Gone Shrimping

A changing climate brings new catch to the Bay

As we drove the truck out on the neck on a summer evening, I looked to the left to catch a glimpse of the creek over the phragmites grass. Beyond the reeds I saw a young man throwing a cast net off a skiff. “He says he can catch shrimp—real shrimp—in the creek, using his net and cat food,” my well-informed son told me.

At that moment, clues that had been subconsciously accumulating in my brain for a year all stitched together into a cogent thought: There are edible shrimp in the Chesapeake Bay!

When the boys were little, for fun we used to run a hand-net through the eelgrass in front of our house. We would catch and release small fish and crabs, snails, the occasional seahorse, and lots of tiny, translucent grass shrimp, each an inch long.

A couple of times we gathered a few spoonfuls of these tiny shrimp, flash fried them, and ate them, shell and all. They turned fiery red and tasted a bit like crunchy sticks that had been dipped in marsh mud. Ketchup much improved the experience.

But I sensed something had changed in the intervening 10 years. It seems the boys had grown and so had the shrimp.

A friend had mentioned “big shrimp” skipping on top of the water when he worked his oyster cages. I recalled having seen what looked like shrimp off a dock on the Bayside the previous summer. I had also read that there was now an experimental shrimp fishery off the Virginia coast.

I asked a few local watermen if they had seen these shrimp. Yes, more and more over the past five years, was the collective answer. The more I asked, the more I heard about people seeing these visitors to the Bay. There was a shadowy rumor that “a guy” had caught “two basketfuls” at the head of a creek to our south.

story & photos by Robert Gustafson

LEARNING THE ROPES

Cast nets seem daunting, but a week’s practice made it easier.

LEARN TO THROW

Scan above to learn how to throw a cast net like the author.

“There has been a huge increase in Penaeid shrimp in the Chesapeake Bay,” confirms Dr. Troy Tuckey, Senior Research Scientist at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS). Penaeid shrimp are also commonly called food, cocktail, or southern eating shrimp, and include the Atlantic white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus), which is commonly caught, both commercially and recreationally, just to our south in North Carolina.

Shrimp were noted in small numbers in the Chesapeake as early as the 1880s, but Tuckey confirms that the VIMS trawl survey of Virginia waters of the Chesapeake has seen 10 times as many shrimp in the 2010s compared with the 2000s. Staff for the Virginia Marine Resources Commission (VMRC) have reported a 155 percent increase in shrimp in the Bay in just the past couple of years.

Scientists do not have definitive evidence as to why shrimp have come to Virginia waters in greater numbers, but climate change seems to be the smoking gun. “It’s a function of changing physical parameters that result in an adjustment by the species,” says Charles Carlson, Marine Science teacher at Broadwater Academy in Exmore, Va. “Warmer water, in addition to fresher water, is likely allowing for new species to come into the Bay and colonize.”

Climate-impacted currents and winds may also be at play. “If the coastal water temperatures don’t force the shrimp to migrate further south,” says Tuckey, “they will spawn on the coastal shelf off Virginia.” The eggs hatch and eventually larvae drift with the currents into the Bay between April and June. The Bay provides excellent habitat for shrimp to grow. Small shrimp tend to seek

lower salinity portions of the Bay’s tributaries and then tend to move to higher salinity as they get larger.

In autumn, cooler water drives the shrimp out of the Bay and back to the Atlantic off the Virginia coast to start the process over again. Although some shrimp may live more than 12 months, they are considered an annual crop that regenerates each year.

It is unclear whether large numbers of edible shrimp will make it to the northern reaches of the Chesapeake Bay. Because larger shrimp prefer saltier water, “you might not catch them at the size you’d like to eat them” farther up the Bay, says Tuckey. But no one knows for sure.

The science, habitat, and taxonomy of shrimp are fascinating, but I wanted to know how I could get some for dinner! A little research uncovered that recreational shrimpers from North Carolina to Texas use cast nets and

THE TASTE OF VICTORY

We ate boiled shrimp, shrimp ceviche, fried shrimp, smoked shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp and benne soup, and shrimp salad sandwiches. .

bait to haul in their shrimp. I had neither but was more than willing to learn.

First, I looked into the legality of taking shrimp recreationally in Virginia. Recreational harvesting of shrimp in Virginia is unregulated and therefore legal, as long as you hold a saltwater fishing license or a cast net license. (You don’t need both; a fishing license allows you to cast a net.) However, I am told that VMRC is currently in the process of establishing its first-ever regulations for recreational harvest of shrimp, so check the VMRC website before gathering your own Chesapeake Bay shrimp.

Cast nets had always seemed like a daunting proposition to me—they’re big, unwieldy, and I was pretty certain you had to hold some of the lead weights in your mouth to throw the net properly. My wife bought me one fifteen years ago, but I had never taken it out of the bucket it came in. So I fished it out of the rod and reel room and logged onto our spotty rural Internet to search YouTube.

I quickly found out that there are about as many ways to throw a cast net as there are crab traps in the Bay. “Easy” and “foolproof” are common in titles of YouTube videos giving advice to aspiring cast-netters. None looked easy to me. I searched for a little while, then decided I should just choose one method and give it a try.

I would like to be able to report that I suffered mightily, enduring character-building setbacks before ultimately persevering in mastering the secrets of throwing a cast net. But in reality, I think I just picked a good video (youtu.be/ eTSG6xz4YMQ). It was not that difficult and did not involve putting toxic lead in my mouth.

I practiced throwing off my back deck into the grass. By the end of the first hour, I was getting the net to open up (mostly) on occasional throws. By the end of the week, I felt I was throwing well enough to make a trial run.

The best time to net shrimp is low tide and it appears that most folks use bait to attract the shrimp (e.g., my neighbor’s cat food). The idea is that if you place food that shrimp like on the bottom, they will congregate, and you can throw the net over the top of them with some increased degree of efficiency.

I am usually a do-it-yourself kind of guy, but in this instance I decided my net skills already put me at a steep disadvantage and I needed to try to even the odds. I sent away for a commercial “bait ball” product made of fish meal and powdered clay, said to be used widely in the Carolinas and the Gulf of Mexico (baitbinder.com). When you moisten some and pat it into hockey puck-sized discs, it sinks and stays together while releasing a piscine smorgasbord into the water column.

My wife and I set out on a muggy Friday evening in

Chesapeake Shrimp Ceviche

ingredients

1 pound Chesapeake Bay shrimp, shelled and cut in half down the back 6 limes, juiced 1/2 red onion, sliced thin 1/2 fish pepper or other hot pepper, seeds removed and sliced very thin 1/2 bunch cilantro, rinsed and chopped fine 1 pinch salt 1 pinch ground cumin (optional)

directions

1. Place all ingredients in a Ziploc plastic bag. Shake to mix, press out air, seal, and place in refrigerator for 1 hour up to a day (longer marination makes the shrimp firmer).

2. Reposition the bag occasionally to make sure all shrimp are in contact with the marinade. The shrimp will turn from gray to bright pink.

3. Eat as-is or on tortilla chips that are not too salty.

The ceviche can keep for a day in the fridge. Very fresh sliced scallops or diced, non-oily fish such as rockfish can be marinated with the shrimp.

This was not a grass shrimp, but a decent-sized shrimp you could boil and eat.

OK, honestly it would probably be classified as “small,” but it was so much

bigger than any shrimp I’d ever caught in the Bay it looked like The Kraken to me.

July in our 17-foot homemade wooden skiff and fought over the sandbars at the mouth of a nearby creek at low tide. Once in the creek I stuck long poles in the muddy bottom in about six feet of water in two separate locations. I dropped a bait ball a few feet from the base of each pole. The poles served as a guide to remind me where I had placed the bait and where to cast the net.

We waited for ten minutes, hoping that any nearby shrimp would find the bait irresistible and be unlucky enough to be caught in my net. We drifted close to a pole. I cast. The net opened up, mostly, and the weights pulled the mesh to the bottom. I carefully retrieved it.

Lo and behold, three silversides and one shrimp!

This was not a grass shrimp, but a decent-sized shrimp you could boil and eat. OK, honestly it would probably be classified as “small,” but it was so much bigger than any shrimp I’d ever caught in the Bay it looked like The Kraken to me.

Over the next hour we drifted back and forth between the poles. I caught hundreds of small fish, dozens of crabs, and about 70 shrimp, all between the size of my index finger and my pinky. They were a pretty, light gray with big black eyes and tiny black spots, a very prominent (and sharp!) “horn” that stuck out from their foreheads, and long antennae. These were the same white shrimp being caught by the commercial boats out in the Atlantic and further down the coast.

chesapeakebaymagazine.com/boating

It was not a massive haul, but it proved the point: There are edible shrimp in the Bay and novices can catch them with a little equipment and preparation. We collected over a pound of shrimp, then motored back into the Bay and on home as the sun fell across the water.

We hadn’t thought of what we’d do with shrimp if we actually caught any. They were the freshest shrimp we had ever had in the kitchen. We quickly decided their highest use was ceviche. Ceviche (recipe in the sidebar) “cooks” the shrimp without heat, using only the chemical action of lime juice, and includes red onion, cilantro, and slivers of hot pepper. I raided the garden and started shelling the shrimp.

An hour later, we were eating citrusy Chesapeake Bay shrimp on crispy tortilla chips washed down with locally-made Assateague Ale from the Cape Charles Brewery (capecharlesbrewing.com). They were tremendous—firm and sweet with a very fresh “shrimp” taste.

Over the course of the summer, I baited and threw my net at various locations on the southern Eastern Shore. I cast off boats, from docks, and while standing knee-deep in saltwater in both the Bay and seaside marshes. I never failed to catch shrimp. Sometimes they were sparse. On a few rare occasions I caught several dozen per cast. The largest was nearly five inches long.

I quickly learned to be discriminating. The smaller shrimp are tedious to shell and shrink considerably when they are cooked, so what looks like an easy dinner at the dock may become an imposing mountain of work in the kitchen. I culled my catch after each cast and only kept the largest specimens, immediately returning the rest to the water to live and grow.

I lack the culinary repertoire of Bubba Gump, but we ate boiled shrimp, shrimp ceviche, fried shrimp, smoked shrimp, shrimp gumbo, shrimp and benne soup, and shrimp salad sandwiches. I froze some shrimp for the winter. I wasn’t sure if the harvest would end or whether shrimp were permanent visitors to the Bay, but we were going to make the most of it!

My sons informed me they were sick of me serving shrimp. I ignored them and caught more.

Just before Halloween, we invited a small number of friends to a socially distanced and masked shrimp boil at our century-old clam house on the seaside. I was so confident there

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would be shrimp, I showed up with a pot, a camp stove, and my cast net. And there were! We feasted.

But all good things come to an end. The weather was getting cooler. On November 1, I cast my net at the same spot that had yielded a hearty dinner for eight the previous week. I caught precisely zero shrimp in a half-hour of casting. The shrimp had moved on.

I now know that the shrimp were following their natural pattern and migrating to the open Atlantic, kicking off the start of Virginia’s commercial shrimp season. The big boats with their 16' beam trawls scoop up these shrimp in the open ocean. The shrimp that escape those nets will spawn and send their progeny riding the currents into the Bay to start the cycle over again in the spring.

Catching Chesapeake Bay shrimp is possible for anyone with access to a dock or boat, is great fun, and yields outstanding food. People living on the shores of the Chesapeake have created a unique cuisine based on the foodstuffs available to them, from Hayman sweet potatoes and fish peppers to terrapin and black ducks. Shrimp has now migrated onto the list of locally available ingredients. As long as they remain in the Bay, it is incumbent on us to harvest them sustainably and use them creatively in the kitchen. How the presence of shrimp in the Bay will impact the Chesapeake economy, cuisine, and environment is unknown, but I am already envisioning folding shrimp into many of our favorite local dishes—crab and shrimp boils, shrimp and oyster pie, and shrimp and crab dip. h

Robert Gustafson is an Eastern shoreman by way of Chicago, Harvard, and a career on Capitol Hill. He lives near Exmore, Va., where he coaches the Broadwater Academy track and field team.

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Stripers in Crisis

by Captain Chris D. Dollar

Two memories about rockfish popped into my head in recent months. The first is from about 30 years ago, shortly after the striper moratorium in Maryland was lifted in 1990. Fishing the Bay Bridges off Annapolis, I came tight to a striper that inhaled a swimming plug and rocketed toward Cape Charles. That 36-inch rockfish was not only the largest striped bass I’d caught at that point, but it set me on the path of a decades-long outdoors career.

The second thought struck me hours after my last fishing trip in 2020. What if that was the last rockfish I’d ever catch? This pessimism is likely exaggerated, but it speaks to the level of anxiety a fishery in trouble can cause an angler.

In the past three decades, I’ve tried to gain as much knowledge as I can about stripers and this beloved fishery, both through first-hand experience and talking with skilled anglers and fisheries biologists. Here’s a quick look back at the striper moratorium and what may lie ahead for this gamefish.

The Crash

I recently spoke with a charter skipper who told me he had no problem catching rockfish right up until September 1984, when Maryland unilaterally shut down the fishery. Out of everyone else I’ve talked with, he’s the exception. Other coastal states followed with either outright closure or very restrictive regulations. In early 1985 Congress passed the Striped Bass Conservation Act, which required all East Coast states to abide by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission’s (ASMFC) joint management plan, and the recovery began in earnest.

Bill Goldsborough spent five decades as the fisheries scientist for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, tracking everything from crabs and oysters to menhaden and rockfish. He was a longtime ASMFC member so he knows all too well how to difficult it can be to navigate the turbulent waters of fishery policy.

“As controversial as fisheries tend to be, it was never harder politically

than in September 1984,” he reflected. “But that was the catalyst that brought back the fishery. The lessons learned were that too much harvest actually can collapse a fishery and that fishermen throughout a fish’s range had to play by the same rules, and [as a result] science-based management plans are the norm now.”

The Glory Years and Rebuilding Rock

Amazingly, in only five years a limited fishery was reopened in 1990 after the population responded with better spawning. The striper population was officially declared recovered in 1995, and on the backs of three mammoth spawns, anglers enjoyed outstanding fishing for more than a decade. My sweet spot was from 2000 through

about 2011. After that, it began to taper off, and by 2014 it was pretty clear something was wrong. The slide seemed insidious since some areas, and some anglers, felt the decline more acutely than others.

The ASMFC’s 2018 stock assessment confirmed what anglers had been noticing for several years, that in fact stripers were being overfished. Managers scrambled to stem the bleeding and cut recreational harvests by 18 percent through rule changes like in-season closures, tighter size limits, and mandated use of circle hooks.

Many complained it was too little, too late, and today a segment of the angling community is calling for another moratorium. Others say the measures are too restrictive and will hurt their fishing businesses. To many of us, it’s clear that stripers, especially the mature females, are getting hammered from all sectors. Moreover, the annual young-of-year survey that tracks spawning rates has shown worrisome dips. In Maryland, the index has been below the long-term average nine out of the last 15 years. This is particularly relevant because the Chesapeake is a major spawning ground and nursery for more than 70 percent of entire coastal striper stock.

Without question stripers are vitally important to the economies and culture of Bay states and many coastal neighbors, making rebuilding the stock the ASMFC’s top priority. However, fishery management is a complicated, often contentious process. Even under the best circumstances, it can be fraught with politics. Complex terminology like F-target, conservation equivalency, thresholds, and biological reference points only makes it even more confusing for the nation’s striper anglers, who number an estimated 7.5 million. I’d wager most simply want a stable, abundant population with consistent regulations and fair access to these prized fish.

Fishery managers are keenly aware of the tightrope they must walk between taking the necessary corrective action and wrecking people’s livelihoods. Restoring rockfish as quickly as possible is the best way to secure the long-term viability of our fishing economy and lifestyle, but it’s no easy task to appease the varied stakeholders.

This past April marked the first step in the ASMFC’s process to adopt a new fishery management plan when

the public comment period ended for the Public Information Document for Amendment 7. Once enacted, likely sometime in late 2022 or 2023, Amendment 7 will be our striper road map for at least the next 10 years. 2003 was the last time a striper plan this sweeping was adopted, so this a huge opportunity to get it right.

That may mean different things for anglers. Do you prefer more days on the water or more stripers in the box? Should we be allowed to keep trophy stripers longer than 40 inches? Does a slot make sense? How about a single size limit throughout all Bay waters? I know I’d gladly return nearly all rockfish I catch to the water in exchange for more fish to catch.

It’s also important to recognize that warming coastal waters due to climate change may be influencing migration patterns and spawning outcomes. And there’s the thorny question of whether there are enough menhaden available for striper and other marine animals to eat. Additionally, galactic leaps in technology—reliable boats that can burn up the miles in all kinds of weather; sophisticated fishfinders; social media and text networks—have rocketed fishermen light years past where we were in terms of angling efficacy just ten years ago.

All this is to say that we must prepare ourselves for a new 21stcentury striper paradigm. What was once rightly heralded as a shining example of humans’ ability to bring a species back from the brink is now somewhat tarnished. But with sound, science-based management and sacrifices from all, perhaps we can restore this storied gamefish to its rightful place.

Capt. Chris Dollar is a fishing guide, tackle shop owner, and all-around Chesapeake outdoorsman with more than 25 years experience in avoiding office work.

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1979 40’ Bristol - $43,800 Jason Hinsch - 410.507.1259

1982 38’ Ericson - $47,500 Mary Catherine Ciszewski - 804.815.8238

1982 28’ Herreshoff - $29,000 David Robinson - 410.310.8855

To see more details about these and all other yachts around the globe, please visit our website below.

Annapolis, MD • St. Michaels, MD • Delaware City, DE • Deltaville, VA • Woodbridge, VA Telephone: 410.919.4900 • Email: info@curtisstokes.net www.curtisstokes.net

ANNAPOLIS 410.269.0939

TARTAN 395

65’ 2019 Regency P65 .....................................$2,895,000 60’ 2022 Jeanneau Yachts 60 - September ......... CALL 54’ 2015 Riviera - Belize 54 DayBridge ......$1,099,000 51’ 1986 Antigua 51 ............................................ $130,000 51’ 1983 WASA Atlantic 51 ...................................$57,000 51’ 2020 Jeanneau Yachts 51 ........................... $574,000 50’ 1988 Transworld - Fantail 50 .................... $240,000 50’ 2004 Viking Princess V50 ........................... $299,900 49’ 2021 Jeanneau SO 490 - In Stock ................... CALL 48’ 1970 Hinckley 48 ........................................... $129,000 47’ 2011 Monte Carlo 47 ................................... $459,000 45 2022 Tartan 455 - New Model .......................... CALL 44’ 2021 Jeanneau SO 440 - In Stock ................... CALL 44’ 2005 Tartan 4400 - Ontario ........................ $327,500 44’ 2004 Tartan 4400 - FL ................................. $335,900 44’ 1993 Paci c Seacraft 44 ............................. $215,000 43’ 2005 Jeanneau 43 DS ................................. $140,000 43’ 2008 Tartan 4300 - NY ................................. $399,000 43’ 2008 Tartan 4300 - MD ....................................... CALL 42’ 2006 Sabre 426 ..................................................... CALL 42’ 1985 Hinckley SW 42 ................................... $259,000 41’ 2016 Beneteau 41 Platinum ..................... $225,000 41’ 2021 Jeanneau SO 410 - In Stock ................... CALL 40’ 2011 Tartan 4000 - NY ................................. $359,000 40’ 1981 Nautilus 40 Pilothouse ........................$98,000 40’ 2000 Caliber 40 LRC ..................................... $156,655 40’ 1977 Gulfstar Hood 40 ................................ $119,000 40’ 1997 Paci c Seacraft 40 ............................. $229,000 40’ 1997 Paci c Seacraft 40 ............................. $295,000 40’ 2021 Nimbus T11 - In Stock .............................. CALL 39’ 2021 Tartan 395 - IN STOCK .............................. CALL 39’ 2022 Excess 12 Catamaran - September ...... CALL 39’ 1999 Mainship 390 ...................................... $115,000 38’ 2006 C&C 115 ................................................. $129,000 38’ 1981 S&S - Fincraft 38 ....................................$90,000 38’ 2000 Lagoon 380 ......................................... $199,000 38’ 1984 Warwick CT38 ...................................... $125,000 38’ 1985 Wilbur 38 Downeast Fly ......................$79,500 37’ 2022 Excess 11 Catamaran - August ............. CALL 37’ 2001 Jeanneau SO 37 ....................................$65,000 37’ 2002 Paci c Seacraft 37 ............................. $120,000 37’ 2006 Tartan 3700 ........................................... $210,000 37’ 2008 Tartan 3700 CCR ................................. $225,000 36’ 2006 Hunter 36 .................................................$89,500 36’ 2020 Legacy 36 - IN STOCK ............................... CALL 36’ 2022 Tartan 365 - October ................................ CALL 35’ 1986 Baltic 35 ....................................................$59,500 34’ 2021 Jeanneau SO 349 - In Stock ................... CALL 34’ 1990 Paci c Seacraft Crealock 34 ...............$86,000 33’ 2012 Marlow Hunter 33 .................................$90,000 33’ 2020 Grady White 330 Express ................. $449,000 33’ 2015 Tartan 101 ............................................. $139,000 32’ 2005 Nordic Tugs 32 .................................... $219,000 31’ 1986 Island Packet 31 .....................................$70,000 29’ 2019 Monteray 295SY ................................. $165,000 26’ 2021 NImbus T8 ..................................................... CALL 24’ 1989 Dana 24 ...................................................$49,000

JEANNEAU 410

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Getting to the Point

One of ice cream’s greatest legends still exists in Norfolk. The invention of the waffle cone came in 1904, not from a baker or dairyman, but from Abe Doumar, a paperweight salesman working the St. Louis World’s Fair, who connected the dots between an ice cream stand with a serving dish shortage and a nearby maker of waffles. To be fair, there are those who doubt this origin story, including the International Dairy Foods Association, but Abe and his waffle iron went on to open a chain of Doumar's ice cream stores from Coney Island to Jacksonville.

Doumar's opened in Norfolk in 1907, relocating to the current location in 1934, and now serves barbecue and burgers, in addition to ice cream served in cones made on Abe’s own waffle iron. Apochryphal? Possibly. Delicious? Absolutely. h

Photos by Danielle Salmon followmygut.com

COURTESY PHOTO