Terms, Types of Shrimp Abound

Question: A recent food section has shrimp listed as raw, green, white, rock and bay. Could we have an explanation of these terms?

Answer: The first two terms-- raw and green-- are synonymous and designate uncooked shrimp. White and rock are types of shrimp.

Actually, there are hundreds of species of freshwater and saltwater shrimp, according to “The Encyclopedia of Fish Cookery” (Holt, Rinehart & Winston: 1977).

Author A. J. McClane goes on to say: “There are seven species of shrimp of commercial importance in our Atlantic waters and the Gulf of Mexico. It really takes an expert to distinguish one from another, as anything we say about coloration is simply a generalization. For example, pink shrimp and brown shrimp are sometimes similar in color despite their different names.”

The following descriptions are provided:

Brown shrimp (Panaeus aztecus) is reddish brown, with tinges of blue or purple on the tail and on some of the legs.

Pink shrimp (Panaeus duorarum) seem to vary according to geographic locality: Along the Atlantic Coast they are usually light brown; in the Tortugas fishery they are pink, and along the northern Gulf Coast they often resemble brown shrimp or can even be lemon-yellow.

White shrimp (Panaeus setiferus), found from North Carolina to the Gulf of Mexico and Texas, and the Caribbean white shrimp (Panaeus schmitti) are usually grayish white and are variously tinged about the tail and legs with green, red and blue.

Sea bob (Xiphopeneus kroyeri), distributed from Cape Hatteras to Zimbros Bay, Brazil, is usually red or pinkish-red when alive but will turn black when cooked or frozen.

Royal red shrimp (Hymenopenaeus robustus), found from Cape Hatteras to the Gulf of Mexico, are generally deep red all over but sometimes appear pinkish-gray.

Rock shrimp (Sicyonia brevirostris), which is found from Norfolk, Va., into the Bahamas and Gulf of Mexico, tends to be brownish on the dorsal surface and pale on the sides; the underside and appendages are variously colored with red or purple.

“On our Pacific Coast there are five species of shrimp that comprise the commercial catch,” according to McClane. “The most common are the side-stripe shrimp (Pandalopsus dispar) and two pink shrimp (Pandalopsus borealis and Pandalus jordoni), which are found as far north as the Aleutians. The side-stripe is large and may grow to 10 inches in length; it, as well as the coon-stripe shrimp (Pandalus danae) and the spot shrimp (Pandalus platyceros), which are usually a bit smaller, are the “prawns” of our West Coast. There are two smaller species of pink shrimp that vary from 3 to 5 inches in length.”

And if all that doesn’t have you confused, McClane goes on to say there are 11 other commercially important species of shrimp taken from Central and South American waters and at least 10 from the Indo-Pacific region that are quite large, such as the giant tiger prawn (Panaeus monodon) and the Kuruma prawn (Panaeus japonicus).

“The interchange in the names shrimp and prawn has no universal recognition. In India, which is the world’s largest shrimp-farming nation, all shrimp-like animals are called prawns. However, in commercial practice in the U.K. and U.S., prawn is used as a name for large shrimp,” McClane said.

The final term, bay, generally refers to very small shrimp. Fortunately, although there are many kinds of shrimp, they have basically the same texture and taste.

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