Alas, poor shrimp. The BP Gulf Rupture will not be easy on these tasty little invertebrates.
It's hell being a bottom feeder with Homo sapiens running the place as it is. Let alone a bottom feeder invertebrate.
News below the bloggal partition.
Louisiana closes area to shrimp harvesting
AP
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries has ordered the immediate closure of shrimp harvesting in an area that may be vulnerable to an ever-widening oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico.
Secretary Robert Barham issued an emergency closure, effective at 6 p.m. Thursday, in territorial seas from the south pass of the Mississippi River to the eastern shore of 4 Bayous Pass.
Barham says the closure was suggested after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's projections indicated the area might become vulnerable to oil, which began spewing when a drilling rig exploded and sank in the Gulf of Mexico last month.
A Threat Creeping Toward the Pantry
NYT
NEW ORLEANS — Margie Scheuermann, who has lived here for 78 years, went over her list as she waited in line Tuesday to buy local seafood at the Crescent City Farmers Market: a pair of soft-shell crabs, a pound of lump crab meat and five pounds of unpeeled white gulf shrimp.
"This could all be gone next week," she said. "And if we don’t get fresh seafood, what are we going to do? You can’t cook."
In good times and bad, New Orleans has always had a talent for living for the moment. So with oil from a gushing well in the Gulf of Mexico looming offshore, people here are buying and eating as much seafood as they can as fast as they can. At last Saturday’s farmers’ market, an entire load of 350 pounds of fresh shrimp, at $5 a pound, sold out in an hour.
Fort Smith Seafood Merchants Say Don't Panic Over Oil Spill
Arkansas
People are rushing to local seafood merchants, afraid their favorite dishes may be off the menu because of the gulf coast oil spill.
Right after the oil spill happened, customers at See's Seafood in Fort Smith had a lot of questions about how that would affect their purchases, but the owners are saying the most important thing is not to panic.
"When that first happened the customers started calling and everybody wanted to buy up a whole bunch of shrimp at one time, because they were worried they were never going to get shrimp again," said Sandy See.
According to Sees, her shrimp suppliers aren't in the direct line of the oil. They're located in Texas, and the weather has been pushing the growing slick away from that area.
Cold Winter Kills Shrimp And Trout
South Carolina
Charleston, SC - A cold winter kills off two major catches for local fishermen. The DNR estimates up to 70 percent of spotted sea trout have been killed off. The white shrimp population took an even bigger hit at 90 percent.
The DNR has been checking the stock to make sure it's ready and this year's numbers are way down.
"I went out with them, we saw nine or 10 shrimp where we should have had 150. It’s down," said Tommy Edwards, a shrimper.
Crab, shrimp prices rising in Lebanon County
Pennsylvania
Joe Church says he's never seen so much volatility in seafood pricing.
Church, who has owned Cheyney Seafood in North Cornwall Township for 14 years, said Thursday that crab and shrimp prices are rising and will likely continue to do so.
"There's going to be a shortage of shrimp," Church said. "There are not a lot of large shrimp available."
Prices rose this week, and Church expects next week's prices to be "significantly higher."
Maine
New England shrimp fishermen have solid season
PORTLAND, Maine — The combination of a healthy shrimp population, favorable weather and stable markets have made for solid shrimp fishing in New England — so solid, in fact, that the season is closing early because fishermen have caught so many of the small, sweet crustaceans.
So far they've caught nearly 11 million pounds. That's the biggest seasonal harvest since 1997. Because the harvest has exceeded the recommended maximum catch, regulators are closing the season Wednesday, more than three weeks earlier than originally planned.
Even so, the shrimp markets have rebounded from last year when the global recession dampened demand, said John Norton, CEO and president of Cozy Harbor Seafood Inc., a seafood processing company in Portland. Last year's shrimp season began just two months after the financial markets collapsed in October 2008, causing seafood buyers to pull back on their purchases, he said.
Special La. shrimp season closing 6 p.m. Tuesday
BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana's Department of Wildlife and Fisheries says a special shrimp season will end at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Secretary Robert Barham opened the season last Wednesday to let trawlers harvest marketable white shrimp before any possible effects of the oil spill showed up in state waters.
A news release says department biologists find that marketable white shrimp have been taken, leaving only juvenile brown shrimp. It says the only reason for closing the season is to let the brown shrimp grow.
The area that will close Tuesday includes Zone 1, from the Mississippi-Louisiana state line to the western shore of South Pass, and inshore waters of Zone 2, from South Pass to the western shore of Vermilion Bay.