Shrimpier This Year

Maine caught shrimp will be, well, shrimpier this year. Fewer five year old shrimp, are available so most of the catch will be made up of or the smaller four year old class shrimp. The Northern shrimp season started December 1 and will close on April 15. The season is the same for both trap and trawl catch methods and allows 136 days of fishing, less than the 180 day planned for last year. I say planned because last year's season was cut short at 156 days because of the small population of shrimp. The same could happen this year as catch rates and stocks will be monitored and the the fishing season closure date revisited in February. Shrimp are hitting the stores and pedlars now.

Shrimp are caught in traps (fixed gear) not unlike lobster traps that sit on the bottom waiting for shrimp to swim in, and nets dragged through the water behind boats (mobile gear). I prefer to buy trap caught shrimp when I can because they don't run the risk of being crushed at the bottom of the trawl, releasing enzymes that hasten their decay. I'm also pretty sure that it takes less fuel to haul traps than to trawl.

There are three questions I like to ask when I buy shrimp: Where, when and how was this product caught? If the vendor can't answer these questions I move along and make my purchase somewhere else. I like responses like "These here trap shrimp was landed Tuesday morning in Port Clyde by one of the Reed boys." Often asking any question at all will bring up a lot of information about the product. And I soak it up like a sponge. While I prefer trapped to trawl shrimp, I'll buy either caught in Maine waters in the past few days.