Texas commercial harvest statistics, 1977-1983

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department in cooperation with the National Marine Fisheries service conducts a continuing program to collect data on commercially harvested finfishes and shellfishes from Texas bays and from the Gulf of Mexico off Texas. Shrimp continue to be the most important commercial seafood product in Texas. They comprised 78.5% of the pounds and 91.2% of the value of total landings, while oysters, blue crabs and finfish accounted for 6.0%, 1.7% and .1% of the value, respectively, and combined comprised 21.5% of the total pounds landed in 1983. Total reported landings in 1983 amounted to 91,701,861 lb with an ex-vessel value of $188,018,626. This is the fourth highest poundage recorded since 1977 and the third year in a row of record high value. The previous high value in 1982 was exceeded by over $2,200,000. From 1977 to 1983, the mean price\lb paid the commercial fisherman increased for all species except for the other shrimp price which decreased $.75/lb. Finfish prices increased by $.14/lb to $0.52/lb. Shellfish prices increased by $0.11/lb to 0.98/lb.