A North Carolina Sea Grant study shows that combining shrimpers’ local ecological knowledge with traditional science leads to a clearer picture of why shrimp populations fluctuate.

Research Need

Shrimp play a crucial role in North Carolina estuarine and oceanic food webs and as one of the state’s most valuable fisheries. Commercial harvests include brown, white, and pink shrimp, and the catch rates of all three species can vary widely from year to year as a result of changes in the numbers and locations of the three populations. 

Our research team at ECU’s Coastal Studies Institute recently used more than 30 years of data from the NC Division of Marine Fisheries’ trawl survey in Pamlico Sound to understand whether environmental changes were linked to changes in shrimp populations. Our models performed incredibly well, and for brown and white shrimp — the most commercially important of the three species — the models could predict at least 75% of the variability in the populations by incorporating factors like salinity, temperature, wind speed and direction, and the abundance of spawning adult shrimp. 

This led our team to a new question: Could we learn even more about shrimp populations by also incorporating fishers’ knowledge of which environmental conditions influence shrimp populations?

What did we study?

We combined ecological models and a survey of commercial shrimp fishers to study the influence of storms, wind, rainfall, temperature, and offshore reproduction on the abundance of white and brown shrimp species in Pamlico Sound.

What did we find?

Storms, rainfall, and ocean temperature are the main factors driving shrimp populations, according to fishers’ local ecological knowledge. The previous modeling completed by the researchers also identified wind as an important predictor. The local ecological knowledge and modeling results were in agreement that white shrimp populations have been on the rise. 

Our findings indicate that the local knowledge of fishers and scientific modeling are valuable for fisheries management and to inform policy decisions.

So what?

A more participatory approach for the shrimp fishery could enhance information exchange and mutual, perceived trustworthiness among fishers and managers.

Reading

Heck, N., Schlenker, L., Farquhar, S. and Morley, J., 2025. Environmental drivers of shrimp abundance: comparing insights from local ecological knowledge and empirical modeling. Frontiers in Marine Science, 12, p.1589076.

Schlenker, LS, Stewart, C, Rock, J, Heck, N, Morley, JW. 2023. Environmental and climate variability drive population size of annual penaeid shrimp in a large lagoonal estuary. PLoS ONE. 18(5): e0285498. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0285498

North Carolina Sea Grant funded this work.

Nadine Heck (below) is an assistant professor in the Department of Coastal Studies at East Carolina University. Her research explores human-environment interaction in the context of fisheries, protected areas, and ecosystem-based adaptation. 

James Morley is a fishery ecologist in the Department of Biology at East Carolina University.

Lela Schlenker (below) is a marine ecologist with experience in research, scientific communication, teaching, and renewable energy.

Samantha Farquhar is a lecturer in marine and environmental science at the Coast Guard Academy.

The text from Hook, Line & Science is available to reprint and republish at no cost, but only in its entirety and with this attribution: Hook, Line & Science, courtesy of Scott Baker and Sara Mirabilio, North Carolina Sea Grant.