The seabob shrimp fishery off of Cameron Parish is arguably one of the biggest seabob harvest areas in the Gulf of Mexico. Compared to other shrimp fisheries in the U.S., it is small. Yet it is important to the fishing industry of Cameron. Seabob landings in Cameron comprise about half of the port’s pounds of shrimp landed.
The seabob ( Xiphopenaeus kroyeri) is a small shrimp that inhabits the soft mud bottoms found in the Gulf off of Cameron Parish. The bulk of the seabob harvest is during the fall and early winter months - October through December. Seabobs show up at this time of year a day or two after the passage of a cool front. Prior to the front’s passage, strong south winds churn up the nearshore waters and then calms after the front passes. This seems to be the triggering mechanism for the seabob “run.”
Local shrimpers look for muddy water near the shore. This is an indication of a seabob school. These tightly spaced schools can be quite large. On occasions shrimpers dragging through these dense schools may catch a ton of shrimp in a half hour.
Trawling for seabobs is quite different from other shrimp trawling methods. Trawl speeds are 1.3 to 1.5 knots, compared to 2 to 4 knots for white or brown shrimp. Heavy chains and lead weights are used on seabob gear to force the lead line to dig into the bottom, which the seabobs inhabit. The lack of a bib allows the one and a quarter-inch stretched mesh trawl to ride close to the bottom. This fishing method draws in lots of debris and mud, which often times clogs the front of the TED. This situation causes damage to the net, damage to the TED, loss of harvesting efficiency and loss of catch. Heavy loads in the cod-end of the net also cause the TED to dig into the bottom compounding the problems.
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