Atlantic rock shrimp begin their lives in a rare deep-water reef system that stretches for over 90 miles along the shelf edges at depths of 200-300 feet off the eastern Florida coast. Known as the Cones, Steeples, and Humps, these reefs consist of large pinnacles and ridges, which can sometimes reach amazing heights of over 100 feet. The reefs are built by the ivory tree coral, Oculina varicosa, a branching stony coral that lives as isolated colonies from North Carolina to the Caribbean. However, the stretch off of Florida is the only place in the world where massive Oculina reefs have been found.
The rock shrimp industry began in 1969, when Titusville boat-builder, Rodney Thompson, invented a machine that could split them, making it easier to crack them open for removal of a large sand vein. Rock shrimp quickly became popular as a local seafood delicacy. Rodney established a processing plant at Port Canaveral, where Captain Sam Vona and his sons
operated a fleet of shrimp-boats that produced nearly all of the rock shrimp processed at Thompson’s plant, Ponce Seafood, Inc. The Vona Family was careful to protect their resource, and they never fished in the Oculina nursery grounds. For the next ten years, Ponce Seafood processed about 10 million pounds of rock shrimp a year, employing dozens of women who cleaned every shrimp by hand.
Most other processors used big Lathram machines to mechanically peel and de-vein soft shrimp. Rock shrimp could not be peeled with a Lathram – their shells were just too hard. Processors weren’t interested in rock shrimp because of the intense amount of hand labor involved in their cleaning. Because of their indifference, the market value of rock shrimp
stayed well below that of soft shrimp.
In the mid-1980’s, a Mississippi company, Pascagula Ice, became the first processor to successfully modify a Lathram so that it could be used to peel rock shrimp. Pascagula Ice then seriously undercut the price of peeled soft shrimp since they could purchase rock shrimp at a considerably lower price. Other processors quickly modified their Lathram machines
and created an instantaneous consumer demand for the cheaper processed rock shrimp meats.
The race was on and dozens of trawlers steamed for Florida’s East Coast. Soon, the Vonas were surrounded by Gulf shrimp boats. Some of the super-trawlers were quite large, 110 feet long and capable of dragging four 60’ flat nets at one time. The bigger boats could catch and freeze more than 7,000 pounds of shrimp per night. The industry peaked in 1991, when more than 40 million pounds of rock shrimp crossed Florida’s docks.
Unable to withstand the pressure, rock shrimp catches rapidly declined and prices skyrocketed. Looking for new places to catch shrimp, the super-trawlers moved further south into the nursery grounds, dragging their nets in troughs that had originally been created by dredges dragged by calico scallop vessels.
Modern electronic technology made it possible for shrimpers to drag repeatedly over the same paths, reducing the chance of hanging, and losing, their nets in the coral. Deckhands shoveled millions of pounds of small dead rock shrimp back into the ocean as they culled out the few marketable ones to bring to the dock for sale.
In 1994, recognizing that something had to change dramatically before rock shrimp completely disappeared, Rodney (now the owner of Dixie Crossroads Seafood Restaurant) began a campaign to stop destructive bottom trawling within the Oculina nursery grounds, as well as create a management plan for rock shrimp. He encountered major resistance from the industry, which strongly resisted any efforts to establish controls on where they fished or who could join the fishery. Unable to procure enough rock shrimp to last all year, Dixie Crossroads began to run out of them every spring. Catch rates continued to plummet and in 2000 less than three million pounds of rock shrimp were offloaded in Florida.
Finally recognizing that their livelihoods truly were at stake, the rock shrimp industry partners became more supportive. In 2001, a historic precedent was set when, under Rodney’s guidance, they worked together with National Marine Fisheries Service staff to draw up a management plan for rock shrimp that would protect the reef while allowing traditional rock shrimp fishing areas to remain open. The South Atlantic Marine Fisheries Council unanimously approved the plan. It was the first time a group of southern fishermen not only agreed that management was necessary-they produced their own blueprint for doing so.
One year after the establishment of the “no-trawl” area that encompasses the majority of the largest Oculina reefs, rock shrimp catches increased slightly. Two years after the management plan went into effect the first 100,000 pound loads in more than six years crossed the dock. So far, it appears that the management practices have been successful.
Rock shrimping continues to occupy an important role in the South Atlantic shrimp industry, making it possible for seafood connoisseurs to enjoy this unique little hard-shelled delicacy, the “shrimp that tastes like lobster” for years to come.
