The Oregon pink shrimp fishery wrapped up 2020 with a robust catch of 42.3 million pounds on a season blighted only by low prices at markets were battered by the pandemic.
The 30-year average for the pink shrimp fishery is around 30 million pounds, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODWF). This season’s harvest was the largest since 2015, when fishermen caught 53.5 million pounds.
Despite the strong catch, the total ex-vessel value of the fishery was just USD 22.3 million (EUR 18.8 million), barely more than last season’s USD 19.9 million (EUR 16.8 million), when fishermen found far less shrimp biomass at 26.9 million pounds on the season.
Tasha Cadence, a digital media specialist for global seafood supplier Tradex, told SeafoodSource that reduced demand resulting from COVID-19 pandemic-related restaurant closures seemed to be the main cause of lower prices.
“The majority of pink shrimp is consumed through the foodservice industry,” Cadence said. “The industry has definitely felt the effects of the upwards of 40 percent decline in restaurant traffic. The fact that the market value of this year's pink shrimp harvest was similar to years previous with a smaller catch shows us that demand is definitely lower, therefore pricing must adapt and accommodate.”
Pink shrimp are small – the typical range is 80 to 150 count per pound – and marketed as “salad shrimp” or “cocktail shrimp.” According to preliminary data cited by Tradex, this season’s shrimp came in at around 125 count per pound, putting them on the smaller end of the range.
Found on sandy or muddy ocean bottoms, fishermen use fine-mesh bottom trawl nets to scoop the shrimp up. The small shrimp range from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Southern California but have their nexus off the coast of Oregon, where the shrimp fishery runs annually from 1 April to 31 October. The fishery was granted Marine Stewardship Council certification in 2007.
The Oregon pink shrimp fishery is the world’s largest, with fisheries in the Gulf of Mexico and the Southern Atlantic also contributing to the U.S pink shrimp harvest.
Photo courtesy of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
