Do You Know Your Shrimp?

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

The North Carolina shrimp fishery harvests three species: white, brown, and pink shrimp. White and brown shrimp are the dominant species, while pink shrimp make up the smallest portion of the annual harvest. From the public's perspective, all three species are simply sold as “shrimp”. Once cooked, they are indistinguishable by taste and appearance and thus sold without species-specific labels. Instead, labeling focuses on size and whether the shrimp are head-on or head-off.

Although shrimp are primarily harvested for food, all three species are also commercially harvested for use as recreational bait. Shrimp sold for the bait market are smaller and often sold live.

Life History

The life history of all three shrimp species is similar. Mature adults leave North Carolina’s estuarine waters to spawn offshore between May and September. A single female can produce one million eggs and may spawn several times. Fertilized eggs hatch into tiny larvae within 12 to 24 hours and rise in the water column. These newly hatched shrimp are carried by shoreward currents to nursery habitats within the various inland sounds. Their growth is fairly fast and depends on factors such as water temperature and salinity. Once they reach about 5.5 inches, they can reproduce.

Shrimp have a short lifespan of 16 to 24 months and can quickly recover from low population levels, making them very resilient. As a result, they can sustain high levels of harvest without the same overfishing concerns that occur in other fisheries. The primary factors affecting annual shrimp abundance are environmental conditions, such as water temperature, rainfall, and tropical cyclones, while fishing mortality has only a minor impact on annual variation.

Breaking Down North Carolina’s Three Shrimp Species

White Shrimp

Litopenaeus setiferus, commonly called white shrimp or green tails, are primarily harvested in the estuarine and nearshore ocean waters. They are light gray with green-tinted tails, and their antennae are 2.5 to 3 times their body length. Evidence suggests that warming water temperatures are contributing to an increased abundance of white shrimp in North Carolina and states to the north.

North Carolina has historically had the northernmost commercially viable population of white shrimp. However, in 2022, Virginia began permitting a limited offshore shrimp trawl fishery due to the consistent presence of white shrimp in its nearshore ocean waters. Similarly, North Carolina’s harvest of white shrimp has increased over time, with the species surpassing brown shrimp as the majority species of harvest for the first time in 2005 and regularly doing so ever since. In 2023, 3.8 million pounds of white shrimp were harvested from North Carolina waters, with annual landings surpassing 9 million pounds as recently as 2017.

Brown Shrimp

rfantepenaeus aztecus, commonly called brown shrimp or summer shrimp, are primarily harvested in the estuarine waters of North Carolina. They typically remain low in the water column and depend on certain water temperatures to trigger biological changes. Specifically, decreasing water temperatures prompt overwintering behavior, during which they bury themselves in sediment for protection from the cold. Evidence suggests that warming water temperatures may disrupt this behavior, leading to higher natural mortality and greater variability in landings. Reported brown shrimp landings in North Carolina exceeded 2.7 million pounds in 2023, and were as high as 6.3 million pounds as recently as 2015.

Pink Shrimp

Farfantepenaeus duorarum, commonly called pink shrimp or spotted shrimp, are often found in sand or sand-shell bottom habitats. They are easily identified by their pink color and a dark-colored spot between their third and fourth abdominal segments. Similar to brown shrimp, smaller pink shrimp remain in estuarine waters during the winter and bury themselves in the sediment to protect against cold temperatures.

In the past, pink shrimp made up a sizable percentage of the total shrimp harvest in North Carolina. However, landings have been low in recent years, with just over 29,000 pounds landed in 2023. Pink shrimp have accounted for less than 20% of the North Carolina harvest since 1993, and less than 10% in most years.

One of These Shrimp is Not Like the Others

Tiger Shrimp

There is another species of shrimp that is occasionally captured in North Carolina, the invasive tiger shrimp (Penaeus Monodon). Native to Southeast Asia, tiger shrimp were first caught off the Carolinas in 1988, following an accidental release from an aquaculture facility. They can grow up to 13 inches and have a rusty brown to black coloration with distinct banding along their backs. North Carolina’s first documented inshore capture of tiger shrimp occurred in 2006 when five specimens were collected from Pamlico Sound. Tiger shrimp are now considered an established species along the southeast and Gulf coasts.