OK I'll let them know, and I'm sure you'll hear from them... and, I don't want to argue, but unless a shrimp boat goes out in the morning and rakes for shrimp in the Bay or close to shore nearby and brings the shrimp right back ... there is simply no way you can preserve shrimp without freezing them - unless you use chemicals.

I have done a lot of stories on shrimp boats and shrimpers... a restaurant like Capt. Anderson's or any other restaurant that serves more than 10 or 20 tables a night can not serve fresh 'never frozen ever so slightly' shrimp. It's not possible. I, too, wish it was the old days, but the world has moved to a different place... and, to be honest... it's only restaurants like Capt. Anderson's with great local relationships with local fisherman that can still pull it off .... I won't keep preaching, but here's an interesting excerpt from a shrimper up in South Carolina:

" Fresh from the sea"

“I’ve been sellin’ shrimp from the corner of Highway 17 and the North Causeway in Pawleys Island since 1994, and I only sell shrimp that I’ve bought from friends and family,” he says. “I could sell imported and frozen shrimp – people ask me why I don’t all the time. But I ain’t going to do that.

“I sell the freshest shrimp you can buy because I only buy the last drag of the day. Otherwise, the shrimp would have to be dipped in sulfides to preserve it, and I don’t want to sell shrimp with chemicals on it.”

Clark usually sells his shrimp heads-on, which can’t be done with shrimp that is the least bit old because within hours, the heads begin to separate from the bodies. “A shrimp holds up pretty good for about a week if it’s headed as soon as it’s netted,” he says. “But if it’s heads-on, it has to be really fresh.” Always select shrimp that is the same color throughout, he advises. If you see any black or orange anywhere on the shrimp, the shrimp has been held too long.

“I quit fishin’ fulltime back in 1994 when I started sellin’ shrimp, instead,” Clark says. “But sometimes I think about goin’ back to it, and I’d do it if I could. But I’m 47 – I’m just a poor old fellow, and my back won’t take it anymore. Shrimpin’s a young man’s sport.” SCM

© 2007 South Carolina Magazine."