"Clearly we had a rough go of it," said Ben Landry, spokesman for Omega Protein, which operates a processing facility in Moss Point.
Landry told The Mississippi Press that the company believes the season's lower-than-average catch was due to the water closures rather any problems with the menhaden population.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that the 2010 menhaden season saw 379,727 metric tons landed at four Gulf of Mexico sites, compared to 457,457 metric tons in 2009.
The landings were down 15 percent from the five-year average of 446,982 metric tons.
The
