Tag Archives: Georgia shrimp
Black gill showing up early
Black gill showed up early this year in Georgia’s shrimp. The evidence came from the first trawl of a day-long research cruise out of Skidaway Institute of Oceanography on June 21. Researchers aboard the R/V Savannah lowered the net in the commercial fishing grounds just off of Wassaw Island and pulled up a catch so disappointingly small it could fit in a backpack. But among the dozen fish and handful of starfish were two brown shrimp. And one was inky black around its gills. “It’s really early,” said University of Georgia graduate student Megan Tomamichel, as she examined the shrimp. “But we’ve had a lot of warm weather.” >click to read< 12:09
UGA researchers dive into a sea of questions
Captain Wynn Gale knew it was bad. He’d been commercial fishing off the coast of Darien, about 50 miles south of Savannah, since he was 12, and his decades of shrimping told him the industry was in trouble. Again..,,, But this time, off the coast of Georgia in the 1990s, there weren’t as many shrimp to catch, and the ones Gale and other commercial fishermen were pouring onto the decks of their boats had something wrong with them. They weren’t flopping around like normal; in fact, they barely moved. And their gills were black, a stark contrast to the milky clear color of Georgia’s famously sweet white shrimp. >click to read<09:43
Georgia shrimp season opens June 1
Georgia waters will open for commercial and recreational harvest of food shrimp at 8 a.m. Thursday. “The white shrimp abundance in our May coastwide trawl survey is higher compared to historic averages for the month of May,” said Lindsey Aubart, the Coastal Resources Division biologist supervising monthly shrimp sampling. “The shrimp sizes are highly desirable to recreational harvesters and valuable to commercial fishermen. The recommendation to open on June 1 was made after taking into consideration our May survey results and input received from our Shrimp Advisory Panel.” Last year there were 261 licensed shrimp trawlers and 25 cast-net shrimp harvesters. They brought in an estimated $8.3 million worth of shrimp. click here to read the story 09:56
Black gill disease shows up early in Georgia shrimp
“We’re seeing 40 percent of our white shrimp infected,” said Pat Geer, chief of fisheries at the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. “We have never seen that before. Ever. So why, why are we seeing it that much earlier?” Geer put that question to a gathering of researchers, shrimpers and fisheries managers from Georgia and South Carolina on Wednesday at the University of Georgia Aquarium at Skidaway. Though unattractive, black gill shrimp are safe to eat. The discoloration is a result of a parasite that infects the gills. When it does, that tissue reacts by producing melanin, resulting in the tell-tale blackening. Researchers have determined the culprit is a ciliate, a single-celled organism with hair-like structures that propel it, but they haven’t been able to nail down which species it is. Read the story here 15:12
