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Shrimp, Northern
Pandalus borealis

©B.Guild/ Charting Nature, www.chartingnature.com

COMMON NAMES

  • Coldwater shrimp
  • Deep water shrimp
  • Northern shrimp
  • Pink shrimp

THE SALAD SHRIMP

These tiny crustaceans average less than 10 centimeters in length on average. Their small size and strong flavor make them ideal for topping a salad, and hence, they will often be found labeled simply as “salad shrimp.” The Northern is a coldwater shrimp, has a sweet flavor and is firmer than the larger warm water species.

KIDSAFE

The KidSafe Seafood program recommends Northern shrimp. It is sufficiently low in mercury and PCBs to be safe for children age three and up to eat at least once a week.

The most abundant species in the Pandalidae family, the northern shrimp is found in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, North Pacific, and Arctic oceans (although some scientists classify the Pacific population as a separate subspecies). In the Atlantic, it is found from Greenland to Massachusetts. Catches off Atlantic Canada have tripled over the past decade to almost 136,000 MT (300 million pounds) per year, more than half of which is landed off Newfoundland. A small fishery takes place every winter off Maine, where fishermen catch about 2,200 MT (five million pounds) per year. In the Pacific, northern shrimp is found from the Bering Sea to Japan. All northern shrimp found in the market is taken from fisheries, not farms. Northern shrimp landed in the U.S. are caught almost exclusively in the Atlantic. Conservation groups rate northern shrimp as a good environmental choice, as the population is plentiful and well managed.

A similar species, Oregon pink shrimp (Pandalus jordani), is only found in the Pacific. When out of its shell it is indistinguishable from the northern pink shrimp, and the two species are often counted as one.

Northern shrimp is smaller than the more familiar “cocktail” shrimp found in the tropics, at about five to ten centimeters in length. Coldwater shrimp is sweet tasting and some consider it to be more moist and flavorful than the common, tropical variety. Coldwater shrimp only accounts for eight percent of the total U.S. shrimp catch.

CONSERVATION NOTES

Most northern shrimp is caught using otter trawls. While these coldwater shrimp trawl fisheries do not catch sea turtles (which prefer warmer water), bycatch of other species can be a problem in some fisheries. The Atlantic trawl fishery—as is the case with most of the pandalid shrimp fisheries—uses a device known as the Nordmore grate, which was introduced in the 1990s. The Nordmore grate greatly reduces the bycatch of groundfish (such as cod) by directing fish to an escape opening at the top of the trawl net.

IN SEASON

  • New England northern shrimp fishery: begins in January and usually lasts four to six weeks

PRODUCT FORM

FRESH:

  • Cooked and peeled
  • Meat, mostly available in the 100/300 size grades

FROZEN:

  • Cooked and peeled (majority of U.S. sales)
  • Meat, mostly available in the 100/300 size grades

BUYING TIPS

  • In Japan, raw northern shrimp is known as ama ebi, or sweet shrimp.
  • A growing percentage of cooked, peeled coldwater shrimp meat is sold fresh. Most fresh meat is sold ungraded.
  • Most processors that produce cooked, peeled meat use processing additives such as tripolyphosphates that tend to remove some of the shrimp’s natural flavor.