I Fail To See the Problem

Salma Hayek likes shrimp

Bay Journal, Warm temperatures move more shrimp into Chesapeake waters

Large white shrimp — the kind that might star in a white-wine scampi — have been riding warmer waters into the Chesapeake Bay in growing numbers. Their increased presence could be the first culinary boon of climate change in the region (invasive blue catfish notwithstanding).

Though this larger shrimp species, commonly known as white shrimp or Gulf white shrimp, has historically been in the region, waters off the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay were until recently not warm enough to host large numbers of them, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Fisheries Service. Warmer ocean temperatures over the last decade have been pushing the species more often associated with North Carolina fisheries farther north. Those numbers are now large enough to sustain a nascent commercial fishery off Virginia’s coast.

So does Jennifer Garner

In 2017, the Virginia Marine Resources Commission issued its first experimental permits to fishermen interested in trying their hand at shrimping in coastal state waters near Virginia Beach. The agency has issued a handful of additional permits each of the past few years and is also testing the waters with a few experimental permits for fishermen plying ocean waters near the Eastern Shore.

“I saw ’em when I was a kid, but it seems like there are more and more,” said Bob Crisher who, with his business partner Dave Portlock, was the first to get an experimental permit to trawl for shrimp in Virginia waters. The pair have been spending their winters bringing them in ever since.

This year, Crisher is one of a dozen fishermen hauling in boatloads of shrimp — which they call “green-tails” — to be sold fresh off their boats at Virginia Beach docks from Oct. 1 to Jan. 31. Though restrictions on trawling don’t allow such commercial harvesting inside the Bay, the shrimp are likely spending much of their life in Chesapeake waters before heading to the ocean in the late fall and early winter.

The Virginia Institute of Marine Science has been tracking the increased presence of Penaeid shrimp (a category that includes white, brown and pink shrimp) in the Chesapeake through surveys since 1991. White shrimp are by far the most abundant in the Bay. And, starting in 2016, the trawl surveys began to bring in “orders of magnitude” more shrimp — from about 41 shrimp in 1991 to 5,809 shrimp in 2016, according to a 2021 paper on the subject. High numbers of shrimp were picked up not only near the mouth of the Bay but also in Virginia’s James, York and Rappahannock rivers.

I remember seeing white or pink shrimp being caught in otter trawls in the Bay near here when I first arrived in the Bay area. 

If they're coming because the water is warmer, I'm good with that. I look forward to tarpon an bonefish, too. On the other hand, it's possible they're becoming more prevalent due to lack of predators, as commercial fishing has decimated the predators who would control shrimp populations.  

The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Polyana Viana ready at The Other McCain.