You like to shrimp Cher? Well, so does Richard Martin, a web-developer who currently resides in Paris. Richard isn’t just a web-developer though; he and his former partner, Don Kelly who passed away, are inventors. And he’s got a great nifty shrimping invention; The Ozello Shrimper. Miami shrimping enthusiasts will have it soon—just as soon as it gets into the stores.
The Ozello Shrimper is a lightweight recreational shrimping device used in the sea grass flats of Florida—invented in Ozello, Florida, but used in the greater Miami area as well. When used at night in tandem with a spot-light helmet, you can fill a 5 gallon bucket with shrimp without bending over or damaging the environment. Viva La ChaCha shrimpers!
Here’s how it works:
A telescoping aluminum rod, extending a good six feet and collapsing to three feet is attached to a cage via a Y-joint. A cord (Spring-loaded) attached to the door of the cage is manually used to open and close the scoop-up of the shrimp without disturbing the mud or grass. (See video) It is different than nets in that it doesn’t pick up anything you don’t want; like other little sea creatures or sea-grass or mud—just shrimp. Richard estimates using his device, one catches about 5 times the amount of shrimp within the same time-frame as when using a conventional net. There’s no bending over, no sorting of debris and no disturbing the environment.
Also, the best time to shrimp is at night. Why? Well, you can catch them by day, but they hide in the sea grass and it’s more difficult to locate them. So, by using a helmet with a light, much like a miner’s helmet, when you shine the light into a shrimp’s eyes, they reflect back in neo-orange; making it a snap to find the little guys.
Which brings me to where to find them; shrimp inhabit pretty much all the waters of southern Florida. In the greater Miami area, you can catch them off of bridges or via the Indian River and the St. Johns River where I’m told the largest swaths inhabit. But, the best way is by wadding into the water and picking them up one by one with Richard’s shrimping device.
The Ozello Shrimper is now in the prototype stages and Richard is looking to give a few away to the Shrimping enthusiast in order to get more feed-back so as to develop it into an inexpensive trap sold in most sporting-goods stores.
Before I said goodbye to our entrepreneur I asked how to tell if the shrimp were sickly or poisoned and we discussed the in’s and out’s concerning the dangers associated with contaminated shrimp. The bottom line is that we don’t know to what extent the shrimp populations are contaminated (BP Gulf-Spill). Certainly a shrimp covered in oil is a give-away, but it’s another science altogether to determine dioxins and the like just by eyeballing them. But, here are few basic tell-tale signs for the Amateur Shrimper to look for. Look for black spots, cotton disease (degrading of the shrimp or fungus), exfoliation, size and firmness of the exoskeleton.
For more information or for information on participating in the feed-back phase contact Richard Martin. And happy shrimping guys.
Comments