274 THE WEALTH OF THE SEA 



Orleans fishermen were taken in haul-seines, but in 

 recent years the otter-trawl has been found to be 

 more efficient and is now used wherever the water is 

 of sufficient depth to permit it. 



The otter-trawls used in shrimp fishing are similar 

 to those of the haddock fishery on the Grand Banks, 

 except that they are much smaller, usually being 

 about fifty feet long and forty feet across the mouth, 

 and are made of smaller meshed netting. Briefly the 

 otter-trawl used in this fishery is a huge, open- 

 mouthed, flattened, conical bag which strains nearly 

 everything out of the water as it is drawn behind a 

 power-boat at the rate of about four miles an hour. 

 After the trawl has been towed for thirty minutes or 

 so, the engine is stopped and the slack of the net 

 hauled in. The tail end of the bag, which contains the 

 catch, is worked around to the side of the boat and 

 finally hauled aboard. 



Haul-seines are used in an entirely different man- 

 ner. When the fishing grounds are reached, the boats 

 patrol up and down until a school of shrimp is found. 

 The shrimp are located by means of a cast-net, which 

 the captain continually throws and hauls in his 

 efforts to find shrimp. When a school is found, the 

 haul-seine is paid out around the shrimp. As soon 

 as the school has been nearly surrounded, the seine 

 is usually drawn in close to the shore, where it is 

 entirely closed up and the shrimp crowded into the 

 bag. 



Shrimp are marketed fresh (both whole and 

 headed) packed in ice, cooked packed in ice or brine. 



