An Overview of the Fisheries Statistics for the Shrimp Fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico

Statistics on the fishing activities for shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico consist of two types of data. One component provides data on the amount and value of the shrimp by species and market category (or size) that the fleet landed. This information is collected from seafood dealers throughout the coastal regions along th Gulf, and the strategy is to collect all landings statistics from known, established seafood dealers. The second component is data on the amount of fishing effort and the location of the fishing activity. This information is collected from interviews with fishermen as they unload their catches. Unlike the census approach for collecting landings statistics, the effort statistics are collected from only a sample of the offshore fishing trips. The procedures that are used to collect these statistics are presented,as well as descriptions of the individual data elements in the database.