The pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani) is found on sandy and muddy bottoms along the West Coast of North America. While they can be found from the Queen Charlotte Islands to Southern California, pink shrimp stocks are centered in Oregon. Pink shrimp are fished by large vessels (50-90 feet) using “double rigged” high rise box trawls. Fishery landings vary widely from year to year, landings in 2017 were 23 million pounds and have averaged 30 million pounds per year over the last 30 years. Pink shrimp are small shrimp (typically caught at 80-150 count per pound) and are marketed as "salad shrimp" or "cocktail shrimp".
Oregon’s pink shrimp fishery is managed as a sustainable fishery. Industry and management have worked together to develop methods to maximize catch while not affecting the spawning potential of the stock, assuring that fishing effort does not affect the long term viability of the pink shrimp stock. As the pink shrimp fishery harvests using fine mesh bottom trawls, habitat and bycatch effects are also researched and mitigated. Bycatch rates in Oregon’s pink shrimp fishery are typically well below 5%.
Oregon's pink shrimp fishery has been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council since 2007. This was the first shrimp fishery to be certified such (see article). This certification, was achieved in large part via to cooperative work between industry and ODFW which implemented changes in gear reduce bycatch. |
