Stories in the news
Disaster declaration for Miss. shrimpers sought
BILOXI — The state will ask the U.S. Department of Commerce to issue a fisheries disaster declaration for Mississippi's shrimp industry.
Dale Diaz, director of marine fisheries for the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, told the Mississippi Press the request will be filed within a week.
The declaration is the first step in possibly gaining federal relief funds. Diaz said if a declaration is made, the state would have to go to Congress for an appropriation for disaster relief.
Diaz said a failure declaration request for oysters and crab was made in August.
The 2011 fishing season was affected by the release of freshwater from the flooded Mississippi River through the Bonnet Carre Spillway into the Mississippi Sound from May through June.
The freshwater incursion followed the 2010 season, when fishing largely shut down in the northern Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from April to July.
Based on preliminary information, the inshore shrimp landings from state waters reached the threshold for a declaration for the July through December season, Diaz said.
"We have to show a loss of over 35 percent to even be considered for a fishery failure," he said. "What teased out of the data is from July through November it looks like our inshore fishery met that criteria at about a 37 percent decrease."