Northern shrimp, northern chilim - Pandalus borealis - is distributed in the north of the Russian Far East, enters the Sea of Japan and Peter the Great Bay. Interestingly, this species has the so-called. amphiboreal habitat; in addition to the North Pacific Ocean, it also lives in the North Atlantic. Such an area arose as a result of the rupture of the original continuous area of warm pre-glacial times by the modern ice regime, which was established in the Arctic basin during the last glaciation. Inhabits depths of up to 500 m. The life cycle is proterandry; at the age of 2.5–3 years, males turn into females. Valuable commercial species.
Northern shrimp are salt-water crustaceans from the order Decapods. Shrimp, like most animals, have a gender division - there are males and females. However, our northern chilim is special - at first it participates in the process of reproduction as a male, and then the northern chilim turns into a female and for the rest of its life, as befits a real mother shrimp, it diligently lays eggs, from which a huge number of small northern shrimps then hatch.
Shrimp in cooking
In Moscow you can buy frozen and boiled-frozen shrimp. They must be a uniform color. You should not buy northern shrimp if the shrimp has a dried out shell, has bumps, yellow, dark spots or rings on the legs. All these are signs of a low-quality product that is far from being fresh. If northern shrimp are frozen, their shells will have white spots, as if the shrimp were too dry.
Do not defrost boiled frozen shrimp under stress - under hot water or in the microwave. To prevent northern chilim from losing its taste and beneficial properties, it must be defrosted slowly, first moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator, and then at room temperature.
Northern shrimp - no contraindications
We won’t talk much about the benefits of shrimp; we’ll only touch on the most important points.
Everyone knows that shrimp is a low-calorie dietary product, which contains a lot of protein, iodine, calcium, mineral salts, zinc, potassium, protein and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Thanks to this, shrimp are useful for both adults and children, healthy and sick people, with the exception of those who are allergic to shrimp meat. Shrimp are especially recommended for asthmatics, cancer patients and people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis and pneumonia.
The devil (cholesterol) is not as scary as he is painted to be
Shrimp do contain more cholesterol than other seafood, but much less than liver, eggs, chum salmon and the well-known fish oil. Moreover, scientists from Rockefeller University have proven the benefits of shrimp in the fight against cholesterol. In 1996, they conducted a study and found out how cholesterol behaves when eating shrimp every day.
During the studies, scientists measured not only total cholesterol levels, but also the amount and ratio of LDL (bad cholesterol) and HDL (good cholesterol). It was noted that “bad” cholesterol increased by 7%, and “good” cholesterol by 12%. Accordingly, the ratio of “bad/good” cholesterol (atherogenicity index) became lower, and the risk of atherosclerosis decreased.
In addition, statistics show that in countries where shrimp is a traditional food, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases is significantly lower than in European countries.
So, eat shrimp for your health!
Shrimp - a familiar stranger
How many types of shrimp do we know? We know shrimp that can be bought in supermarkets in Moscow and other cities and towns of the country.
In fact, there are more than a hundred types of edible shrimp, from which a wide variety of dishes are prepared.
The largest shrimp is the tiger shrimp - it can reach 30 cm! The largest tiger shrimp weighs half a kilo! Imagine - you ordered a portion of shrimp in a restaurant, and they brought you a dish with one PRAWN on it :-). Yes what! Such a huge and delicious shrimp!
But still the most delicious and healthy Our Far Eastern shrimp is considered to be the northern shrimp, which the locals call chilim. Free-living northern shrimp feed on algae and crustaceans, and not on special food, and obtain food for themselves, being in constant motion. Therefore, northern shrimp are healthier and have better taste, unlike farmed shrimp.
A little biology
Northern shrimp- salt-water crustaceans from the order Decapods. Shrimp, like most animals, have a gender division - there are males and females. However, our northern chilim is special - at first it participates in the process of reproduction as a male, and then the northern chilim turns into a female and for the rest of its life, as befits a real mother shrimp, it diligently lays eggs, from which a huge number of small northern shrimps then hatch.
Shrimp in cooking
In Moscow you can buy frozen and boiled-frozen shrimp. They must be a uniform color. You should not buy northern shrimp if the shrimp has a dried out shell, has bumps, yellow, dark spots or rings on the legs. All these are signs of a low-quality product that is far from being fresh. If northern shrimp are frozen, their shells will have white spots, as if the shrimp were too dry.
Do not defrost boiled-frozen shrimp under stress - under hot water or in the microwave. In order not to lose its taste and beneficial properties, it must be defrosted slowly, first moving it from the freezer to the refrigerator, and then at room temperature.
Amazing Shrimp Facts
Eggs (caviar)
Sea shrimp can be stored for many years in dried form. But when they fall into the water, the eggs “come to life”, and after a few hours, baby shrimp are born.
In Japan
there is an interesting custom
— newlyweds, as a sign of love and fidelity, are given a glass sponge (a marine multicellular animal called the basket of Venus), inside of which lives a real married couple of spongicola shrimp. The fact is that this pair of shrimp climbs inside the sponge while still in the larval state. The shrimp settle into their house, and having matured and increased in size, they can no longer leave this house, because... the holes through which they once entered the basket of Venus are too small. This is how the life of this married couple of shrimp goes - always close, in common worries and troubles, raising children together, growing old together.
There are shrimps that can shoot
. The claws of these shrimp have special devices with which the shrimp can hunt using sound - they click so loudly that the sound power reaches 218 decibels. This sound kills all the small fish that swim past the shooting shrimp.
Shrimp are molting! 
Moreover, they do this periodically. Similar to snakes shedding their old skin, as shrimp grow, they shed the shell from which they have already grown and remain in a new, more suitable shell. Heat-loving shrimp molt more often than northern shrimp.
The commercial shrimp or chilim or shrimp, unlike their fellow decapods, have adapted to life in the water column. This affected the structure of the shrimp.
The shrimp has an elongated body, while it is flattened on the sides. The body is divided into 2 main sections - the abdomen and the cephalothorax, which is almost half the length of the body.
At the beginning of the cephalothorax shell there is a pair of compound eyes located in special recesses.
Each eye is formed from a large number of facets, and their number increases with age. Facets separate age spots from each other. Each facet perceives only those rays that fall perpendicular to the cornea. Some facets see only a small part of the object that the shrimp is looking at, and the remaining parts are seen by other facets. That is, shrimp have mosaic vision. At night, the pigments diverge to the bases of the eyes, due to which oblique rays reach the retina, and the shrimp begins to see objects in full, but they are blurry.
The cephalothorax is protected by a durable chitinous shell, which is formed from two plates and attached to the gills. The lower part of the chitinous shell is soft and thin.
Shrimp have 19 pairs of limbs, all of which are responsible for certain actions. The antennae are used as organs of touch; with the help of the mandibles, the shrimp crushes prey, and it holds it with its jaws. Thin long legs, at the end of which there are small claws, play a special role - with the help of them the shrimp clean their bodies, they also insert these legs into the cavity of the toads and clean them if they are clogged. The remaining legs are used to move along the ground; they are longer and thicker in size than the other legs. The abdominal limbs are used during swimming.
It is interesting to monitor the behavior of shrimp while snorkeling in the warm waters of the Sea of Japan. If you move the lush algae, the shrimp begin to jump out of them, like grasshoppers in a meadow.
It has a wide and strong caudal fin. Shrims bends him sharply and moves with thrusts. When the shrimp stops, it straightens its small oar legs under its tail and begins to quickly move them, swimming between the algae. In this case, the pectoral legs and antennae are pressed to the body. When a shrimp lands on algae and freezes, it moves its long antennae to the sides.
Chilims have orange legs. The eyes are violet. When the sun's rays pass through the shrimp's body, it shines through and gives off an emerald tint. The chilim reaches 18 centimeters in length. There are dark stripes along the body that serve to camouflage the shrimp among marine plants. Only when you get close can you notice the shrimp.
Shrimp is a very tasty delicacy. If you lure a shrimp with a piece of meat or fish, they gather in small groups near the prey. At the slightest movement, they jump to the sides, while swimming away backwards, sharply bending their abdomen and pushing off the water with their caudal fin and abdominal legs.
What do shrimp eat?
The shrimp diet consists not only of animal food (plankton), but also algae and soil. A large number of shrimp accumulate near fishing nets, and they eat the fish so quickly that if the fishermen do not get the net in time, they will be left with only naked skeletons.
They find food using their senses of touch and smell. If a shrimp loses its eyes, then it can find prey in 4-5 minutes, and if the first pair of antennae is lost, this time increases to 20 minutes; if both pairs of antennae are lost, the shrimp find prey even longer, while they use the toes of walking legs and bristles of the oral appendages, characterized by high sensitivity.
Far Eastern shrimp
Shrimp are bisexual organisms, but their female and male gonads form at different times. When sexual maturity occurs, the shrimp first transforms into a male, and in the third year of life it transforms into a female. Females glue eggs to the hairs of the abdominal legs and carry them with them until larvae emerge from them.
Palemon shrimp
Shrimp are fished in the Pacific, Atlantic and Northern seas. These are the most sought after commercial creatures; up to a million tons of shrimp are caught annually.
Chilim shrimp is a commercial species of crustacean and is caught in the Far East. Its meat is a very healthy dietary product.
Biological description
The chilim shrimp (lat. Pandalus latirostris Rathbun) is a representative of the Pandalidae family, belongs to the order of decapods, and lives in the coastal sea waters of the Far Eastern region. This species has excellent taste, the length of an adult individual can reach up to 16 cm in length with a weight of 23 g. The average size is 10-14 cm with a weight of 16 g. The life cycle of the shrimp lasts up to 6 years.
The Chilim family is a well-swimming crustacean that lives in thickets of marine plants and algae, among sponges and hydroids. They are divided into 2 types:
- Herbal- larger individuals, sometimes growing up to 18 cm, they have a greenish color with longitudinal transverse stripes, which helps to hide among the algae, as seen in the photo of the chilima shrimp. The habitat depth is up to 30 m. The stalked eyes can hide in the eye sockets in any danger. They feed on young algae and small mollusks, as well as crustaceans.
- Northern Chilim has a bright pink color and lives in the north of the Far East and the North Atlantic, which scientists associate with the gap in the pre-glacial range compared to the modern one. The habitat depth can reach up to 500 m; it is a valuable commercial species.
The main diet of the chilim is algae and small crustaceans, which the shrimp obtain themselves, constantly moving in sea water. The larvae are very small in size, feed on plankton, gradually increasing their mass and going through several stages of molting until they become adults.
The period of mass emergence of larvae occurs in mid-May, then in June the females begin to lay new eggs, from which many small chilims subsequently hatch. The most favorable living conditions are at a negative temperature of about -0.5 ºС.
The northern and grass species, although they occupy a single ecological niche, differ in habitat conditions, duration and intensity of larval maturation and spawning period.
The chilim shrimp has an original feature, expressed in the ability to hermaphroditism: at first it is a male, and upon reaching the age of 2 years it turns into a female, which actively lays eggs for the rest of its life.
Another feature of shrimp is periodic molting, during which they shed the old smaller shell and remain in a new, larger one. Northern species of shrimp do this less frequently than inhabitants of the southern seas.
Habitat and production areas
The distribution area of the northern chilim is Peter the Great Bay, the southwestern part of Sakhalin Island, Terpeniya Bay, Aniva Bay, and in the southern direction it is found to the Japanese islands (Nagasaki and Chemulpo). Herbal chilim is the most popular commercial type of shrimp and is now under state protection.
Chilim lives in the northwestern part of the Bering Sea, where during fishing you can catch 1 ton of shrimp in 30 minutes. Due to temperature fluctuations in different years, shrimp do not pass through during the spring months, but begin spawning near Cape Navarin in the southern region of the bay.
Fishing for chilim shrimp is carried out only during the period when spawning has ended and the young generation has grown up. According to the laws of the Russian Federation, recreational shrimp fishing is prohibited in territorial waters from May 20 to August 1, when spawning and larval development take place.
Shrimp fishing
Amateur fishermen most often catch shrimp through “silent” hunting using homemade or ready-made traps. A massive influx of chilim occurs during certain periods: in spring in May and in autumn in September-October. Later, the shrimp often go deeper.
Chilim shrimp traps consist of a rigid frame on which a mesh is stretched, which has several entrance holes. The bottom is weighted with a load, and a plastic bottle is tied on top, which holds the entire structure in the required vertical position. The device is placed in shallow water, and a float is attached to indicate the location, clearly visible from afar.
Rotten or spoiled fish, the smell of which chilims are very fond of, is ideal as bait. However, because of this, then all your hands will stink of rotten meat.
The optimal time to set traps is evening, because... It is at night that chilims come out to feed and will easily fall into traps based on the smell. Early in the morning, at dawn, the shrimp must be harvested before they run away.
Some fans catch shrimp using nets with a long handle, but this method can only catch dinner for your table.
Relocation experiments
In the 1960s, experimental studies were carried out to relocate the chilim shrimp to the Black Sea, during which its sensitivity to salinity, temperature characteristics and oxygen content in sea water was carefully studied. The juveniles were obtained quite successfully, but at the larval stage almost all the shrimp died.
Then, in the late 70s, attempts were made to raise juveniles under artificial conditions, but the experiments were suspended. Although in world aquaculture, the cultivation of many species of freshwater and marine shrimp has long been put on an industrial basis and in large volumes.
Now specialized farms and companies are engaged in catching chilim, which, using developed technologies, freeze and deliver shrimp meat to consumers while preserving all the useful components of this product.
Use in cooking
Chilim shrimp is a low-calorie seafood that is often used in dietary nutrition. Like all Far Eastern species, it is considered the most delicious and healthy. Its meat contains a large amount of useful vitamins and microelements: iodine, protein, mineral salts, potassium, calcium, zinc, protein, polyunsaturated fatty acids.
It is due to such components that shrimp are healthy and should be included in the diet of any person. This dietary product is especially recommended for cancer patients, asthmatics and people suffering from other respiratory diseases, as well as those who have rheumatoid arthritis and other joint diseases.
Compared to other seafood, shrimp contain more cholesterol, but they contain much less cholesterol than liver, chicken eggs or fish oil.
The only contraindication is individual intolerance to shrimp meat.
In countries where shrimp are included in traditional dishes, the incidence of cardiovascular diseases is much lower compared to many European countries.
The product is subjected to shock freezing, in which the Chilim grass shrimp is cooled with intense airflow to -40 o C. This method allows you to obtain shrimp unchanged with the maximum content of useful elements.
Herbal chilim - a type of decapod crayfish - real shrimp - comes from Sakhalin. Shrimp contain all essential amino acids, a large amount of iodine, fat-soluble vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, phosphorus, iron, cobalt, manganese, copper, molybdenum, fluorine, zinc, as well as vitamin E (tocopherol), C (ascorbic acid ), B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B9 (folic acid), PP (niacin), provitamin A (retinol) and B-carotene.
Chilim grass shrimp from the Sea Route company is a Russian product that meets all GOST standards, from environmentally friendly regions of the Far East. Careful attitude and strict laboratory control at all stages of production allow us to declare that there are no analogues of our products on the market.
Among seafood, there are some that can rightfully be considered folk. Such seafood has always included shrimp. This is primarily due to the people’s love for excellent taste and the opportunity to buy shrimp at a very affordable, popular price. In addition, boiled shrimp are an excellent addition to your favorite folk foamy drink. The muscular abdomen of the shrimp, freed from chitin, is used both for consumption in boiled form and for preparing various dishes.
Shrimp are caught in almost all seas of the globe. There are them off the Russian coast. Today you can freely buy chilim shrimp, bear shrimp, scalloped shrimp, and other commercial species of shrimp. Each type of shrimp is attractive for its nutritional qualities and herbal chili is no exception.
Let's try to find out where this shrimp is found, about its characteristics and lifestyle.
Where and how does the herbal chilim live?
The herbal chilim is a typical inhabitant of the coastal zone of the Sea of Japan. It is believed that the herbal chilim was formerly a tropical species. The sea crustacean received its name, grass chilim or grass shrimp, from the fact that its entire life, from the larvae to the adult, mature shrimp, passes in the coastal thickets of zooster algae.
Among these grass-like thickets, grass chilim larvae hatch in May - June. Their size is no more than 0.9 cm, and their weight is 5-6 mg, while among the caught adult specimens you can buy a shrimp with a body length of 18 cm and a weight of 25 g. The larvae grow quite quickly. In a month, the length of their body can double, and by a year it will increase 10 times and the body length of a one-year-old herbal chilim is at least 7 - 8 cm.
During the first year of life, young shrimp go through numerous molts. The entire body of the grass chilim, like other decapods, is covered with chitin. It covers the grass chilim, starting from the cephalothorax with a narrow elongated nasal process - the rostrum, and ending with a more flexible abdomen with a tail. At the junction of these parts on the lower side there is a small area with soft and elastic chitin, which remains unsaturated with calcium; there are similar areas between the segments. When the old shell becomes tight, the shrimp molts; during the first hours of molting, its new shell remains soft and stretches in accordance with the new size of the shrimp. For the most part, only female shrimp can be purchased. This is due to the fact that only young grassy chilims no older than two years are males. When they reach the age of three, they all change their gender. Males become females.
During the breeding season, the reproductive cells of male grass chilims mature earlier than the eggs of females. To prevent the shrimp genus from being interrupted and to be able to freely buy shrimp, males attach lumps of sperm to the legs of females. As the eggs emerge, moving past the lumps, they are fertilized and attach to the hairs on the legs of the female shrimp. They stay there for exactly 9 months. With the onset of May - June, larvae emerge from the eggs, completely repeating the body shape of adult chilims.
Since the zooster algae is mainly found at a depth of 0.5 m to 10.0 m, herbaceous chilims also live at this depth. These crustaceans have adapted to instantly hide among sea grass, and the protective coloration in the form of green stripes on the sides of the body makes them indistinguishable among dense thickets.
In the thicket itself or next to it, chilim actively feeds during the warm season. Numerous legs help him in this. The grass chilim has only 19 pairs of legs. Shrimp prey on small crustaceans, amphipods, woodlice, and mollusks. Chilims are not averse to eating juveniles of their own species, although they do not refuse some amount of plant food; they dine on zoostera and other algae.
With the onset of the cold season, the activity of the grass shrimp decreases and it stops feeding. Hiding in the ground between the rhizoids of zoostera, chilims spend the winter almost motionless.
You can buy a shrimp that is quite young, no older than two to three years, and besides, grass shrimp rarely lives longer than 4-5 years. The average size of commercially caught chilims is from 4.0 cm to 12.5 cm. Larger individuals in the catch are no more than 1-2%.
Since the population of coastal areas is actively engaged in fishing for grass chilim, its numbers may decrease to critical values.
In order to prevent this and not lose the opportunity to buy chilim shrimp, the situation is constantly monitored by scientists. In addition, technologies are being developed to restore the number of shrimp using artificial breeding of juvenile chilim.
How to restore the number of grass chilim shrimp
Scientists have developed biotechnology aimed at producing offspring of chilims under artificial conditions. This method is aimed not only at obtaining juveniles, but also at growing them to an age and size when the chilim becomes sufficiently viable and less vulnerable.
To obtain offspring, egg-bearing females are caught from the sea and placed in special aquariums.
It is designed in such a way that females cannot harm the larvae that emerge from the eggs. After hatching of the juveniles, adult females are removed from the aquarium.
Then the juveniles are reared in special nursery aquariums. The larvae are fed with special minced fish. In addition to fish meat, it contains algae, mollusks, and crustaceans. When the juveniles reach a size of three cm, they are released into their habitat. Thanks to such technologies, it is possible to restore the number of herbal chilim in the Sea of Japan.
Herbal shrimp meat, like the meat of other commercial species, is distinguished not only by its excellent taste, but also by its benefits. And this is another reason to buy shrimp. It is an excellent source of complete protein and can be used in dietary nutrition.
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