when shrimp would reach a big enough size.
Cooper said opening later in the season is the result of a balancing act between gaging where the shrimp will run and waiting for the chance to make the most money for the work put in. That balance can make the difference for shrimpers when it comes to financially surviving another season.
“You are taking the chance of losing some, but that’s a chance they’re going to take,” he said. “We really need bigger shrimp in order to survive down here if we’re gonna make any money.”