MOUNT PLEASANT — By noon Wednesday, the first fresh shrimp of the commercial season were in, at least at a few docks on Shem Creek in Mount Pleasant, courtesy of a special motorboat run.
The season opened this morning almost a month late, mostly because of the crustacean-killing cold waters of the winter. It got so chilly that white shrimp, the spring crop, never showed up.
But last week, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources trawls began pulling in summer brown shrimp. “They came out of nowhere all of a sudden,” said DNR biologist Larry DeLancey.
It was welcome news for a shrimp fleet that’s taken a beating from cheaper, farm-raised imports and higher fuel prices. A little more than 400 boats are licensed today, a fourth of the number at the industry’s peak in the early 1980s.
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