The Oregon pink shrimp fleet has agreed to suspend harvesting operations for about a month. That’s so the shrimp can grow to a more marketable size.
Oregon pink shrimp are also called salad shrimp because of their size.
The season was delayed this year due to a price dispute. Brad Pettinger with the Oregon Trawl Commission says there was some concern there wouldn’t be many shrimp once the season got underway.
“People were really bracing for the worst. So, the good news is we’ve got a lot of shrimp in the water, just not quite ready for harvest yet.”
In past El Nino years, warmer water has been tough on Oregon’s pink shrimp and they’ve been in short supply.
Pettinger says last year Oregon’s pink shrimp fishery was number one in ex-vessel value in the state, netting more than 40 million dollars. It complement’s Oregon’s other major fishery, Dungeness Crab.
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