Officials from the Alabama Marine Resources Division have announced the official season opening for brown shrimp in waterways along Alabama’s Gulf Coast, effective June 11at 6 a.m. Central Daylight Time.

Waterways open for shrimping are as follows:

All waters in the Mississippi Sound south of N30 20.000’ latitude, west of W88 15.000’ longitude, and south of the northern edge of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) not permanently closed by law or regulation.

All waters east of the charted position of GIWW Marker #103, including all waters of Wolf Bay, Perdido Bay, Arnica Bay, Bay La Launch, and Bayou St. John not permanently closed by law or regulation.

The following waters, previously opened, will remain opened:

All waters in Mobile Bay and Bon Secour Bay south of N30 17.250’ latitude.

“The opening of shrimp season is later this year than usual,” says Chris Blankenship, Alabama Marine Resources director and program administrator of the Alabama Seafood Marketing Commission. “The cooler than average temperatures and high rainfall amounts this spring have caused the shrimp to be a little later getting to legal size. We have only opened a portion of our waters, but the abundance in Mobile Bay should be very good. We will continue to sample the remaining waters and will open more waters as the shrimp grow to harvestable size.”

Brown shrimp makes up the vast majority of Alabama shrimp available during the late spring and summer months. White and pink shrimp can also be caught in Alabama’s coastal waterways with white shrimp serving as the more abundant species in late summer and fall. Shrimp make up the highest volume seafood landed in Alabama and the Gulf Coast. Over 25 million pounds of shrimp are landed in Alabama on an annual basis.

Licensed live bait dealers are reminded that the taking of live bait north of a line beginning at the northern shore of East Fowl River running along the northern edge of the Fowl River Channel to Marker #2 in the Fowl River Channel then southeasterly to Middle Bay Light and then northeasterly to Great Point Clear is prohibited at this time except by Permit holders in the Special Permit Area in the Mobile Ship Channel.