Shrimp season kicks off with 94th annual Blessing of the Fleet
The Blessing of the Fleet is a tradition that started in 1929 and marks the beginning of shrimp season. The event set sail along the Mississippi Sound on Sunday.
Culture, heritage, and legacy are some of the many words you can use to define the Blessing of the Fleet, a ceremony held to kick off shrimping season for fishermen hoping for a safe and prosperous season. Shrimp King 2023 Wally Gollott said, “It’s a very special heritage that we find. It’s been going on for almost 94 years. So, with that being said, there’s been a lot of good fishermen and a lot of good factory men that have shaped this industry.”
Governor Tate Reeves said, “Shrimp season is open, the blue economy is extremely important here to the Mississippi Gulf Coast but the blue economy is extremely important to the entire state of Mississippi. So, we are highlighting all of the great Mississippians that are involved in the shrimping industry and obviously, a whole lot of Mississippians are out here fishing too.”
2023 Blessing of the Fleet Queen Elizabeth Wetzel of M and M Seafood says she is excited to be an ambassador for shrimping. “There were so many years of hard work poured into the industry. Our families worked very hard to make this happen and to make Biloxi, once the capital, the seafood capital of the world.”
At the Blessing, a commemoration wreath is dropped into the water to remember the fishermen who have lost their lives at sea.
With Memorial Day Weekend coinciding with Blessing of the Fleet, Governor Reeves says it’s the camaraderie that makes South Mississippi so attractive. “What we are seeing here this weekend illustrates what we all know and that is there’s a lot of patriotism down here on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It’s something we should all be proud of. It’s the reason our economy down here is booming. It’s the reason that tourism down here is booming and quite frankly it is the reason job creation down here is because there are a lot of people around America that want to live in a place like the Mississippi Gulf Coast.”
