Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 King crab dethroned
- 3 The rise and fall of the California sardine empire
- 4 El Niño and variability in the northeastern Pacific salmon fishery: implications for coping with climate change
- 5 The US Gulf shrimp fishery
- 6 The menhaden fishery: interactions of climate, industry, and society
- 7 Maine lobster industry
- 8 Human responses to weather-induced catastrophes in a west Mexican fishery
- 9 Irruption of sea lamprey in the upper Great Lakes: analogous events to those that may follow climate warming
- 10 North Sea herring fluctuations
- 11 Atlanto-Scandian herring: a case study
- 12 Global warming impacts on living marine resources: Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars as an analogy
- 13 Adjustments of Polish fisheries to changes in the environment
- 14 Climate-dependent fluctuations in the Far Eastern sardine population and their impacts on fisheries and society
- 15 The Peru–Chile eastern Pacific fisheries and climatic oscillation
- 16 Climate change, the Indian Ocean tuna fishery, and empiricism
- 17 Climate variability, climate change, and fisheries: a summary
- Index
5 - The US Gulf shrimp fishery
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 King crab dethroned
- 3 The rise and fall of the California sardine empire
- 4 El Niño and variability in the northeastern Pacific salmon fishery: implications for coping with climate change
- 5 The US Gulf shrimp fishery
- 6 The menhaden fishery: interactions of climate, industry, and society
- 7 Maine lobster industry
- 8 Human responses to weather-induced catastrophes in a west Mexican fishery
- 9 Irruption of sea lamprey in the upper Great Lakes: analogous events to those that may follow climate warming
- 10 North Sea herring fluctuations
- 11 Atlanto-Scandian herring: a case study
- 12 Global warming impacts on living marine resources: Anglo-Icelandic Cod Wars as an analogy
- 13 Adjustments of Polish fisheries to changes in the environment
- 14 Climate-dependent fluctuations in the Far Eastern sardine population and their impacts on fisheries and society
- 15 The Peru–Chile eastern Pacific fisheries and climatic oscillation
- 16 Climate change, the Indian Ocean tuna fishery, and empiricism
- 17 Climate variability, climate change, and fisheries: a summary
- Index
Summary
Introduction
The US Gulf of Mexico shrimp fishery is one of the most diverse and valuable in the nation. Presently it is mainly dependent upon the harvest of three closely related, estuarine-dependent species: brown, white and pink shrimp (Penaeus aztecus, P. setiferus, and P. duroraum, respectively). The present-day fishery is a classic example of an open access fishery which has been allowed and, in some cases, encouraged to expand well beyond the point of maximum net economic return.
The fishery finds itself embroiled in a number of heated controversies especially over the incidental capture of sea turtles and finfish, with red snapper being the current example. Given the sheer size of the industry and the low marginal returns the average shrimper receives, it would be difficult enough for the industry to respond to these charges. Furthermore, recent massive imports of pond-raised shrimp, especially from China, have greatly eroded the shrimpers' already limited economic flexibility. Added to this is the possibility or likelihood of precipitous declines in yields associated with loss of productive estuarine habitats and the release into the marine environment of unspecified amounts of stored toxic wastes.
Nothing in the history of the fishery until the mid-1970s prepared the shrimpers to expect anything more than a larger cumulative harvest. During the past 300 years the fishery has undergone a mostly unplanned expansion with little or no regard for the future of the resource.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Climate Variability, Climate Change and Fisheries , pp. 89 - 120Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1992
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