Well, have watched the first few episodes of this show with mixed feelings. On the one hand, I recognize just how hard these guys work to make a living & also understand that there are towns along the Gulf Coast that depend on shrimping for economic survival.

On the other hand, every time I see them pull those nets up packed full of all kinds of fish & other 'bycatch' that ends up dying & going to waste ... well ... I just can't help but think that maybe this is an industry that's outlived itself. Noted quite a number of small dead red snapper in the episodes, can only imagine how many more were not included in selected video clips.

I would move to the coast and set up shop if I was a dentist.

You'd be the loneliest guy in town...

Now you really think those guys want to waste money on a dentist? Talk about throwing good money after bad!

I think I saw Forrest Gumps boat on the last episode.

lol

i keep watching and worrying about the bycatch. can't be good, unless other fish are eating it, which i suspect they might be.

Bill, the bycatch does get eaten - this is why fishing around a shrimpboat is so productive, as it's the biggest chum slick you'll find. The problem is that all those undersized red snapper & everything else is being killed off with nothing to show for it.

it happens, but i'm not gonna whine about it.........

i've got bigger fish to fry

Got a better way to do it? Its not an easy job by any means at all.

I don't think for one minute that its an easy job:

Only better way I can think of is aquaculture, but I can imagine there may be environmental pitfalls to that method as well. The current trawling system is just so wasteful that I can't help thinking that there HAS to be a better way.

LOL...most underrated post of the year!!!

I use to work on my uncles shrimp boat. It was a smaller boat, but still worked the same. He would always push us to cull the shrimp fast to get the fish back in the water. Bigger fish, red snapper and such were thrown back alive as soon as the nets were emptied. There were always plenty of sharks, dolphins and other fish that followed the boats to get their fill of fish. Fish and crabs were thrown back. Sea Bobs and squid packed for bait shops. Shrimp packed for sale. Culling shrimp is a tough job. The only time I have ever been sea sick was the first couple of days looking at that deck.

Hard work for sure, I did it as a young teen ager. There really is no way to catch shrimp that will safely allow anything but shrimp to escape the net, all the extruders in the world wont let everything but the shrimp out. Farm raised shrimp is a great idea but financially, for the most part, undoable for the amount of demand vs supply, at least at present. Aside from that if we completely abandoned wild shrimping it would cause all the fish we love to catch so much to over eat, become over weight and become to lazy to go after a baited hook, causing a population explotion which would inturn ruin the doomsayers theories on the disappearance due to over fishing of the gulf, which would cause them to loose their jobs thus creating another economic hardship to contend with........ big mess all the way around.....
LOL!

i think i'd be holding on to the crabs for bait.

Or for the pot on the stove.......

they looked kinda small, but it seems like it would be an ez way to pick up some cash for the dentist!

Denist? Whats dat?

after watching those guys cull shrimp hours at a time, I think I have a new respect for that style of work. looks tough but I guess it can be rewarding if you get on some "saltwater gold" as they call em

I've been out with guides and locals both who trade beer, cigarettes, etc, for bags of bycatch to use as chum.
Also usually barter for a nice big bag of freshly veined and peeled shrimp to take home!

Nothing goes to waste, something will always eat it.

one episode they brought up a pile of dead bycatch. apparently it was sitting on bottom...nothing ate off it. strange.

peeled and de-veined??!!!........

i call BS!...... at least on the "usually" part

Well now wouldn't this be good for both recreational AND commercial fishermen?

May have used the wrong terminology. Peeled to me means head removed. If they were completely "shelled" then I use the word shelled.
Whatever the terminology...they are the best damn shrimp I have ever eaten. Of course, being on a boat out in the gulf for 12 hours gives me one heck of an appetite.

If I recall correctly the term is "Headed" but its been a great number of years since I worked on a butterfly.