rockfish & shrimp

[SANFLEA]

I have been marking tons of bait balls of huge shrimp in the rappahanock and the fish i have caught have been full of them also. Weird that ive never seen shrimp in the river and weird that there are no fish in those rockfish bellies. Where are the bait fish and why so many shrimp.

[Ricochet]

IMHO- Because there is no commercial shrimp fishery, over the last few/several years, shrimp have been moving into Chesapeake Bay more and more. Much more so over the last couple years. This is good for the rock, as you mentioned, they are feasting on them. God forbid the shrimp industry figgers this out so, shussshhhh!!!! The menhaden are just now coming into the river from the creeks and such so, you should start seeing more of them both in the river and bay but, also in the bellies of your next dinner! Again, IMHO...

[Tom Powers]

There is an experimental . . . much lower bycatch than NC shrimp fishery . . . commercial fishery for white shrimp off of the Virginia coast but not in the bay. The areas are from Dam Neck south to the NC/VA line. and from Cape Charles to the VA/MD line. 16 foot beam trawl, tow duration not to exceed 30 minutes. Lots of VMRC Observers on trips.

Further the fishery in NC is still going strong with much larger gear (two trawls with up to 220 foot beam) that has substantial bycatch of fish (especially) croaker. The large number of white shrimp in the Chesapeake bay is a recent thing that the scientists are "blaming" on global warming moving species northward.

There is talk (for now it is just talk) about changing the flounder allocations between the states because of the same climate change driven changes in the species distribution up and down the coast.

[SANFLEA]

Good info Tom and Ricochet. Nothing surprises me this year.

[SteveL]

Thank you Tom, that is great information--I need to start planning my VA shrimping trips!!

It is super interesting about the shrimp moving northward into the Chesapeake in larger numbers that have been seen historically.

The scientific consensus is that many East coast fish and (mobile) shellfish species are expanding their ranges northward with changing climate and warming waters.

https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/featu...erent%20places.

https://www.courthousenews.com/study...-moving-north/

MD established a new citation category and State record in the Bay for FL pompano last year, and the State record was broken this year.

https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2019/0...orida-pompano/

https://news.maryland.gov/dnr/2020/0...orida-pompano/