Shrimping with Jacques


When DBO's assistant warden Jacques Turner-Moss invited me to go shrimping with him, citing a few ticks for my pan-species list as an incentive, I didn't need asking twice. Last Wednesday morning found us walking across the sands at low-tide, opposite the Dungeness lifeboat station.  We headed for the shallow sea, with Jacques carrying a Heath-Robinsonesque contraption made of wood and netting that he claimed was his shrimping net. I was very much an onlooker during the next hour, watching him walk parallel with the water's edge, pushing the net ahead of him, every so often examining the catch and hauling it ashore to empty the spoils into a bucket. Most of this was Brown Shrimp which were boiled and snacked upon soon after return to the bird observatory, but much else found its way into the net as the images below show - any identification error(s) are mine alone and any correction(s) would be welcomed.

Five-bearded Rockling
Lesser Weever
Velvet Swimming Crab
Harbour Crab
Idotea linearis
Plaice?
Side view of the Rockling
Brill (with the small Plaice in middle?) 
Brown Shrimp

Comments

Skev said…
Blimey. How big was the net!
30 March 2019 at 18:59
Steve Gale said…
4 foot x 3 foot - ish...
30 March 2019 at 20:42
Skev said…
Trawling seems a better description ;-)
30 March 2019 at 22:20
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