DNR Seeks Help Tracking Monster Shrimp

Invasive tiger shrimp have been lurking in coastal waters since the late 1980s, but states across the South have been reporting an "striking increase" in the number of fishermen catching the monster-sized crustaceans.

South Carolina Department of Natural Resources are asking fishermen to report catching the shrimp, according to a news release.

Recreational and commercial shrimpers are encouraged to report catches of tiger shrimp in South Carolina to the S.C. Department of Natural Resources at tigershrimp@dnr.sc.gov. If possible, reports should include a photograph of the animal along with location and date of capture. Specimens less than 5 inches in length are of particular interest and should be kept frozen prior to donation, the news release states.

Mature tiger shrimp are easy to distinguish from native shrimp by the distinctive dark and light bands across their backs and by their relatively large size, which can be up to a foot in length. Local fishermen say they look more like lobsters than shrimp, and they are spotted throughout Southern waters.

Tiger shrimp were first reported in the wild in South Carolina in 1988 following an accidental release of approximately 2,000 animals from an aquaculture facility in Bluffton.

State officials thought after spottings dropped in the years after the initial release that most of the shrimp had died off. In cool waters, the shrimp can't typically survive more than a few winters, according to the news release.

But in 2006, there were tiger shrimp spottings, and that leads wildlife officials to believe these are a new variety of shrimp that's be released from a fishery possibly in aquaculture operations in the Caribbean, northern South America, and the west coast of Africa, the news release states.

Collecting the smaller tiger shrimp allows DNR to trace their source through DNA testing.