Galveston fishing report

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Another sign that our summer fishing season is about to begin is the annual closing of the commercial shrimp season each May.
 
The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department announced the Gulf of Mexico season for both Texas and federal waters will close 30 minutes after sunset Thursday until a still-to-be determined time in July.

Readers often ask why the closure takes place, and hopefully the information contained in Thursday’s announcement below will answer those questions.
The closing date is based on samples collected by the Coastal Fisheries Division of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department using trawl, bag seine and other information gathered from the shrimping industry.
Data collected regarding TPWD bag seine catch rates of brown shrimp, mean lengths of shrimp in April 2014, percent of samples containing shrimp and periods of maximum nocturnal ebb tidal flow indicated the Thursday closing date is appropriate. Typically, once the shrimp reach about 31/2 inches long, they begin their migration to the gulf.
“The purpose of moving the closure date this year is tied to when the shrimp are projected to leave the bays,” TPWD’s coastal fisheries science director Mark Fisher said. “Due to cooler spring temperatures and higher salinities, shrimp growth rates appear to be slower this spring.”
Fisher said the data suggest that keeping the closure date will afford protection to small shrimp as they begin their movement from the bays to the gulf.
“The closure is designed to allow these small shrimp after escapement to the gulf to grow to a larger, more valuable size before they are vulnerable to harvest,” said Robin Riechers, TPWD coastal fisheries division director. “The goal is to achieve optimum benefits for the shrimping industry while providing proper management to protect the shrimp.”
The Texas closure applies to gulf waters from the coast out to nine nautical miles. The National Marine Fisheries Service has announced federal waters out to 200 nautical miles also will be closed to shrimping to conform to the Texas closure.
While the statutory opening date for the gulf season is July 15, TPWD’s Coastal Fisheries Division will be sampling shrimp populations to determine the optimum opening date.
   The date of the reopening of gulf waters will be based on data collected in June, but the closure may not be longer than 60 days.