ABOUT US 

 

At Mariah Jade Shrimp Company, we believe you have the right to know the origin of the fresh-frozen shrimp you're purchasing and how it gets to you. We made it our mission to supply you with delicious tasting, premium quality Louisiana Wild Caught Shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. We provide our customers with one-on-one personal service, catering to their needs. At Mariah Jade Shrimp Company, we give you a little lagniappe in every shipment. Recipes, spices, frozen home-cooked samples, Mardi Gras beads....you never know what surprise you'll receive with your order.

 

My family is what you would call fourth and fifth generation commercial trawlers or shrimpers. Everywhere you look in our family, somebody is or was connected to the water, the marsh, and to this way of life. David's father, on up to his great grandfather, all trawled these waters. My father did a bit of trawling, and we have relatives that trapped and hunted and lived off the land just like we do today. My children, Little David, Dustin and Mariah, are the fifth generation and are learning the trade just like David learned about it from his father.

 

While attending junior high and high school, David learned from his father the craft of building vessels. When summer time came, David was off to work with his dad learning the trade of commercial shrimping. This part of the business has been engraved in Davids heart and soul. Upon earning his high school diploma, David began trawling full time. In his spare time, he and his father began building David's vessel the Mariah Jade. We built the Mariah Jade over the course of four years.  The Mariah Jade is a 73 foot steel hull year round trawler. A shrimping trip consists of making sure you have all the supplies that you need while you're on the water, leaving from our bayou waters out into the Gulf of Mexico and setting down the nets to make the first drag of the trip. From this point you make your days trawling, come in to off- load the catch and get back to out on the water.

 

David pilots the vessel on the Gulf of Mexico's near-shore waters for the shrimp that end up on your plate. Four huge turtle excluder devices---one for each of Mariah Jade's nets---make sure that any stray sea turtles have the ability to escape to freedom. The vessel is also equipped with four bycatch reduction devices to let valuable finfish prized by our sporting neighbors from getting in the shrimp nets as well.

 

When the Mariah Jade is on a voyage, the trawls are let out on booms extended over the waters surface, and the movement of the vessel plus the resulting suction pulls shrimp directly into webbed bags. The bags are emptied onto the deck, where crew members meticulously pluck shrimp from other marketable species of seafood. The shrimp are then culled through once more and gently handled. Once this has taken place the shrimp is weighed and placed in 25 pound wholesale bags or 5 pound retail bags and placed in the brine tank for the allotted time. The shrimp is then stored in the freezer at -10 degrees, and the trawling process begins again. Most quantities are quick-frozen right on board and not thawed until they reach their destinations. The last day of the trip, some of the shrimp are kept fresh and unfrozen on ice.

 

What people need to realize is that shrimping and trawling are a way of life, not just a livelihood or a paycheck. This is something that has been handed down from generation to generation and is our tradition and heritage. We have all been raised to live off the land, and we take pride in being self sufficient and self motivated. We take pride in seeing our catch and running our vessel and knowing that it is all built with our own hands. Trawling is the heart and soul of our family, where we feel unity and get to be together. What we know is this; we would not want to trade this lifestyle for anything else.

 

Little David, now 18, has just acquired his own vessel named the Captain David Chauvin. His vessel is a 68 foot steel hull ice vessel. His dad is now training him to work this boat just as he was taught by his dad. Dustin, now 17, is working aboard both boats at different times during the summer.  Mariah, now 11, has her own set of chores aboard the boat that she goes on with her dad during the summer. She has plans to make herself captain one day with her dad as her deckhand. All of our children have been shrimping since they were four years old. We have now acquired another vessel which has been named “Dusty James”. This vessel is a 55 foot steel freezer vessel. Each of our boats are respectfully named after our children. We have to say that as parents we are very proud to see our children involved in their heritage. Check out our myspace page to see the new pictures of the vessels….myspace.com/mariahjadeshrimp  .

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