Shrimpers, get ready to pull in your nets: Texas and federal Gulf waters are about to enter a shrimping hiatus. Starting 30 minutes after sunset on May 15, shrimping off the Texas shore and in federal areas will be verboten until a date in July, yet to be determined. This temporary closure, while a routine annual event to let shrimp populations flourish, can still cause a rumble in the industry.

According to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department's website, the Coastal Fisheries Division will be hard at work this summer, scrutinizing shrimp numbers to pin down the best time to kick off the summer shrimping season. They traditionally aim to eagerly throw open the gates on July 15, but Mother Nature has a vote, and they're listening. The pause in shrimping activities allows the brown shrimp, a dinner table favorite, to grow to a more marketable size – a win-win for both the seafood lover's palate and the shrimper's pocket.

Robin Riechers, Director of TPWD's Coastal Fisheries Division, emphasized the closure's significance. "The goal of this closure is twofold. Allowing shrimp to migrate into gulf waters gives them time to mature and grow before commercial fishermen begin the summer season in July," Riechers told TPWD. "This also helps ensure Texas' shrimp stocks are sustainable not just for the season, but for many years to come."

Texas is putting a cork on its shoreline shrimping operations extending out to nine nautical miles while the National Marine Fisheries Service is doing the same up to 200 miles offshore, all in a coordinated effort, as per the TPWD. Biologists have been sifting through the shrimp data—the rates of catch, the average lengths of the little crustaceans in April, and their migratory behaviors—to come up with the May 15 date.