Shrimp don’t have eyelids, so when Nolan Wellensiek turns off the lights in his repurposed machinery shed outside Cook, the sudden change prompts them to flip to escape what they perceive to be a predator. He often has to walk around his 15,000-gallon tank, cellphone flashlight in hand, to retrieve the shrimp that jumped out.
Wellensiek has been raising Pacific white shrimp since he was a junior in high school. Now a freshman at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the 19-year-old sells his fresh shrimp directly to customers every summer.
The demand for his shrimp has been so high, he said, that he can’t always guarantee he’ll have enough to sell to everyone who wants to buy from him…