Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold

1. Going Shrimping

Captain Nick Mosconis was an unshaven gruff old Greek fisherman with short gray hair. He wore frayed greasy coveralls and boots that had once been white but were now so scuffed and covered with fish scales that they had become colorless. He and his deckhand Pea Picker, a boy from Alabama, were getting ready to cast off from the fishing docks in Carrabelle, Florida at sunset. At age 18, I (Jack) had managed to get a job collecting marine specimens for a biologist at a local university. The scientist needed live batfish, a little brown leathery-skinned fish that can barely swim but walks on the bottom like a frog, and I had gone to the waterfront hoping to catch a ride on a shrimp boat to try and collect some.

As I tried to ...