Five tiger shrimp captured by shrimpers in Pensacola Bay.
Giant Tiger Prawn (Penaeus monodon):
This catchy phrase coined by Robert Turpin (Escambia County Marine Resources Division) describes a recent invader to our marine waters in the past decade. Many coastal residents are aware of the invasive lionfish that has invaded our local reefs but less have probably heard of the Asian Tiger Shrimp. This member of the penaeid shrimp family, the same family are ediblewhite, brown, and pink shrimp come from, was brought to the United States in the 1960’s and 70’s as an aquaculture project. Over the years farmers have moved from Tiger Shrimp to the Pacific White Shrimp and the last known active farm was in 2004.
The Asian Tiger Shrimp can reach lengths of 12″
In 1988, two thousand of these shrimp were lost from a farm in South Carolina during a flood event. Only 10% of those were recaptured and some were collected as far away as Cape Canaveral. No more was heard from this release until 2006 when 6 were captured; one of those in Mississippi Sound near Dauphin Island. Each year since the number of reported captures has increased suggesting they are breeding.
In the Panhandle, one individual was caught in 2011 near Panama City and 5 were collected in 2012 in Pensacola Bay. They have been found in all Gulf coast states and there has been at least 1 record in each of the Florida Panhandle counties. The future impact of this shrimp to our area is still unknown but they have a high tolerance for salinity change and consume many types of benthic invertebrates. Tiger shrimp may out compete our native penaeid shrimps and could possibly feed directly on the juveniles. It is thought that they could possibly transmit diseases to our native shrimp.
Giant Tiger Prawn: This large shrimp, also known as the Asian Tiger Shrimp and the Black Tiger Shrimp, can reach lengths between 8-12 inches. It resembles are native edible penaeid shrimp but differs in that it has distinct black and yellow stripes.
NOAA scientists are interested in obtaining samples of this shrimp for DNA studies. It differs from other local penaid shrimp in that it is larger (8-12” long), dark in color (dark green to black) and has light stripes (white to cream colored). The larva and juveniles live in the bay. Sub adults will migrate offshore for breeding. They are a tropical species that have a low tolerance for cold temperatures, showing no growth below 20°C. If you think you have found one of these shrimp, record size location (GPS preferred), and email information to ExoticReports@MyFWC.com. You can also report to EDDMapS using the website or I’ve Got One! phone app. To learn more about Tiger Prawns view the USGS factsheet.
The nonnative Giant Tiger Prawn – also known as the Black Tiger Shrimp. Photo by David Knott, Bugwood.org
There has been an increase interest, from both visitors and residents, in purchasing local seafood. Here we are going to define local seafood as anything caught or grown within 200 miles of your location. For Pensacola that includes Alabama, Mississippi, and much of Louisiana; for St. Mark’s that would include the Big Bend and much of Florida’s west coast.
Though some seafood is caught, or grown, year round we will focus on species in peak season each month. This peak season list is provided by the Gulf & South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation’s Gulf Coast Seafood Program.
Oysterman on Apalachicola Bay. Photo: Sea Grant
So What’s in Season for February?
Clams and Oysters
Winter is a good time to consume local bivalves. These creatures are filter feeders and in the warm summer months there is more bacteria in the water. Clams are a new item for Floridians but we are growing our own in Cedar Key! (see links below). There are many seafood markets providing them so ask for them by name – Cedar Key clams.
Everyone knows the historic oyster beds of Apalachicola have suffered in recent years, but there is an effort to restore oysters to beds all across the northern Gulf coast. Oysters are a Florida classic and though many like to eat them raw, we do recommend you cook them. For clams most people grill, roast, or steam them. To learn more about bivalves and seafood safety visit www.flseagrant.org
Pink Shrimp
Shrimp is hands down the most popular seafood species in the Gulf region. There are three species we harvest here, and some are experimenting with culturing, but right now pink shrimp are at peak. Pink’s are more common in the eastern Gulf, and they may trucked into your area, but local none the less. If you want to know how to prepare shrimp – watch Forest Gump… there are 1000 ways.
The famous Gulf Coast shrimp. Photo: Mississippi State University
Mackerel – King and Spanish
Mackerel are members of a family of fish we call “ram letters” meaning they must move in order to flush water over their gills. Constantly on the move, getting them to bite bait is not the hard part… it is finding them and getting the bait within their range. This time of year is good for mackerel but king mackerel is one of the species of concern with mercury. The current recommendation is that if the king is <31” you should not consume more than one meal / month; young children and women of child bearing age should not consume at all. King mackerel >31” should not be consumed. For Spanish you should not consume more than one meal/week; for young children and women of child bearing age – no more than one meal/month. Read more about mercury in Florida fishathttp://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/prevention/healthy-weight/nutrition/seafood-consumption/_documents/advisory-brochure.pdf
Pompano
This is a Gulf coast favorite anda great tasting fish. I like mine grilled but there are plenty of other ways to prepare pompano. This is one fish that many like to blacken.
Snapper
There are 10 species of snapper in the Gulf but the red snapper is the one most are looking for. Snapper are in season now but availability of some species is dictated by federal and/or state quota’s and closures. This is one of the most popular finfish species in the Gulf.
We’ll let you know what is in Peak Season in March.
What lies ahead for the seafood industry in the Florida Panhandle?
Well I will start by saying I do not have a crystal ball… so I truly do not know, but most people plan for the future and many have looked at what COULD happen for Florida seafood.
Shrimping. Photo: NOAA
Will the demand for seafood still be there in the future?
In short… yes
Recent reports indicate that Americans are not consuming the recommended 3-6 ounces of seafood a week. Though many Floridians are not consuming this amount either they are consuming above the national average of 3.5 ounces. Seafood is still important to us. Community fish fries are a part of our culture and will be around. The popularity of sushi and other methods of preparing seafood has increased in recent years. There will be a demand for some seafood products. In the Pensacola area there has been recent interest in buying local seafood. Whether they are willing to pay higher prices than the foreign imports is to be seen but there is still a market for seafood products.
Can the seafood industry meet this demand?
That depends…
Several commercially valuable species have been deemed “overfished”. If the demand for these products increases there could be a problem meeting due to either regulations forbidding the industry to do so, or the numbers of fish available may make it prohibitive. For some species they may become part of a smaller higher paying market. There may be new species introduced that could be marketed and meet the demand, lionfish for example. The demand for this fish is growing but the availability is still low due to method of capture. At the moment the most effective method of harvesting lionfish is by spearing. We do not have enough divers to meet the 500 lbs. of fish / week/ restaurant currently requested. But there is another option to consider… aquaculture.
Humans have been growing our food for centuries (agriculture). There are few societies on our planet today they acquire their meat and vegetables solely by hunting and gathering. Aquaculture has also been around for centuries as well, just not in the United States. With the increasing world population, and the need for food along with it, scientists have been working on more efficient ways to produce food for over 100 years. The “green revolution” appeared in the mid 20th century and the impact was huge. The American food machine was churning out products like never before. It did come with a price for the environment around the farms, and there is concern now about the problems with high densities in some livestock operations, but the food is there. Many scientists believe aquaculture will be the method to meet the future seafood demand. Many are not surprised to learn that farm raised fish is common in most supermarkets, but they may be surprised to learn that 80-90% of it is imported from overseas. When we hear “farm raised” we immediately think of Mississippi catfish… which is local right? But in fact much of it is from Asia and Central America.
Indoor aquaculture projects are found throughout Florida. Photo: Florida Sea Grant
Will aquaculture increase in the Florida panhandle and will the public be okay with it?
I do not know.
Many Florida Panhandlers catch their own seafood, and there have been issues between the recreational and commercial fishermen for a few years now. Either way many Panhandlers will seek out fresh local seafood and provide it for their families. Whether they will embrace aquaculture is to be seen.
Either way seafood should be a part of our weekly diet. For many, the post oil spill fear of safety is no longer a concern. There is science that indicates our seafood is safe to eat. The concerns about mercury are real but low consumption of mercury target species (no more than one serving a week) has been deemed safe. For pregnant women (or women trying to become pregnant) this fear has kept them away from all seafood during their pregnancy. A recent study showed that there are important nutrients and vitamins provided in seafood products that are much needed during development and some women are not getting these. The recommendation here is to eat seafood but consume products not high in mercury. There are several agencies who post which species are high in mercury and which are low.
The seafood industry is an important part of panhandle history and culture. Though the industry has fallen on tough times I feel some form of commercial fishing will be around for a few years. We hope you learned something from this series during National Seafood Month and encourage you to ENJOY GULF SEAFOOD!
Well… we have talked about the “big two”… snapper and shrimp, but there are other popular fin and shellfish harvested from the Gulf of Mexico. This week we look at my personal favorite… blue crab.
Probably like many of you out there, the very first sea creature I ever caught was a blue crab. It was with one of those classic basket traps where you baited it, lowered to the bottom where you could see, waited until a crab came for the bait, and pulled her in… GREAT fun. My parents cooked the crab, saved the shell and dated it. It sat on the cabinet above our breakfast bar for years. It was something I did every summer off the dock of the house we rented on Pensacola Beach… good times.
The thin telson beneath this crab indicates it is a male. Photo: FWC
As I got older we switched from crab traps to hand-held crab nets. We would spend hours searching the grass beds around Gulf Breeze collecting and cleaning these guys. I remember cleaning over 60 of them once until my hands bled, that was about the time I thought I would let the commercial guys do this and I would just buy it from them!
As much fun as I had catching them, I had just as much fun cooking. My wife and I would make deviled crab and one of my personal favorites of hers, crab meat baked on an English muffin with cheese. Man o’ man. What a great creature the crab.
There are about 4500 species of “true crabs” found on our planet and many are valuable as a seafood product. In the Florida Panhandle it is the Blue Crab most seek out. In recent years commercial and recreational crabbers have noticed a decline in their numbers. Landings of blue crab ranged between 8 and 12 million pounds in Florida from 1982-1999 and since 2000 the landings have ranged from 4 to 8 million pounds. Researchers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have run several models to determine why the decline in landings has occurred. Though the decline in the Chesapeake may be due to overfishing, the models do not suggest this for Florida. They are not sure why the decline has happened but do have data that support the argument that freshwater discharge during heavy rain events does impact their population in a negative way. Some data suggest the increase in salinity during drought conditions has done the same. Whatever the reason, many would like to see their numbers rebound to the 12 million lb. landings we had just a few years ago.
Blue crabs typically live to be 1-2 years old, though some have been aged to 5 years. Males prefer the less saline waters of the upper estuary and the females can be found throughout the bay. Males reproduce more than once in their lives providing the females with a sack of sperm called a spermatophore. Females mate only once, just after their last molt. Once she has received the spermatophore she heads for the mouth of the bay where the water is more saline, she may enter the Gulf of Mexico searching for the right habitat. When she fertilizers her eggs they remain with her as a mass on her underside; the egg mass resembles a sponge. The larva hatch from this mass and go through several development stages as they re-enter the estuary and begin the cycle again.
Whatever the reason for their decline, and recent increase in price, these crustaceans remain a Gulf coast favorite and I for one hope they remain around for a long time.
If shrimp are king of the shellfish industry, then red snapper are the king of the finfish world. It is arguably the most economically and ecologically important reef fish in the Gulf of Mexico. This fishery began in 1872 with four “snapper smacks” out of Pensacola. By 1890 the fleet had grown to 34 vessels and had extended to other panhandle ports as well as Mobile, AL. They fished local waters for the most part but began to harvest from Campeche MX, where the fish gets its scientific name Lutjanuscampechanus. By 1910 the majority of the catch was coming from the Campeche Banks, but by the 1930’s the focus of the fishery was again in U.S. waters. By the mid 20th century a steady decrease in landings began to occur and today the fishery is considered overfished.
A snapper smack from the 19th century. Photo: Brown Marine Pensacola
So what do we know about this “king of finfish”? Well, red snapper begin their lives like most fish, as planktonic larva. The larva first appear in northern Gulf around May and are found through November, with numbers peaking from July through September. Though they settle out from the plankton near hard structure, muddy bottom habitats appear to be very important as foraging grounds. Red snapper seem to stay close the hard structures they settle out near, though some movement does occur, particularly with snapper living deeper than 120 feet. They feed on zooplankton when they are young and move to a diet of small reef fish and crustaceans as adults; mantis shrimp are a particular favorite. Red snapper have been reported to live all most 50 years.
The problems with the fishery began in the mid 20th century. Though snapper were listed as overfished by the National Marine Fisheries Service their problems go beyond just overfishing. By-catch in shrimp trawls is a particular problem. Much research and money have been spent to solve this problem. Science has found that young snapper, typically caught in trawls, do not like bright light and experimental trawls with LED lighting have been tested; studies continue.
The king of finfish… the red snapper Photo: Florida Sea Grant
In 1976 the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act was passed. By 1984 the first size and bag limits were issued and by 1988 the fishery was officially listed as overfished. Success at increasing numbers with the size and bag limits was low due to the shrimping by-catch issue and because many were not surviving the catch and release methods being used to return undersized fish. Studies show that snapper captured at depth experienced pressure problems as they are reeled to the service. This drastic change in pressure caused their swim bladders to expand, or rupture, a process known as barotrauma. Undersized (or over limit) fish had to be released. Those experiencing barotrauma were not surviving. Their expanded swim bladders would cause some to float – typically called “floaters” – and they were easy targets for sharks and dolphins. Others may descend slowly or reach the bottom but are still under stress and, again, were easy targets. Others still survived the release only to have issues with growth and immune function. Several techniques are used by fishing to reduce barotrauma, such as venting, but their success is debated and is currently under study.
One of the many version of descending devices used by fishermen to return snapper to depth. Photo: Florida Sea Grant
Despite management plans the fishery is still considered overfished. Solving the problem will require plans to deal with the by-catch and barotrauma issues but will also have to address the socio-economic issues of the management itself. Many families depend on this fishery for their livelihood and though a complete ban on the species for a period of time may be beneficial to the fish stock, it may not be practical. Researchers, fisheries managers, and others will continue to work on solving this problem and hopefully the “king of finfish” will be with us for a long time.
Shrimp… nothing says seafood along the Gulf coast like shrimp. It has been a staple part of our diet for decades; boiled, fried, steamed, stuffed, shish-kabobbed, As Forrest Gump said there are a million ways to cook shrimp and as Jack and Anne Rudloe mention their book, Shrimp, the Endless Quest for Pink Gold, there are many cookbooks dedicated to preparing one of the most popular seafood species.
The book published by jack and Anne Rudloe in 2010.
Growing up in Pensacola I remember the shrimp boats lining Palafox Street at the Bayfront Auditorium. You could drive down with your cooler almost any day and purchase white or brown shrimp for $2-3 a pound. The boats were beautifully painted with red and blue colors. Their coolers were full and we would fill ours, take them home, de-head them, and then have to decide how we wanted to prepare them… fry? Shrimp and grits? Boiled? They were college football tail gating food, birthday celebrations, and I cannot remember a wedding reception I went to, including my own, where shrimp was not served in some form or fashion. It’s a great product, taste great, and good for you. Bu things are changing…
Locals along the panhandle might be surprised that shrimping, as we know it, did not begin here. Many who think of “shrimping” immediately think of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. Old wooden boats with nets draped everywhere and the familiar sound of the diesel engine in the early morning silence as they bring in the evenings catch. But according to the Rudloe’s commercial shrimping began in California. In their book they describe the evolution of the shrimping industry. Shrimp were in abundance in early human history, and relatively easy to catch. Archeologists assume they consumed large quantities of them but their chitonous shells do not preserve well so we are not sure. There are preserved nets from that time period which probably captured shrimp along with other small nearshore species. They were harvested in Europe, Africa, and certainly Asia using both nets and traps.
As these cultures came to the New World they brought with them the methods of capturing. Native Americans too used weirs and traps to collect. But it was Chinese who came to San Francisco during the gold rush that brought the idea of pulling nets behind their Chinese Junks and small shrimping villages began to pop around the Bay area. Though Cajuns had been shrimping in the Gulf before the Declaration of Independence was signed using beach seines, trawling behind boats did not come until later. At first these earlier shrimpers used sailing schooners and hauled the nets by hand but eventually the internal combustion engine arrived and both boat and winch power made the job easier and they could stay our longer. Dried shrimp was how the product was sold at first but the introduction of refrigeration meant shrimp could be brought in fresh, and the laundry list of how to prepare began. The amount of shrimp demanded stronger vessels, they switched from wood to steel and fiberglass vessels, and stronger power to pull these large nets, and they switched to diesel. With better vessels and power they could drop more than one net, shrimp boats were now seen with double booms and they could move farther offshore.
Shrimping. Photo: NOAA
There are literally thousands of different species of shrimp in the world’s oceans but only a few are collected for food. In some cultures the small inshore species are the targets. Today some prefer the deep water ruby reds that could be collected only when the technology allowed. But most of us prefer shrimp from the Family Penaidae. White shrimp (gulf shrimp – Litopenaeus setiferus), brown shrimp (bay shrimp, “brownies” – Farfantepennaeus aztectus), and the pink shrimp (Farfantepenaeus duorarum) are the species locals enjoy. 90% of these three species sold are harvested from the Gulf of Mexico supporting, in some cases, whole communities. Then things began to turn “south”…
According to NOAA’s Fishwatch.gov the fishery is not currently being overfished. The problem with today’s shrimping industry is economic and environmental.
The basic otter trawl used for shrimping. Photo: North Carolina State University
Economically, the cost of diesel has increased and for a 12,000 gallon vessel can cost the fishermen $50,000 per trip.
Bartering with wholesalers, many shrimpers will make 45% of their annual income in the first 45 days of the shrimping season, making tough times down the road – literally a “boom-bust” business.
Aquaculture… farmed raised shrimp has been around for centuries and the increased demand for the product many have turned to farmed shrimp to keep cost down. Many will be surprised to learn that 80-90% of the seafood consumed in the United States is farmed product from overseas. These low prices are difficult for the traditional ocean harvesting shrimper to compete with. You may also not know that a large amount of the product farmed overseas is not allowed to enter into the United States because of their method of using hormones to accelerate growth.
Environmentally, the trawl… As they drag their nets across the bottom they remove a lot of marine life in addition to the target species of shrimp. The otter trawl is opened using wooden doors and is pulled along the bottom using a chain (known as a “tickler”) to force the buried nocturnal shrimp to “pop up”. Trawled over seagrass beds they can do a lot of damage. Some studies have shown that almost 60% of the catch is what has been termed “trash fish” or “by-catch”. The Ocean Conservancyreports that after the World War II, when technology significantly improved for shrimpers, the by-catch to shrimp ratio was 4:1. Pressure from environmental groupers and other fisheries forced regulations on when, where, and how trawling would occur in attempts to reduce by-catch and damage to sensitive bottom habitat.
Sea turtles… one of the by-catch species were the federally protected marine turtles. This forced a change that required a Turtle Excluder Device (TEDS) to be installed into the trawl.
The oil spill… shrimpers certainly suffered from this incident and 10 years later in many parts of the Gulf the problems still exist.
We of course cannot forget “Mother Nature”. Hurricanes can change the ecology of the system enough to decrease available shrimp for several years.
The famous Gulf Coast shrimp. Photo: Mississippi State University
All in all these economic and environmental issues have forced many out of the business. A few years ago the shrimping fleet in Pensacola numbers between 40 and 50 vessels, today there are about 10. Times are hard on the traditional shrimper… but despite these setbacks it still remains one of the more popular seafood species.
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