Miller: We’re in danger of losing our Texas Gulf Shrimp industry

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – After a few words of prayer, a Catholic priest ended his comments with, “Bless this Fleet.”

And this marks the traditional kickoff of the Texas Gulf Shrimp season that usually starts each July 15.

For the Rev. Joe Flores, it was a day of celebration, wishful thinking and optimism.

Flores presided at the traditional “Blessing of the Fleet” held every year to pray for the Brownsville/Port Isabel shrimp industry for a bountiful crop despite the adversities it has been facing over the years.

Cheap imports, whether farmed or not, high operation costs, older trawlers and harder to get deckhands, have contributed to the demise of this once healthy enterprise.

The Rev. Joe Flores “blessed the fleet” at the start of the 2025 shrimp season. (Photo: Antonio Vindell)

And that is something Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller knows well.

“We are battling farm raised shrimp grown under horrible conditions, with hormones and antibiotics,” he said. “If we don’t step in and make some corrections in the farm bill or in independent legislation we are going to lose this industry.

He said Texas shrimpers can’t compete with farmed or foreign imports.

“They are selling it bellow our cost of production,” Miller said. “It’s an inferior product that is not good. We want to support wild life shrimp.”

Although the industry gets no funding from the government, he said a recent legislation was passed to ensure shrimp is labeled according to its place of origin – gulf or foreign.

Miller said the regulation will go into effect on Sept. 1.

The secretary of agriculture was at the Brownsville Shrimp Basin to witness for the first time the fleet blessing held Wednesday, July 9.

After a brief ceremony, guests, TDA officials and shrimp boat owners hopped on a trawler that took them around the dozens of vessels docked around the basin.

Flores sprayed holy water from a small jar as he prayed for the industry.

Back in the 50s and 60s, more than 700 trawlers called the area home but the numbers started to shrink in light of the same hardships they face today.

Hilda Sanders, whose family has been involved in shrimping for several decades, said fewer and fewer boats go out these days.

She said a shrimp boat using about 21,000 gallons in diesel spends about $50,000 for a 60-day trip.

A larger boat has higher costs, she said.

July is a month referred to as the shrimp run as the crustaceans are in larger concentration.

If the season is good, a boat can come back with some 300 bags of shrimp each weighing 100 pounds.

Gulf coast shrimp is a highly sought commodity but as the season moves on its gets harder and harder to make a trip profitable.

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