Florida Pink Shrimp Arrives at Fortune Fish Company

Fortune Fish Company is highlighting wild Florida pink shrimp as its sustainability initiative during August and September. Florida pink shrimp, also known as Key West pink shrimp and Gulf pink shrimp, come from the waters of Florida's southwest Gulf coast from Tarpon Springs to the Dry Tortugas, the last island in the Florida Keys chain. These great tasting shrimp are harvested from pinkish to white colored sandy ocean bottom, giving them a pink color and clean sweet tasting lobster like texture, and are excellent for broiling, grilling, frying or sautéing, say company officials. Fortune Fish and its partners at the Sustainable Fisheries Partnership (SFP), a non-profit organization focused on rebuilding fisheries and reducing their impacts on the environment, and our supplier, Cox's Wholesale Seafood, Inc. are working to help this fishery meet key sustainability goals. Specifically, those goals include reduction of bycatch of other species, including turtles; and better monitoring of vessels and fishermen to ensure they’re in compliance with regulations, including harvesting in only designated areas, and adoption of improved fishing gear to help reach targeted, defined goals. As part of the Fishery Improvement Project’s 2012 work plan developed to specifically address this important U.S.-based fishery, suppliers and buyers are actively working with fishery managers and government agencies to increase observer coverage or explore other options for increased monitoring. “We’ve realized that it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to bring about positive change,” says Stacy Shultz, Fortune Fish’s staff biologist and seafood sustainability coordinator. Fortune Fish Company www.fortunefishco.net