Oh, those Thumb Splitters!

   Every summer, we stockpile enough shrimp to last us until the next season.  Off season shrimp are usually not our good, ole Gulf shrimp and I made the mistake of buying those one time.  Never again.  Now, several hundred pounds of shrimp are bought, headed, peeled, washed, bagged and frozen.  These will make fine meals such as gumbo, poboys or shrimp burgers come this winter.  A shrimp poboy, for my non-bayou friends, is a delectable sandwich made with friend shrimp, lettuce, tomatoes and special sauce pile high on french bread and then slightly pressed to sort of mingle all those flavors.  We use only shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico for any and all of our dining pleasures.  Nothing else matches up to the flavor which is why the fully stocked freezers.  That preparing is what took up the morning here in the Little Bayou House.  Shrimp!  Beautiful Gulf shrimp!

  You know you are getting fresh shrimp when you head down to the docks to meet the boats as they are coming in to port.  The shrimp boats work all night and will head in to sell their catch.  If you are there early enough, you pretty much are guaranteed the "pick of the bunch" even though that means you do get a few "extras" with your haul.  At that time, the shrimpers have not had a chance to pick through the shrimp and discard any "undesirables" so you take what you get.  Most shrimpers are kind enough to "through in a couple extra pounds" to cover the little fish that might be dumped into the coolers.  It has never bothered me to sort them.  In fact, it is sort of interesting to see what is lurking out in those Gulf waters.

  This morning's haul had the usual little pufferfish, squid, croakers and tiny flounders among other oddities.  It also held several nice size mantis shrimp.  Mantis shrimp are the "prize fighters" of the small critters under the water.  These things can literally "pack a punch" which is why the shrimpers call them "thumb splitters".  The mantis shrimp have club like appendages that are held like fists and are used much the same except the punch is much stronger than any a human can give (compared to size).  The punch is so powerful that one punch can smash through a oyster shell and it is so fast that it creates cavitation bubbles.  When those bubbles burst it causes a shockwave which gives sort of a double punch which can kill or dismember prey even if the mantis shrimp misses its initial target.  The thumb splitter name comes from injuries shrimpers have received by grabbing a mantis shrimp.  A mantis shrimp can inflict a very painful injury in the form of a gash or even (in some places) a broken finger.  The Mantis Shrimp has the most powerful and fastest "punch" known to mankind!  (Think about that one the next time you are eating shrimp....then thank a shrimper for doing the hard work for you.)

  Thankfully, the critters in our shrimp were already either weakened or dead by the time we were messing with them.  Other than a few pokes from the shrimp spikes (one on the head and one on the tip of the tail), Son and I came through with flying colors.  The shrimp are all stowed away in the freezer and we await the next batch.  

Oh, the things I find!

Mark brought home an ice chest full of shrimp..fifty pounds of shrimp to be exact!  These all needed to be headed, peeled, washed and bagged for the freezer so Michael and I set to work.  Not that we mind doing this job but it really drags on after a bit.  We were happy that this time it was just the fifty pounds and not the hundred or so that he usually hauls into the kitchen!  The job is set up in sort of an assembly-line technique with Michael and I having predetermined chores.  He heads the shrimp..I peel. I wash the shrimp...he bags.  Then we both get busy and clean the kitchen from top to bottom to assure that no icky dead shrimp smell greets us the next day.  Mark, during this time, will do one or the other of the jobs..or sometimes runs errands that neither Michael nor I ever wish to do!  Anyway, today's shrimp purchase yielded more than just shrimp.  There was an assortment of strange and wonderful creatures from the Gulf waters that make this job a bit more interesting.  I normally just toss these aside without much thought but for some reason, today, I wanted to look at each and every critter in the bucket!  Most were the usual riffraff that gets hung up in the trawls but there were a few that caught my eye!

Mantis Shrimp found mixed in with the shrimp.

The first thing that Michael pulled out that was not a shrimp was none other than a Sea Mantis.  These are ugly-looking critters that remind me far too much of some monstrous RolyPoly or Pill Millipede!  Pill bugs usually do not scare anyone but one the size of your hand might just give the heebie-jeebies to the toughest of guys!  The Sea Mantis or Mantis Shrimp are usually only a few inches long but can grow up to a foot in length.  These guys must be quite powerful when they get this large.  They have claws that are used to maim and kill their prey and they have also been know to break aquarium glass with a single blow from this weapon!  I was reading that in Australia, they are known as "Thumb-splitters" since they can inflict quite the painful wound if not handled carefully!  My, oh, my!  I think those critters are best left in the water and not in my kitchen!  I always carefully flick even the dead ones to the side as they do give me the willies!

What was left to a Cutlassfish!

Close-up of the Cutlassfish's wicked teeth!

Then there was another vicious-looking critter!  This time..a fish!   A "pretty terrible looking" fish according to Michael. Since it had already lost most of its outer flesh, I started calling it a zombie fish! This was a fish about twelve inches in length but only maybe an inch in width at its widest point!  Called a Cutlassfish because of its appearance, it, too, could leave a nasty wound if you got in the way of its teeth!  They will not hesitate to use those teeth when threatened so caution must be taken when trying to handle these guys!  The Cutlassfish feed in an unusual position.  They hover in a "tail-down" position under their prey and attack from underneath! A lot of folks call these Ribbonfish and use them as bait to catch larger fish.  I think I will steer clear of them just because of those wicked teeth!

Goggle-eye Jack was just too cute!

Lastly, a critter caught my eye just because of its cuteness!  I thought this little fish was adorable!  Its name is just as adorable!  It goes by the name "Lookdown" or "Goggle-eye Jack"!  Now that just about explains the fish!  With its deeply sloped forehead the fish does indeed seem to look down!  I guess they better look down as they are bottom feeders that are often found around piers and docks.  There they feed upon shrimp or small fish.  This one was tiny but they can grow up to about three pounds and are considered to be a great tasting food fish!  Maybe if I caught one that was a couple of pounds I would be more apt to try it as food but with the tiny one being so cute...I would toss it back into the water!  There it could live, be happy and swim around just being plumb adorable!

These critters made cleaning the shrimp much more enjoyable and before long we had them all in the freezer just waiting to become Gumbo, fried shrimp po-boys or shrimp salad!  It is all well worth the effort!