Feasibility of Improving the Economic Return from the Gulf of Mexico Brown Shrimp Fishery

A bioeconomic model was developed to investigate the feasibility of improving the economic return from the fishery for brown shrimp Penaeus aztecus through cooperative federal and state management closures in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Four different closure periods were simulated with the model. The closure options were evaluated for Texas only (current condition) and for the entire U.S. Gulf of Mexico (proposed condition). The model provided an accurate biological simulation of the brown shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico. Each of the evaluated closures gave positive net profits to the fishery as a whole, However, these benefits were mainly for larger vessels (>50 ft in length). None of the proposed closures increased the profits for boats (undocumented vessels of unknown lengths), and only some closures increased the profits for smaller vessels (≤50 ft in length).