Oregon Coast Bounty

Oregon’s commercial fishing industry encompasses a wide range of seafood. Many of which include Salmon, Rockfish, Lingcod, Albacore and Black Cod to Pink Shrimp, Oysters, Crabs and Clams. This recipe for Rockfish & Bay Shrimp with Lemon Sauce recipe uses fresh wild caught rockfish and pink shrimp harvested from the Oregon coast.

Trawling the Coastal Waters

Pink shrimp can be found along the west coast from British Columbia to Southern California. but the majority of the pink shrimp stocks are found along the Oregon coast. A few months back, I met with a fisherman from Brookings, Oregon to discuss the trawling industry. Captain Brad explained how the trawling industry had to make changes to survive. The need was to protect the rockfish that were becoming a bycatch in the pink shrimp netting.

Captain Brad explained how the trawling industry has made improvements over the last 20 years making fishing more sustainable. The rockfish industry also had to make changes to protect rockfish and their breeding grounds.

Check out the Exploring the Source interview with Port Orford Sustainable Seafood to learn more about the Rockfish industry.

As I learned, the Oregon Trawling Commission based out of Brookings has worked with fishermen to improve the trawling process. They redesigned nets to change how the nets dredge the bottom to improve the quality and quantity of their catches.

By redesigning their nets they eliminated the majority of bycatch, they were able to decrease their bycatches to below 5%. This allows the fishermen to spend less time sorting out the bycatch and making other fish availability more sustainable.

Pink Shrimp Sustainability

Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife manages the harvest annually. The pink shrimp season runs from April 1st to October 31st. November through March are non fishing for shrimp because they are carrying eggs.

Annually pink shrimp harvests bring in an average of 30 million pounds. The harvests have been consistent over the last 20 years. Since the management of the stocks and the trawling industry adapting to changes over time, this has allowed the pink shrimp industry to thrive.

The Net Redesign

Take a look at this timeline and illustration of a pink shrimp trawling net on ODFW website. The picture shows how lights at the top of the net attract the fish. Salmon, lingcod and other ground fish travel over the top of the nets to avoid being collected.

If fish do get into the nets they are able to escape different ways depending on their size. Nets have larger holes that allow smaller fish are filtered out. But larger fish like ground fish are able to escape through a hole toward the end of the netting. This allows the pink shrimp to be the majority of their catch.

As the ODFW website points out, “Oregon’s pink shrimp fishery has been certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council since 2007. This was the first shrimp fishery to be certified such. This certification, was achieved in large part via to cooperative work between industry and ODFW which implemented changes in gear reduce bycatch.”

Enjoy some Oregon Seafood!

Even if you aren’t located on the West Coast, find a local fisherman and try this dish. Substitute other white fish or even salmon and be creative, top with crab or other shrimp. Watch the video to see how easy it is to cook Rockfish & Bay Shrimp with Lemon Sauce

Try this Rockfish & Bay Shrimp Recipe plus

other Seafood Reipes here!

Enjoy!