Shrimp
We have a variety of edible shrimp species in the Pacific Northwest. All of our local species are included in the genus Pandalus, a genus of cold-water species known collectively as “pandalid shrimp”.
Living about three to five years, pandalid shrimp reach maturity quickly, which allows their populations to recover quickly from disturbances. The shrimp are protrandric hermaphrodites, which means they start as males but become females when they age.
Pandalid species are of major economic importance, comprising nearly half of the shrimp caught in the world.
In our region, the most important shrimp species is the pink shrimp, making up most of the shrimp landed. The spot shrimp is also of economic significance, and several other species are also caught in smaller numbers, especially in the Salish Sea region.
Cooking with shrimp
The main edible portion of the shrimp is the tail meat. Shrimp can be cooked in a myriad of ways: grilled, steamed, boiled, stir-fried, etc. They can also be dried, salted, or fermented, and used as a flavoring, as is common practice in eastern Asian cuisines.
Shrimp are easy to overcook and do best with quick cooking times, becoming rubbery and tough when overcooked.
Shells are often removed, but are actually edible. As with other crustaceans, shrimp shells are useful for making broth and sauces.
When cleaning shrimp, the digestive tract that runs along the back of the tail is removed by cutting down the tail and pulling it out. The digestive tract often contains sand or other grit and so is unpleasant to eat. On larger shrimp, the nerve cord on the opposite side of the tail is also sometimes removed. Small shrimp, such as pink shrimp or northern shrimp, are usually mechanically processed after being caught. They are steamed and peeled and are commonly sold frozen.
The hepatopancreas, found in the head and midsection of shrimp, is edible, similarly to crab and crawfish. Many cultures eat the heads of larger species of shrimp, such as the spot shrimp and the sidestripe shrimp. The tails and heads of spot shrimp are commonly sold separately in sushi restaurants; the head is deep-fried.
Large species, such as the spot shrimp, can sometimes be found with the roe attached underneath their tails.
Species
Shrimp
Pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani)
Spot shrimp (Pandalus platyceros)
Humpback shrimp (Pandalus hypsinotus)
Sidestripe shrimp (Pandalus dispar)
Dock shrimp (Pandalus danae)
Northern shrimp (Pandalus eous)
Uncommon species
Humpy shrimp (Pandalus goniurus)
Striped shrimp (Pandalus tridens)
Roughpatch shrimp (Pandalus stenolepis)
Pink shrimp
Pandalus jordani, the pink shrimp, is a small species of pandalid shrimp that comprises the most economically important commercial shrimp fishery in the Pacific Northwest. Pink shrimp are found from Alaska to Baja California, with the greatest numbers found off of the Oregon coast. Pink shrimp live in muddy ocean bottoms at depths anywhere from 120 to 1500 ft, but usually somewhere in the middle of that range.
Pink shrimp grow to about 3 inches on average but can reach up to 6 inches in length. They are, as their name suggests, uniformly pink in color.
Fishing occurs primarily off of the ocean coasts of Oregon and Washington, with the overwhelming majority of the catch being brought into Oregon ports. Pink shrimp are caught with trawls. Landings reached 30 million pounds in the mid-2010s, with the 25-year average sitting at about 9 million pounds per year. Landings in Washington are less than a quarter of the landings in Oregon, and even lower in California, where the fishery is primarily concentrated around Crescent City and Eureka.
The season for commercial shrimp fishing is shared with Washington, Oregon, and California and spans from April to the end of October. Stocks are considered resilient by authorities and appear to be stable. Bycatch is very low.
Commercial fishing for pink shrimp began in the late 1950s in Oregon and Washington, and took off further in the 1960s with the introduction of automated peeling machines that could match the quality of hand-peeled shrimp. The use of these machines allowed for larger amounts to be processed. Today, pink shrimp is sold as “cocktail shrimp” and commonly exported to Europe.
Spot shrimp
Also commonly called “spot prawns” (see note), Pandalus platyceros is a large species of shrimp found along the West Coast, from Alaska down to southern California. Spot shrimp are reddish-orange in color with white lines on their heads and two pairs of white spots on their tails, hence the name.
Spot shrimp are the largest shrimp we have locally, reaching up to 10 inches in length and living up to six years. Females are usually larger. During the spawning season, the female shrimp often carry red roe which can also be eaten.
Very common in the Salish Sea region and further north in British Columbia, spot shrimp live on the sea floor, generally at about 350 feet deep. There are commercial fisheries established in California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia.
The first commercial spot shrimp fishery was established in California, in the 1930s, around Monterey. It was a minor fishery until the 1970s, when trawl fishing techniques began to be used and the catch exploded in the 1980s. Trawl landings crashed soon after, and measures were implemented with the input of biologists to protect shrimp stocks. Trap fishing was introduced in the 1980s, but trawl fishing increased sharply again in the mid- to late-1990s. Trawl fishing for spot shrimp, however, is very destructive of bottom habitats and largely unsustainable, so in 2003, California banned the method. Today, most of the fishing in California takes place from Monterey south to San Diego. It is considered a sustainable fishery and is carefully managed.
In the Pacific Northwest, spot shrimp fishing was first established in Washington in the 1940s. The Oregon fishery was not established until 1993, when Californian fishing boats began targeting the area using trawls. Today, however, the season for shrimp is managed and trawls are not permitted; fishing is done with traps and pots. Oregon followed suit in banning trawl fishing of spot prawns in 2004. In Oregon, most of the fishing occurs near the Washington border, and has only begun to develop recently in southern Oregon, where it remains a minor fishery. Much more fishing occurs in Washington, primarily in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the San Juan Islands. Fishing in Washington is also limited to traps and pots.
The season for spot prawns is from April to June in Oregon, and April to September in Washington. Many spot shrimp are exported to Japan rather than sold in local markets.
Shrimp or prawns?
In common language, the names “shrimp” and “prawn” are somewhat interchangeable, with “prawn” often used to refer to a larger shrimp. In terms of biology, however, there is a difference. True shrimp are species of decapods in the infraorder Caridea. These are also known as caridean shrimp. True prawns, on the other hand, are from the suborder Dendrobranchiata, and are only distantly related to true shrimp.
Our regionally local shrimp are all true shrimp, not prawns. We do have a few species of true prawns in our waters but they are uncommon and not worth the trouble of fishing.
Other commercial species
The humpback shrimp (Pandalus hypsinotus), one of three species referred to as the “coonstripe shrimp”, is a species of shrimp that is found from the Puget Sound up to Alaska and back down to Japan. It is not found further south than Washington. Fisheries for the coonstripe shrimp are found further north than our region, mainly in Alaska and northern British Columbia, but there are small amounts caught in the Puget Sound, where the season runs from late spring to mid-fall. Some years, humpback shrimp can make up a more significant portion of the shrimp landings in the area.
Humpback shrimp are usually about 4 to 5 inches in length, sometimes reaching nearly 7 inches. They are mottled reddish-brown in color.
Sidestripe shrimp (Pandalus dispar) are found from the Bering Sea to northern Oregon from 150 to 2,100 feet deep on muddy ocean bottoms. They were previously classified in the genus Pandalopsis, but the genus was recently shown to be the same as Pandalus. Sidestripe shrimp are pinkish-orange in color, with white stripes along their bodies. They can reach up to 8 inches in length, but are usually about 4 to 5 inches.
Pandalus dispar is fished with trawls. Most of the fishing takes place in Alaska and British Columbia. The state of Alaska has reported that landings, which peaked in the 1970s, have been declining in recent years. In our region, sidestripe shrimp fishing occurs mainly in the Strait of Juan de Fuca and around the San Juan Islands as part of the trawl shrimp fishery that also targets other shrimp species. Sidestripe shrimp are a minor catch compared to pink shrimp. The season in Washington runs from late spring to mid-fall.
Pandalus danae is one of three species commonly called “coonstripe shrimp”. A more specific name for it is the dock shrimp. This species is found from northern Alaska to northern Mexico in shallow depths, up to 600 feet deep. Adult shrimp live in deeper waters. Dock shrimp are brownish, with brown lines and spots on their heads and tails, and reach lengths up to 5.5 inches.
A fishery was historically present in southern Oregon but has dropped to nearly nothing in recent years. Currently, the largest fishery is found in northern California, near Crescent City. The fishery is relatively new, having taken off in the mid-1990s. Trawls are prohibited and the fishery only uses traps, which are considered more sustainable. The traps don’t disturb the ocean floor and bycatch is minimal. The season for dock shrimp is open from mid-spring to mid-fall.
Further north, in Washington, there is a minor fishery for dock shrimp using both trawls and traps. There is also a trap fishery and a trawl fishery in southern British Columbia.
The northern shrimp, Pandalus eous, is a small shrimp that is very similar to the ocean pink shrimp. Northern shrimp grow to about 2 to 4 inches in length. They generally live in muddy ocean bottoms between 150 and 300 feet deep, but have also been found in much deeper waters, up to 4,500 feet deep.
Northern shrimp are primarily targeted by trawl fisheries in Alaska. The shrimp do, however, range down to Oregon, and they are commercially fished in smaller amounts in the Puget Sound, also by trawls. The season in the Puget Sound runs from late spring to mid-fall.
Pandalus eous was previously considered the same species as Pandalus borealis, an extremely similar species found in the Atlantic Ocean. There remains some disagreement as to whether P. eous is a subspecies of P. borealis or a separate species.
Uncommon species
Pandalus goniurus, the humpy shrimp, is one of the three species of shrimp also referred to as the “coonstripe shrimp”. It is a minor species in our region, caught in small numbers. They are mainly caught further north, in Alaska.
Humpy shrimp have a northern distribution ranging from the Sea of Japan across Alaska and down to the Puget Sound. They are similar in appearance to Pandalus danae, but with red or orange stripes rather than brown stripes. Humpy shrimp are small, reaching lengths of 3 inches.
Pandalus tridens is a small shrimp that grows to about 3 to 4 inches in length. Striped shrimp inhabit rocky areas to depths of 6,000 ft. They are found from the Bering Sea to the Puget Sound in Washington. It appears that Pandalus tridens was historically fished commercially at some point in British Columbia, but it does not seem to be targeted at this point in time.
The roughpatch shrimp (Pandalus stenolepis) is a small shrimp that grows to about 3 inches in length, found in muddy bottoms from 160 to 750 feet deep. Roughpatch shrimp are found from Alaska to Oregon, especially in the Salish Sea region. They are not commercially fished, but are edible.
