Common Shrimp Crangon crangon

The Common Shrimp, also called the Brown Shrimp, is the most common marine shrimp on UK coasts and is native to much of the Atlantic Ocean including the Baltic, North and Mediterranean Seas.

When alive, it is translucent but can match its surrounding by appearing browner or greyer. It grows typically to some 5-6cm long. It is a little shorter and flatter than the Common Prawn (also a shrimp) and has antennae as long as its body. It frequents sandy or muddy sediment in estuaries, brakish and marine habitat where it buries itself much of the day, emerging at night. (The Prawn prefers rocks and rock pools.)