Most people would agree that our Pandalus platyceros is one of the tastiest life forms on earth. Around here they are better known as Hood Canal shrimp. Although spot shrimp range from California to Alaska most of these monster shrimp caught in Washington are captured in Hood Canal during a four-to-seven day season each May.

The Hood Canal spot shrimp quota is usually around 147,000 pounds, shared 50/50 with treaty tribes, at least on paper. The real numbers are just an educated guess.

For over 100 years the Hood Canal spot shrimp have been on roller coaster boom and bust cycle because of overfishing by commercial fishermen. Fishermen started dragging the bottom for shrimp with nets during the 1880s in Puget Sound and Hood Canal using sailing ships.

In the early 1900s more powerful engines and better nets made it easier to catch too many shrimp. With few shrimp left, commercial fishermen would target some other fish species until five to 10 years later when there was lots of shrimp again. But it wasn’t long before they would again over harvest.

Back then about the only rules were, if you can sell it catch as many as you can. We didn’t know much about the life cycle of shrimp or how many there were. We barely know that now. But we have learned a lot in the last 20 years and are doing a much better job managing shrimp in the Northwest.

In a resolution letter written by the Hood Canal Sportsmen Association dated December 7, 1938, commercial harvest of shrimp was a major concern. The letter states; “WHEREAS, it appears that the shrimp are taken by means of a beam troll, steal-framed basket covered with wire mesh, and as a result such taking of shrimp has been carried to the extent that the shrimp are becoming so scarce that this important shell fish is on the brink of total extermination.”

My first memory of shrimping in Hood Canal was with my grandfather Cecil Baldwin during the summer of 1959. We left Tahuya in his 12-foot Sande-built cedar strip boat with a 20 horsepower Mercury outboard with two shrimp pots and headed for Dewatto. We set out the pots and went to shore for a few hours, then pulled them up by hand. We ended up with about 20 big Hood Canal spot shrimp. My grandfather seemed pleased with the catch (there just weren't many shrimp back then). For lunch that day my grandmother deep-fried them and I can remember thinking this must be as good as food gets.

Without much fishing pressure during the 1960s, the shrimp population bounced back by the late 60s. Then a huge commercial pot shrimp fishery started in Hood Canal. With a 500 pot limit per boat using eighth inch mesh, shrimp fishing was great, at least for a while. With the small mesh pots lots of the smaller species of shrimp were also caught. The little pink shrimp and the slightly larger coonstripe made up a good share of the catch.

With the season going from April until October the good times couldn’t last forever. By the late 1970s the shrimp stocks collapsed again. The Hood Canal shrimp season was closed for several years, but it eventually bounced back.

Our Hood Canal man-made boom and bust shrimp cycle appears to be over. What really saved our local shrimp was the regulation of the 7/8th inch mesh size for the pots and a very short season in May with a quota of pounds harvested. Back when the season started in April some of the females still had eggs attached to them. The Indians get a longer season because they have less people fishing.

The larger mesh size is important because all spot shrimp, like many other shrimp, start out their life as males. They are sexually mature at 1.5 years and by 3.5 years old most have changed into sexually mature females. The small mesh pots harvested too many small shrimp before they turned into females.

What a concept, allowing marine life to reproduce before we kill them. Too bad other marine life isn’t managed this way.

There are 135 species of shrimp living in the waters of the North Pacific Ocean(there is more then 3000 species world wide). Spot shrimp are the largest shrimp in the North Pacific.

Some studies have been done on how long spot shrimp live. One in British Columbia suggests about five years. But one study in Alaska found some tagged shrimp 10 years old.

One study in BC suggests most females die after they spawn and another in Alaska showed they may spawn more then once with more eggs the older they are. Tribal and state biologists in Washington are now doing several studies concerning our spot shrimp to learn more about their life histories here.

Spot shrimp breed in the fall and the female carries 1,500 to 4,000 of the fertilized eggs externally until spring and are released as they mature and hatch. For about two months they are in the pelagic stage and drift with the current and wind feeding on anything smaller then them.

Next is the larvae stage which lasts for about six months. By the end of this stage they have some mobility, then they change into tiny shrimp-like creatures and head for the nearest seaweed or kelp to feed and hide from predators.

At this stage they grow fast and at 18 months old they go deeper and join the rest of the shrimp in about 300 feet of water. At night they can sometimes be found feeding in 30 feet of water, then leave for the black depths before day light.

They are foragers, eating what they can find on the bottom, dead or alive, including other shrimp, plankton, small mollusks, worms and fish carcasses.

In BC and Alaska some studies have shown a parasite in up to 10 percent of spot shrimp. The infected shrimp were lethargic and leaked milky-like fluid when the head was removed. But just like anything we harvest, if it looks or acts sick don't eat it.

Even though the season is short and the daily limit is low get out there and get in on the harvest. They are soooo good. Put them on ice as soon as you catch them and the only way you can mess them up is by over cooking them!