White Shrimp (Penaeus Indicus)

The white shrimp is a subspecies of prawns and is widely found in areas like the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic area of North America. It is believed that the earliest shrimp fishery of the United States first concentrated on doing the nurturing of the white shrimp. The white shrimp can reach up to a length of 197 millimetres with females considered to be larger than the male species.

Its antennae go to three times its overall length. The body overall is white and blue in colour having a dash of pink in sides. Its pleopods are red in colour while telson and uropods green. The white shrimp is an omnivore and mostly feeds on the seagrass Vallisneria Americana and detritus. It is also a prey to many species of fishes like the red drum and the turtles.

Fishing for these shrimps has been happening at the Atlantic coast since a long time now. The tricks of the trade were even exchanged with the European settlers. In fact, the harvesting if these shrimps started fully in 1950 and every month the catch is collected in the Gulf of Mexico. The spring rains flush these shrimps into the ocean and this is when they start migrating towards warm waters.