March 31, 2014 — Opening day of brown shrimp season hasn't been set yet. It's set by the state Wildlife and Fisheries Commission when shrimp samples reach marketable size. It typically opens in May and runs into July.
Louisiana State University shrimp liaison Julie Falgout noted that, for the first time in awhile, this year's season is approaching “without too much controversy.”
Last season, a disease that plagued Asian shrimp ponds helped shrimpers by reducing competition from abroad and forcing prices higher. Those prices will remain high through the beginning of this season, Falgout said.
Whether the shrimp are there and whether markets will sustain the high prices is yet to be seen.
Here are four issues facing shrimpers as the mid-April boat blessing ceremonies approach:
Cold rains, slow wind
The past three months have been three of the coldest in Louisiana history, on record as the sixth-coldest winter since Louisiana began keeping track in 1895.
A notable absence, the blustery warm “Lent winds” that usually come in March, has some shrimpers worried.
“With this long cold winter we had our expectations aren't too high,” Nacio said.
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