Shrimp

hrimpers along the North Carolina and Georgia coast have long been in the forefront of responsible fisheries management. Twenty years ago when lots of juvenile fish showed up in the shrimping grounds the guys would rig up a fish excluder device, sometimes known as a "Bird" for by-catch reduction device.

Conservation just seemed to make sense to these boys, why kill the fish you or your cousin will be trying to catch next winter. Sinky Boone, our supplier's dad, is the man who actually invented the Turtle excluder device (TED), which frees any turtles caught up in the shrimp nets. It was only years later that NMFS made these devices mandatory for all U.S shrimp vessels.

Even to this day Southeast Atlantic fishermen who have had years of experience with TED's, understand the nature of how a Ted works much better than gulf coast fishermen. Southeast Atlantic coast fishermen always sew their Ted's into the bottom where it works better because the turtle dives when scared also over fished horseshoe crabs can be kicked out the bottom.

Shrimp Trawl gear is relatively light with a light tickler chain to scare up the shrimp so it tends to skim rather than scrape the bottom like heavier scallop gear. In deep water off the South east Atlantic coast where our supplier is shrimping there is little Turtle grass to attract juvenile fish rather mostly hard bottom. So there is much less by-catch and fisheries habitat impact than in the Gulf of Mexico.

Shrimp stocks in this area are closely monitored by both state and federal authorities in order to insure a well managed fishery, decisions on when and where to shrimp are made on a seasonal basis.