Information about the shrimp fishery

There are seven Pandalid species harvested by trawl in BC and fisheries vary in complexity from single to multi-species fisheries for a variety of markets including machine-peeled, hand-peeled, frozen-at-sea, fresh and live shrimp. The majority of landings are a mix of "pink shrimp" and sidestripe shrimp. Pink and sidestripe shrimp do not easily enter baited traps, but humpback and coonstripe shrimp are caught commercially by both trawl and trap.

The Pacific Region shrimp trawl fishery takes place all along the British Columbia coastline in a number of protected inshore areas and large offshore grounds on soft bottoms of mud or sand in depths of 100 to 150 metres (average). The fishery is managed by individual Shrimp Management Areas (SMA). A vessel-based ("S") licence or communal commercial ("FP") licence is required to participate in the commercial shrimp by trawl fishery.