Charleston, SC                      Fall,1999
 

SHRIMPOLOGY

 tugs on the "trawl bridles", the doors not only make a spread in the front end of the net, but also make the net dive to the bottom. That's where the shrimp are. The "tickler chain", which is out in front of the bottom of the net (the "footrope"), tickles the shrimp up out of the mud and makes them jump into the net. If you've ever watched a shrimp trawler dragging, you've noticed that it's barely moving. That because the net is being dragged through the bottom mud, and most commercial trawlers set out two or three of these otter trawls using their outriggers.

            

     In South Carolina, the otter trawls are not allowed inside the inlets. Trawlers have to operate offshore. (In
North Carolina, trawlers are allowed to operate inshore in the big sounds and rivers at designated times controlled by the state.) The only legal means for netting South Carolina shrimp inshore are with seines and cast nets. Seines are simple. Poles are at the ends of a long net. One guy gets on one end, another guy on the other end and they start dragging, slogging through the muck and mire. A tough way to net a few bugs. 
     The more popular method is castnetting, more often using bait than casting without bait. Baitcasting requires a license from the state and restrictions are imposed. The bait is normally a dried mud ball impregnated with fish meal. A baitcaster is allowed to set out ten stakes stuck in the bottom mud with the tops showing above the water. The stakes can be no farther apart than ten yards. The mudball bait is dropped between the stakes and the caster must remain on the site in the boat until ready to start casting the net.
     There is an art to properly casting these big circular nets. Some of them are up to twenty feet in diameter, and the object is to cast the net out so that it hits the water as a full circle. The technique takes both hands and the teeth! (not advised if you've got dental plates, though you might be able to gum the net) Weights are connected to the circumference rope, and when the fully extended net hits the water, the weights take the net to the bottom as a circle. The net bottom is then drawn together with a line that acts like the drawstring on a purse. Up come the shrimp, and the castnetter's limit is one 48 quart cooler per day per boat, and he's not supposed to sell the shrimp.
     It's bad enough that life as a shrimp lasts only a year.
The shrimp must long for those good old days when nobody bothered them, and they could go about their year's business as a happy bunch of bugs, snug as a bug in the mud. 

                                                 Len Anderson

                

 

        

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
     Shrimp lead an unfortunate life. Not only is everybody and their brother trying to catch them to boil, but also, the average shrimp lives for only one year.
     Shrimp spawn at sea, not in the creeks, coves and estuaries that most of us would think to be their birthplaces. When the female gives birth at sea, the baby shrimp are in what looks like a cloud of milk. The microscopic shrimp soon become the size of plankton (a little bigger than microscopic), and their instinctive urge is to find their way through the inlets into those creeks, coves and estuaries where they mature and become big shrimp. To do this, the plankton-size shrimp have a knack for rising to the surface when the tide is rising and the current is rushing in. Then, when the tide is falling they drop to the bottom where the outgoing current is not as strong. By taking these two steps forward and one back, they find their way into the shallow tidal waters to feed and mature.
     When mature, and this is usually starting in early summer, the shrimp then have to find their way back out to sea to lay eggs, fertilize them and reach their final resting place. This completes the one year cycle.
     The shrimp trawlers and bait casters try to catch them when they school up on their way back out to sea. 
     Shrimp have not always been in demand like they are today. A hundred years ago, commercial fishermen hated to get shrimp stuck in their nets. The shrimp were trash, and the fishermen called them "bugs." They're still called bugs. It's no wonder why, because they look like bugs.  

                         

Whoever was the first brave soul to eat one should be recognized almost as much as Edison was for the light bulb. The same should apply to the first crab and oyster eaters.

But in the early 1900's, shrimp did catch on, and the bugs soon became delicacies. The next step was to figure out the best way to catch them. At this time, motors began replacing sails on fishing boats, and a new type of net was developed in North Carolina that could be dragged behind a motor-powered boat. It was called the "otter trawl." How the name "otter came into being is a good question. Possibly, a Mr. Otter was the idea man. But the idea has stood up over the years, and the otter trawl is still used today anywhere in the world where boats trawl for shrimp. It looks like a flat funnel. (See likeness in the next column.) The narrow end of the funnel, where the catch winds up, is cinched together with a slip knot and is called the "tailbag." The "trawl doors" at the front of the net are fashioned so that when the boat