Gulf Royalty By David W. Brown
When Jeremy Zirlott takes a boat out to fish royal red shrimp, it’s 30 days at sea, working 24/7.
From the pier to deep water — about 90 miles from the Alabama coastline — it takes 10 hours or more. Once the boat reaches a potential fishing spot, it takes another hour to deploy the full mile of cable necessary to reach the depths where red shrimp swim. The crew of Zirlott’s 95-foot boat consists of a captain and maybe four deckhands. A single trawl might take three or four hours and, the whole time, nobody knows if they’re catching shrimp or water. “With that much cable stretched out, you pick the depth you want to fish and hope there’s some shrimp there,” he says. “If not, you have to change depths. Sometimes we might go 24, 30 hours just trying to find the temperature-sensitive depth.” You can
12
J U LY A U G U ST 20 20
have some decent hauls, he says, but sometimes you’re wasting half the day — or all day — just looking.
eat them boiled or steamed, so that the shrimp retains its sweetness, with a little butter sauce on the side.
Royal red shrimp are an Alabama specialty, and are growing increasingly popular in Mississippi and Louisiana. They are a deep-water shrimp found as shallow as 180 fathoms, and as deep as 280. Like the cold-water creatures of the North Atlantic, royal red shrimp like the low temperatures of the inky blue.
“They're almost like a lobster, in my opinion. In terms of texture and flavor, they are kind of between a lobster and crabmeat — just a really delicate, sweet-tasting shrimp.”
They are a delicate shrimp to prepare, supple and characterized by a fresh sweetness, unlike white or brown shrimp. “A lot of people overcook red shrimp,” says Zirlott. “They cook extremely quickly because they are so tender and delicate.” His family likes to
When one of his boats is out on the water, a good day’s haul could yield as much as 1,200 pounds of red shrimp. “If you could do that steady, that would be really good,” he says, but laughs as he adds that the average haul is a lot less: “I’ve made drags when I didn’t have a single shrimp — not one!” An average of 300-400 pounds on a haul is pretty good, but anything less means pulling up cable and moving on.
