According to surveys conducted by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s coastal fisheries division many fewer shrimpers are working the state’s water these days. And this has brought down the overfishing of shrimps in the areas. It also shows a sharp shrinkage of the inshore commercial shrimp fleet and the increased productivity for those shrimpers pulling nets, which reflect the dramatic changes in Texas’ commercial bay shrimping industry over the past decade.
It is fact that the reduction of shrimping pressure has benefited the state’s inshore fisheries as well as worked to the advantage of the shrimpers. The survey revealed that many programmes have led to the steep reduction in shrimping effort in Texas bays since the mid-1990s. Definitely legislative mandate has played vital role in reducing shrimper pressure. The mandate has allowed limited-entry shrimp fishery and a well-funded state program aimed at reducing the number of shrimpers on the water though buying and retiring the licenses they hold.
Robin Riechers, policy director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s coastal fisheries division, informed that the shrimp license buy-back programme has had tremendous effect in reducing the shrimping effort to a level where it’s sustainable.
Based on the TPWD coastal fisheries research every pound of shrimp caught in trawls pulled in Texas bays, four pounds of non-target marine life was also scooped into the nets. TPWD also purchased a commercial shrimping licence from a licence holder and permanently retire that licence.
Riechers said that the programmse help a lot to reduce the shrimping pressure. Now the pressure has been reduced to about half what it was in the mid-1990s. He opined that TPWD believes that it is right to support an economically and ecologically sustainable commercial shrimp fishery. And after this next round of licence buy-backs will restrict the pressure even further.
