Alaskan Spot Prawns breed in the autumn shortly after the females have molted. The eggs are carried by the females over the winter months until hatching in the spring. Egg color changes from a dark orange when first extruded to brown at the time of hatching. The larvae pass through several stages before becoming juvenile shrimp in the late summer. Spot Prawns tend to show a daily feeding migration pattern and are usually found in deeper water during the day and shallower waters at night. They are foragers, eating what they can find on the bottom including other shrimp, plankton, small mollusks, worms, sponges, and fish carcasses.

Spot Prawns become sexually mature when they reach 1½ years old. At this age, all of the prawns are sexually male. These same prawns later transition into a female at the age of 2½ to 3½ years old. This sexual transition is known as protandric hermaphroditic, where each individual initially matures as a male, then passes through a transitional stage to become a female. A typical female Spot Prawn may carry from 1400 to over 3100 eggs, depending on the size of the female. Most females breed only once, then die after her eggs have hatched. Studies of tagged Alaskan Spot Prawns shows that some may live to be up to 9-11 years old.

The harvesting of Spot Prawns is a small fishery in Alaskan waters and in Prince William Sound that dates back to the early 1960’s. Annual harvests averaged 2.9 metric tons until 1978, then gradually increased to over 110 metric tons. Spot Prawns represent 90% of the commercially shrimp harvested in Alaska. Most Spot Prawns are harvested with baited pots, or traps, left for a period of time on the sea floor. The prawns are brought aboard the vessel live then headed and flash frozen immediately. The result is a truly gourmet buttery prawn in demand by the best chefs and knowing connoisseurs.