Category Archives: Shrimp

Shrimp are swimming, decapod crustaceans classified in the infraorder Caridea, found widely around the world in both fresh and salt water. Adult shrimp are filter feeding benthic animals living close to the bottom. They can live in schools and can swim rapidly backwards. Shrimp are an important food source for larger animals from fish to whales. They have a high tolerance to toxins in polluted areas, and may contribute to high toxin levels in their predators. Together with prawns, shrimp are widely caught and farmed for human consumption.

Recreational shrimping is the act of catching shrimp for non-commercial purposes – usually for personal consumption within yield restrictions imposed by law. People who catch shrimp recreationally are known as recreational shrimpers or shrimpers and the act is called recreational shrimping.

Common methods for recreational shrimping include shrimp baiting, dip netting, and ozello shrimping.

Shrimp baiting is a recreational shrimping technique. It involves using bait patties, which are a time-release bait, typically concocted of at least fish meal and clay, though shrimpers sometimes have a secret concoction for their bait patties. The patties are then put in the water, and one waits for the shrimp to arrive. The fisher then throws a cast net over the shrimp to catch them. These nets are typically anywhere from 4 to 10 feet in length when they are unfurled and have a ring of lead weights around the bottom. A lantern is usually placed over the spot where the bait patties have been set out.
Dip netting is another recreational shrimping technique. Its name comes from the traditional tool used to scoop shrimp out of shallow water grass flats by individual shrimpers. Hand nets have been in use for centuries and traditional “push” nets can still be found in use along the French and British coasts as well as parts of New England.

A mechanical variation on the traditional dip net method is “Ozello shrimping”. This technique involves a specialized device that permits recreational shrimpers to selectively catch shrimp along low tidal area zones with minimal tidal force impact. The device utilizes a string activated trap that opens and closes a trap door to contain individual shrimp for capture. Unlike traditional dip nets, the device does not require recreational shrimpers to bend over or filter through bycatch with their hands nor does it cause ancillary damage to surrounding environments – primarily seagrass in estuaries. This modern variant of the traditional dip net has been in use throughout the West Coast of Florida for over 20 years and dramatically increases the efficiency and volume of recreational shrimping yields. It has recently been finding its way into Gulf of Mexico coastal communities and SouthEast Asia in both commercial and recreational applications.

In the Gulf of Mexico, the shrimp season takes place in the summer months. The timing is generally between late May and early July beginning later and ending earlier the further north along the coast a location is. Recreational shrimping seasons across the United States vary depending on proximity to estuaries and jurisdictional limitation on the recreational shrimping seasons imposed by local, state and federal laws.