Sport and commercial shrimpers steamed out of Whittier, Valdez and Cordova Thursday morning, aiming to claim a share of a Prince William Sound bounty of tasty spot and coonstripe shrimp.

For both groups, blue skies on the heels of Wednesday's snowstorm weren't the only good news.

Sport and subsistence shrimpers could use eight pots per person, up from five a year ago. There's no limit on how many shrimp may be taken with those pots, which typically are about as big as a suitcase.

And some 155 commercial boats, hauling up to 20 pots apiece, were registered for the first Prince William Sound commercial shrimp fishery in 19 years. It closes Sunday.

"It just amazes me how many new people keep coming," said Palmer shrimp pot builder Steve Kalek. "They're just wonderful things to eat, but it still amazes me how it grows year to year."

Fish and Game estimates a surplus of 137,200 pounds of spot shrimp above the number needed to sustain a healthy population in the sound. Sport and subsistence shrimpers get 60 percent of that, or 82,200 pounds.

That's well above the 52,400 pounds they harvested last year.

Last summer, Fish and Game required sport and subsistence shrimpers to register for the first time since 2004. Some 2,700 of the free permits were issued, up 1,100 from five years earlier.

"It's a popular fishery, especially since the (Anton Anderson Memorial) Tunnel opened," said Fish and Game area management biologist Dan Bosch. "This time of year, shrimp tend to be in shallower water, too."

And for the next month or so until king salmon start nosing into Cook Inlet, there are few alternatives for outdoorsmen and women anxious to be on the water, catching dinner.

Kalek said his shrimp pot sales were up about 50 percent last year, with many clients fishing Prince William Sound.

"It's growing a lot," he said. "At the Sportsman Show (earlier this month), quite a few people told me they were happy with five (pots). I can't see why Fish and Game is doing it (raising the limit to eight). It doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Last March, the state fisheries board passed a Prince William Sound commercial shrimping plan that allows a commercial harvest when the surplus estimate exceeds 110,000 pounds. Commercial shrimpers have a 55,000-pound limit.

Several areas popular with recreational shrimpers are off-limits to commercial boats, however.

Bosch said slightly lower water temperatures in the sound over the past few years favor crustaceans over finfish, triggering the population boom. That, in turn, has led to growing interest in sport shrimping, which entails an investment of several hundred dollars in pots, lines and buoys to get started -- as well as the cost of a boat or charter.

"Sometimes I'm amazed at the amount of money people spend to go shrimping," said Kalek, an East Coast lobsterman before moving to Alaska. "It's a big investment, but look what you're getting back."

Taste, for one thing.

"They're the best shrimp you'll find anywhere in the world," said Jim Muhar, who often takes clients shrimping aboard his Alaska Prince William Sound Charters vessel. "So sweet you don't need to put anything on them."

Spot shrimp are the largest of Alaska's five shrimp species -- spot, coonstripe, sidestripe, humpy and northern.

Locating them can be tricky, though. Shrimp live at a variety of depths in an assortment of habitats. Rock piles, coral gardens and pinnacles all can be productive.

While early spring may find them in shallower water, they can go thousands of feet deep. That makes electric pot haulers essential gear for shrimpers not seeking a rugged upper body workout.

For some, the taste can make all the sweat worthwhile.

"Once you eat one of those," Kalek said, "you won't want to buy one anywhere again."