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Commercial Crab Industry

Mississippi Commercial Crab Industry

The annual Mississippi commercial blue crab landings and landing values from 1950 are shown below. Significant differences can be observed in the volume of landings between the 1950-1960, 1961-1987, and 1988-2021 periods. From 1950 to 1960, yearly landings averaged about 2.2 million pounds, valued at $120,000. Lower annual landings were reported from 1961 to 1987, averaging 1.6 million pounds, but valued higher at $276,000 per year. From 1988 to 2013, commercial landings declined further to 578,000 pounds, valued higher at $439,000 per year. From 2014 to 2021, annual landings averaged about 747,000 pounds, valued at $1.1 million annually.

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Figure 1 shows the annual Mississippi commercial blue crab landings (in pounds) and landing values (in dollars) compiled from the NOAA Fisheries website.

In response to requests by state regulatory agencies and seafood organizations, the 2009 (and later) economic contributions of the Mississippi seafood industry by major species were imputed from state estimates published by NOAA Fisheries. Extension and research publications were developed to document the economic contributions of Mississippi's major seafood species that landed, processed, sold, and consumed.

Sales are the gross sales by businesses within the economic region affected by an activity. Sales, income, value-added, and tax contributions are measured in dollars. Employment or job contribution is expressed in terms of a mix of both full-time and part-time jobs. The total economic contribution is the sum of direct, indirect, and induced contributions.

The economic contributions of the crab industry in 2009 are shown in the table below. The sales contributions reached $8.18 million in 2009, generating 244 full-time and part-time jobs. Income contribution was $3.55 million, and value-added created was $4.52 million. The industry added tax impacts reaching $0.52 million.

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Table 1 shows estimates of the 2009 economic contributions of the Mississippi crab industry from MAFES Bulletin 1209

Lower economic contributions of the Mississippi crab industry were estimated in 2011, as shown in the table below. The sales contributions of the sector reached $7.15 million and generated about 217 full-time and part-time jobs. Income contribution reached $3.14 million, and the value-added created was $3.98 million. The industry made tax impacts totaling $0.82 million.

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Table 2 shows estimates of the 2011 economic contributions of the Mississippi crab industry from https://coastal.msstate.edu/economic-impact-crab

Revised 2015 estimates of the economic contributions of Mississippi's combined crab and oyster industries are shown below. Due to the confidentiality of the 2015 data, NOAA Fisheries estimates were combined for the two sectors. The combined sales contributions totaled $35 million and generated 831 full-time and part-time jobs. Pooled-income contributions were $14.8 million, and the value-added created was $18.9 million.

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Table 3 shows the combined estimates of the 2015 economic contributions of the Mississippi crab and oyster sectors from Extension publication 3194.  

Mississippi MarketMaker

Posadas, Benedict C. Commercial Blue Crab Harvesting. Mississippi MarketMaker Newsletter, Vol. 9, Issue 7, August 6, 2019.

Posadas, Benedict C. and Amanda E. Jefferson. Commercial Florida Stone Crab Claws Fishing. Mississippi MarketMaker Newsletter, Vol. 8, Issue 9, June 27, 2018.

Posadas, Benedict C. Know Your Local Seafood Businesses Handling Crab Products! Mississippi MarketMaker Newsletter, Vol. 6, Issue 4, February 16, 2016.

Posadas, Benedict C., Katherine Buchanan, Bailey Wright, and Randy Y. Coker. Blue Crabs: A Mississippi Must! Mississippi MarketMaker Newsletter, Vol. 3, Issue 17, October 15, 2013.

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Filed Under: Environment, Fisheries, Marine Resources, Seafood Economics, Seafood Harvesting and Processing July 25, 2019

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Portrait of Dr. Ben Posadas
Extension/Research Professor