Tercentenary Scientist Reveals New England Has Deep Sea Shrimp, Basis for New Industry

The Alumni Bulletin's latest number carries an article entitled "Shrimps and the Harvard Tercentenary" written by Lionel A. Walford, '31 of the Bureau of Fisheries. Part of it is reprinted below. In the introduction to the excerpt quoted, Mr. Walford points out that the trade of the smaller independent fishermen, the Boston trawlers and the Maine lobstermen suffers a let-down in winter.

It is these two classes of fishermen who have been most interested in recent months in the possible development of an entirely new fishery along the New England coast, a shrimp fishery, which promises to be a profitable supplement to the activities of some, and to fill a badly felt winter gap for others. If such an industry does develop, and there are now indications that it will, it will be one of the first and most tangible results of Harvard's Tercentenary Celebration. For it was one of the men brought over from Europe to be honored at the Celebration. Dr. Johan Hjort of Norway, who, while he was here, demonstrated for the fishermen the presence of a large and commercially valuable population of shrimps.

Dr. Hjort is one of the founders of modern fishery research. It is thanks to him and his associates that the work of the United States Bureau of Fisheries, for example, is what it is today. His present chief interest is whales, but it has included many other things living in the sea.

Some forty years ago, when he was searching with fine-meshed, nets in one of the Norwegian fjords for young cod, he brought up from the muddy bottom of deep water, where fishermen had not previously reached with their gear, quantities of shrimps.

Although it has long been known that the same species of shrimp found in Norway is to be found also along the coast of North America from Cape Cod to Nova Scotia, fishermen have not generally known of its abundance, or, knowing it, have not attempted to develop a market. Consequently when Dr. Hjort came here last year as a guest of Harvard, and also of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute (of which Professor H. B. Bigelow is director), he set about at once to learn whether the shrimps are as abundant here as they are in Europe.

The research vessel "Atlantis" of the Oceanographic Institute forthwith set out on an expedition for this purpose, with Dr. Hjort, Professor Bigelow, Professor Redfield, and others on board. A week's voyage between Woods Hole and Cape Small was enough to convince Dr. Hjort that the shrimps are here in commercial quantities.

He then persuaded two fishing organizations, the Federated Fishing Boats of New England and New York, and the Fishermen's Relief Corporation of Maine, to carry on the explorations under his direction. Accordingly the fishing schooner "New Dawn" was given over for this work, and, amid a fanfare of newspaper publicity, spent the month of October shrimp fishing.

The upshot of all this is that a market has been made already for northern shrimps--the newspapers have made the public shrimp-conscious, especially in Maine--and several fishermen are planning to buy, or have already bought, the necessary equipment with which to begin shrimping. What success they will have is yet to be seen.

The northern shrimps are tender and delicious when cooked., and, at least to this prejudiced writer, quite as good as lobsters if not actually better. They average from five to eight inches long when market-sized. They are bright red in color, differing in this respect from the southern shrimps which are green, and generally live on muddy bottom in depths of 60 to 100 fathoms. That is not an easy place for small boats to reach with their limited gear. Fortunately the shrimps come into shallower water near the shore during the winter, where they can more conveniently be taken. Thus they will probably supply is winter fishery, and a very welcome one to Maine small-boat fishermen, who need something to bolster up their badly depleted lobster industry