The Louisiana Shrimp Task Force voted Wednesday to recommend pushing the opening of this year's white shrimp season back to 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 18, across most of the state, with Terrebonne Parish set to open later that same day at 6 p.m. The recommendation now heads to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Commission, which is scheduled to vote on it Thursday morning in Baton Rouge.
Supporters of the later date, according to New Orleans CityBusiness, argued that giving white shrimp another week to grow would let them reach larger, higher-paying market sizes. Rodney Olander, who made the motion sending the recommendation to the commission, said fishermen would ultimately come out ahead by holding off the extra week, even as he acknowledged that shrimp prices were already low and diesel prices high.
Where the Science and the Vote Diverged
LDWF crustacean biologist Konner Lockfield had initially recommended a staggered opening — Terrebonne Parish on Aug. 10 and western Louisiana on Aug. 17 — based on growth sampling showing shrimp add roughly two size categories a week, though the report notes that shrimp movement can throw off those estimates. The task force instead settled on the later, unified Aug. 18 date after weighing that data against the case for bigger, more valuable shrimp.
Louisiana's shrimping seasons are governed by a size floor written into state law: saltwater white shrimp harvested outside the traditional fall window must average at least 100 count per pound, a standard that gives the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Commission legal cover to delay openings while biologists sample growth. Pushing the season back from the traditional Aug. 1 start has become something of a pattern — the commission delayed last year's fall opening to Aug. 11 for the same reason, according to WWNO.
Fishermen Say They Can't Afford to Wait
Not everyone on the task force wanted to wait even that long. Coy Verdin argued the panel should have stuck with Lockfield's original growth-based numbers rather than tack on an extra week, saying the later date would hurt fishermen's bottom lines and leave them waiting even longer to get paid. He also predicted shrimp prices would decline once the war ends, adding urgency to his push for an earlier start.
Acy Cooper put the squeeze in blunt terms: shrimp were selling for 50 cents a pound while diesel cost $5 a gallon. Buras dealer Rocky Ditcharo, owner of Ditcharo Seafood, said simply that people need to make money, warning that opening later would put Louisiana boats behind Texas, where the season is already open and shrimp-selling and peeling infrastructure is already running to handle the catch.
A Fleet Already Reeling From Low Prices and High Fuel Costs
Total Gulf of Mexico shrimp fleet revenue fell more than 50% in two years, from $489 million in 2021 to $221 million in 2023, while inflation-adjusted dockside prices dropped below $2 a pound — the lowest level on record — according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance's analysis of federal data. Active vessels in the federal Gulf fleet dropped 19% over that same stretch, wiping out an estimated 1,200 jobs and leaving average vessel margins at negative 6.1%, the group found. Gulf Coast diesel prices surged 54% this year to top $5.37 a gallon, a major expense given that fuel typically accounts for more than half the cost of a shrimping trip, according to the same analysis.
Roughly 90% of the shrimp Americans eat is imported, and federal inspectors examine only about 2.2% of those foreign shipments, according to Louisiana Fisheries Forward — a dynamic that keeps downward pressure on what Louisiana boats can charge at the dock. Commercial seafood still supports more than $2.4 billion in annual economic impact statewide and accounts for one in every 70 Louisiana jobs, with the state landing roughly 28% to 33% of all domestic wild shrimp caught nationwide, per the Public Affairs Research Council of Louisiana.
Statewide shrimp landings have declined nearly 50% over two decades, from 147.4 million pounds in 2000 to 74.06 million pounds in 2021, as reported by PBS News. Lockfield told the task force that licensed shrimpers have fallen more than half since 2000 — a drop pegged at 53% for the number of working fishermen and 44% for license sales — with just 7,554 licenses sold and 1,657 unique fishermen working in 2025.
What's Next for Louisiana's Shrimpers
Congress has stepped in with some relief: fiscal year 2026 federal appropriations included more than $23 million for domestic shrimp industry support and trade enforcement, including $850,000 to replace outdated 3G electronic logbooks on commercial trawlers, according to Perishable News. That funding arrives as the coast is still recovering from a setback that threatened this year's crop before it even reached market size — Hoodline reported in March that a 31,500-gallon oil spill near Port Fourchon threatened brown shrimp larvae ahead of this year's harvest seasons.
The Wildlife and Fisheries Commission is scheduled to take up the task force's Aug. 18 recommendation Thursday morning at its Baton Rouge headquarters on Quail Drive. If approved, it would mark the latest in a string of season-timing calls the commission has made over the past year, including a decision that closed part of last fall's season early to protect juvenile shrimp.
