This blog attempts to estimate the direct losses on the northern Gulf region commercial shrimp fishery associated with the prolonged and twice opening of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2019.
The commercial fishery impacts consist of losses of wild shrimp harvests by commercial shrimpers due to the protracted freshwater intrusion. One approach to estimate the direct losses of this manmade disaster is by comparing the 2019 and 2020 landings to previous years' benchmarks. The annual shrimp landings during the benchmark period averaged more than 61 million headless pounds valued at more than $281 million.
The direct losses of wild shrimp harvests by shrimpers are measured by the difference between the 2014-18 monthly benchmark landings and the 2019-20 monthly landings. The total direct losses from March to December 2019 reached almost 14 million headless pounds or 22% of the 2014-2018 benchmark landings. A total of less than a million headless pounds was estimated from January to March 2020 or about 2% of the benchmarks. The overall dockside values of direct losses of shrimp landings in the region during the 13-month period under consideration totaled almost $67 million.
These damages associated with the multiple openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway in 2009 are expected to rise. These damages will be exacerbated by the opening of the spillway from April to May 2020 and the unknown magnitude and duration of the current public health disaster caused by COVID-19.
Meet the author
Benedict C. Posadas, Ph.D.
Extension Research Professor of Economics
Since 1990, Ben Posadas has consistently developed and maintained the Mississippi State University Coastal Research and Extension Center’s (CREC) extension and research program in economics with... Read more
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