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 have some decent hauls, he says, but sometimes you’re wasting half the day — or all day — just looking.

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 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 eat them boiled or steamed, so that the shrimp retains its sweetness, with a little butter sauce on the side.

“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.”

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.

“It takes anywhere from $3,000 to $4,000 a day for these boats to operate,” he explains. “You need to get that pretty well every day while they’re out. You’ll have bad days and better days, but that’s the average that you strive for.”

Those 30 days on the water are exhausting, and can be relentless. “Day is no different than night on a shrimp boat,” he says. “It’s just work. You catch a nap whenever you can.” While the boat is trawling, the crew is getting everything prepared for what they hope is a big haul. This involves building the packing boxes and organizing everything. Once the nets are pulled from the depths and dumped into the boat, it’s a nonstop frenzy to sort the shrimp. Everything is

The boats have charting computers that map good areas to fish. Everything is stored for future reference. “It’s still an educated guess every time we go out,” says Zirlott. “If you make a mistake you try to correct and be better for the next day. Hopefully at the end of 30 days, you’ve got enough to cover expenses and make some extra money for the crew, too.”

One month of this, and the boat returns home, though the work still doesn’t stop. The boat has to be repaired and refueled and prepped for the next run. One week later, it’s back out to sea. The same crews go back out, too. It’s a hard skill to learn, but the crews are dedicated.

“I’ve been shrimping since I was knee-high,” says Zirlott. His family has been in the fishing business in one aspect or another since the early 1800s, at least. “I don’t know how many generations that goes [back]. My father was a fisherman. My grandfather, my great-grandfather — it goes way back, and on both sides: my mother’s side and my father’s side.”

These days, he has captains and crews to run his three boats on the water. “I went out for 20-something years,” he says. “When I was 40, I had been in the gulf for 6,000 days of my life. It was a year-in, year-out standard thing, 270 days a year of fishing.”

This kind of work takes an experienced crew. “You can’t just pull people off the street and expect them to do this. Most of the guys doing this, they were born into it, been around it all their lives, their grandfathers and fathers did it, and it is just in their blood.” He says that it takes years for a crew member to build the experience necessary to go out on the deep water and have a successful trawl — and for that reason, the fishing industry is forever in a perilous state. “There are very few new people coming into this business, and one thing I fear for the future of the industry is the lack of knowledgeable people able to fish this sort of shrimp and do it well.”

He says, “It’s not just taking a boat out and fishing. It’s doing it trip in and trip out and making a profit.”

The solution, he says, is simple: Buy local. “This could all go away one day, and I’m afraid it will if we don’t get renewed interest in our local product.”

The red shrimp are there to catch, he explains, but the sort of foreign imports carried by big chains have taken their toll on the industry. “Our prices are good, but the price of shrimp hasn’t kept up with inflation.” He explains that while shrimp prices are still low, shrimping prices are higher than ever. A fishing net that 20 years ago cost $700 might cost $3,500 today. A complete shipyard boat repair, from glass to paint, would have cost $20,000 back then. Today? More like $100,000. “The profitability has drastically decreased, but I still see an opportunity there, if you can get the right market for your product. That’s why we started packaging on the boat and making a more ‘user friendly’ product — a better-quality product.”

Overall, he says, the quality of the average Gulf shrimp has increased over the years, but imported products have interfered with the market. Zirlott Trawlers, his company, reinvests in the industry. “It’s been good to me because someone invested before I came along. I want to do the same thing.”

He explains, “I want to keep it going because there might be some young kid somewhere that wants to be a fisherman, and I would hate for him to come along to do that and not be able to do it. I want to do everything in my power to make it last.”

Zirlott and his wife, Kim, have run their Bayou La Batrebased family business since 1997. (His daughters help with the business, too.) He first started red shrimping about 12 years ago. It has always been a relatively small industry because of the special, pricey tools necessary to do the job, from hydraulic winches to miles of cable. Each boat requires about a quarter-million dollars’ worth of gear above the cost of a standard shrimp boat. “It’s an expensive endeavor to try to tackle,” says Zirlott.

Zirlott Trawlers supplies Royal Lagoon Seafood, a local Alabama seafood vendor, which in turn supplies Rouses Markets.

Rouses first began offering royal red shrimp when it opened stores in Alabama. “When we grew our stores into the state, royal red shrimp were one of the things that kind of bubbled to the top,” says Denise Englade, the director of seafood for Rouses Markets.

“I was born and raised in Louisiana, so I knew the local brands — white and brown shrimp — and it was important to make sure that we were honoring items that were close to the heart of the people in Alabama as well.” Royal red shrimp, she says, are a beautiful product — a different product. “They’re a little bit more tender, a little bit sweeter. They’re the sort of shrimp that you steam — you’re not going to throw them in Cajun crab boil!”

The way Rouses approached royal red shrimp was the way it approaches any local product. “We treat every new neighborhood the same way, with the same attitude: that they are part of our family. We’re going to be part of an area, so let’s make sure we’re taking care of them and carrying what’s important to them,” Englade says. This involves visiting the area, seeing what local restaurants are serving, going to local fish markets, investigating what people are buying and, after intensive research, finding the best local products that shoppers in the area love.

In the case of royal red shrimp, Rouses reached out to Royal Lagoon, a local Alabama vendor, and partnered with them to provide shrimp to stores in Alabama, and some stores in Mississippi.

“It’s a real partnership,” says Englade. “I feel like they are really looking out for Rouses, and I know that we look out for them. We're always looking for ‘what’s new, what’s next,’ and they are always doing the same, always looking forward.”

Today Royal Lagoon delivers to each of Rouses Markets’ 64 stores, bringing to communities in Louisiana and Mississippi the things that are local to Alabama.

Such partnerships with local vendors are nothing new. Rouses has always meant “local.”

“It goes all the way back to Anthony Rouse, the founder of Rouses Markets,” Englade says. “You know, when he had his produce business, he was always on the lookout for the local farmer and the local shopper. He would find out what the neighborhood wanted, and he would find someone local to help provide it.” That ideal has been handed down from generation to generation of the Rouse family. “I think it’s a unique way you can do business, when you are a family-owned company that really cares about the places that you do business in. That’s who we are.”

Steamed Royal Reds

Makes 4 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 2 pounds royal red shrimp, shell and head on, Old Bay Seasoning

HOW TO PREP: Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season the shrimp shells with Old Bay. Place the shrimp in a steamer basket and place atop the boiling water in the pot. Steam until the shrimp turn bright red and are firm to the touch, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with drawn butter.

Grilled Royal Reds

Makes 4 servings

WHAT YOU WILL NEED: 1 cup (8 ounces) unsalted butter, softened, 1½ tablespoons minced garlic, 2½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice, 2 tablespoons lemon zest, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme, 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, 2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided, 2 pounds royal red shrimp, 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

HOW TO PREP: Preheat grill to 350°F. Stir together butter, garlic, lemon juice and zest, thyme, pepper and 1 teaspoon of the salt in a medium bowl until well combined; set aside. Toss shrimp, olive oil and remaining 1 teaspoon of salt in a large bowl. Grill shrimp, covered, just until shrimp are bright red and charred, about 1 minute to 90 seconds on each side. Toss with the lemon-garlic butter, and serve immediately.