Plight of the shrimp
With the Shrimp Festival weekend approaching and a bounty of delicious local pink shrimp readily available, let’s take some time to take a look at these crustaceans in a scientific way.
A tour of San Carlos Island’s Commercial Fishing Fleet and Ostego Bay Foundation’s Marine Science Center offered much insight to one of the area’s largest industries.
Betty Goodacre, a 53-year resident and vice president of the foundation, discussed the shrimp business as part of an educational talk on marine life and gave a guided sightseeing excursion through the inner bellies of Erikson & Jenson Supply House, Trico Shrimp Company, Beach Seafood and their shrimp boat docks.
Twenty-seven interested participants learned an earful from one of the area’s most informed people on the subject.
Here is a brief synopsis on Gulf shrimp and the local shrimp industry.
Reproduction and early life
Shrimp lay eggs in abundance from 50,000 to 1 million that usually hatch after a 24-hour cycle. The larvae undergo four different stages of metamorphosis during a 12-day period then, as post larvae or young shrimp, migrate into the Gulf Stream, known as a river in an ocean, according to Goodacre.
“Shrimp lays eggs into the water and the tides carry the eggs into the Back Bay,” she said. “The shrimp then get in the mangroves where they grow to be about 6 months old and then go back out (into the Back Bay). That is why we are so protective of our mangroves.”
Goodacre explained that shrimp increase in size after hurricanes.
“The hurricane we had in late May last year stirred up the water and the nutrients must have been so much better because the shrimp were so much bigger,” she said.
The molting stage and life span
During a full moon, shrimp burrow down into the sand, shed their existing skin or shell and increase in size. This process is called molting.
Three or four days after burrowing, the shrimp emerge with their new shell. Their full life cycle is roughly 18 months.
The shrimp boat and its usage
Shrimp boats are rigged with side booms, hand-sewn nets with attached trawl doors and a Turtle Extruder Device (TED).
The nets are hooked to the booms and a pair of doors is attached to the nets with a steel shoe on the bottom to weigh them down. The whole apparatus is dropped to nearly 1,600 feet in water, says Goodacre.
“The doors bounce around the bottom of the ground,” she said. “The pressure of the water on the doors holds the nets open and shrimp jump up and into the nets.”
Goodacre explained that shrimp boats carry six to eight nets at $1,800 dollars a piece. The nets are painted green to blend in with the gulf waters.
The TED is used for legal purposes, according to Goodacre.
“The shrimp boats have to have turtle extruders in their nets to let the turtles out,” she said. “It is illegal to catch turtles. Turtles have to breathe every 5 to 6 minutes, so they climb up the net, and escape through the upper opening. Because of TEDs, shrimpers lose about 30 percent of their catch.”
Goodacre explained that a soft TED (a series of nets) is no longer used because it no longer meets government regulations. A hard TED with a weighted device at the bottom to release the turtle is now the legal standard.
“When they catch a turtle in a hard TED, the weight of it opens up the bottom piece and the turtle escapes,” she said “A turtle weighs anywhere from 600 to 800 pounds so they can open it up easily.”
According to Goodacre, shrimp boats travel in groups of two or three for safety and work 10 or so miles apart from each other.
“That’s why you see a boat sitting out there because they’re waiting,” she said. “You very seldom see one go out at a time.”
The ‘shrimper’s livelihood
There are usually three men on a shrimp boat: the captain, the rigger and the deckhand. On average, the captain and his crew travel to the Yucatan peninsula in the spring; the Florida Keys in the fall; and Texas in the summer.
“A lot of our shrimp companies have docks of their own in Texas,” said Goodacre. “The Texas beds don’t open until July 15 and close on Nov. 15. So, a lot of our guys stay here through the Fourth of July holiday then take the boat to the docks in Galveston and other areas there and return to Florida for Thanksgiving.”
The captain and crew harvest their catch twice at night between the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. The process includes going to the site, dropping anchor, putting up buoys and lowering their boom and nets.
Once the captain and crew release their catch on board, the rigger and the deckhand use their thumbnails to take the shrimp heads off, according to Goodacre.
“When they open the nets and drop the shrimp on the deck, the rigger and the deckhand sit down and de-head over 4,000 live shrimp all by themselves,” she said.
After the de-heading process, the shrimp are bagged and dropped into ice chests to fast freeze. They are then transferred to the bottom of the boat which acts like one big freezer.
Once the shrimp start their burrowing cycle, the captain and crew return from their arduous adventure to unload their catch.
The crew’s earnings.
According to Goodacre, the captain gets paid for 30 percent of the catch while the rigger gets 15 percent and the deckhand 10 percent. After the company takes its share, the remaining percentage covers expenses.
“The company pays for the insurance, the food, the fuel and the ice,” she said. “Then they get their money off the top. That’s how they make their money.”
The size of shrimp
Once on land, the loads of shrimp are dropped into shrimp-sizing machines where they are proportioned into different size brackets. The smallest shrimp never make the trip because they fall through the net system.
The shrimp are then put into freezers where they are kept below 40 degrees to remain fresh.
The number on shrimp counts reflect how many you get per pound. For example, if you purchase what is known as 50/60s, you get 50 to 60 shrimp per pound. Larger shrimp yield a lesser count.
Texas versus Florida
“The shrimp over in Texas are brown shrimp,” she said. “We are known for our pink shrimp which are called Florida wild shrimp because they have no additives. They are just as pure as when they come out of the Gulf waters.”