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'It looks promising:' Louisiana's Fall shrimp season opens with high hopes

Season opens following a disastrous brown shrimp season earlier this year

NEW ORLEANS — It's been a tough year for Louisiana shrimpers.

Fresh water from two Bonnet Carre Spillway openings and the algae blooms that followed made for one of the worst brown shrimp seasons in recent history.

Shrimpers are hoping a good white shrimp season this fall will help them recover.

Shrimper George Barisch was on his boat on Lake Borgne when the season opened on Monday.

"Actually the opening in the area I was went fairly well," Barisch said. "I caught a lot of shrimp yesterday. I caught a lot of shrimp last night and I'm still catching a few today."

Barisch says so far he's caught about 3,000 pounds of shrimp and he hoping for more.

Amy's Seafood Mart at the open air market in Westwego is already selling some white shrimp that was caught since the season opened.

"They're a good count and they're beautiful shrimp," vendor Chris Bourgeois said. "So far, so good. The season's just starting, yesterday. So far, so good."

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Sandra Crandle from New Orleans came to the market looking for fresh shrimp.

She wasn't disappointed.

"I'm going to go home and barbecue them," Crandle said. "Fresh shrimp be more meatier."

Barisch admits he's had better openings, but based on the condition of the water less than a month ago -- he's doing a happy dance on his boat.

"Lake Borgne is coming back," Barisch said. "The detrimental effects of the spillway may not be as long lasting as we feared for Lake Borgne."

Back at Amy's Seafood, Bourgeois said the quality of Louisiana's white shrimp speaks for himself. 

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"They're all uniform, man," he said. "Hopefully the season continues for everybody to have a good outstanding season."

The big question now is how long the fall shrimp season will remain open.

There is some fear, fresh water intrusion caused a decrease in the white shrimp population this year and it won't take long for shrimpers to catch what's out there.

"To me, I think it looks promising," Barisch said. 

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