Since 2005, whenever the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources conducted its March survey trawl to check on the health of the local white shrimp population, the average number of shrimp in the sample was around 145. This year, when the nets were pulled up, there were only three.
This wasn't a huge surprise to the test conductors; very cold winters in Charleston devastated the white shrimp population, which can't survive well in low water temperatures. Nevertheless, Mel Bell, the DNR's Director of Office of Fisheries Management and South Atlantic Fishery Management Council State Resource Agency Appointee, is cautiously optimistic.
"This isn't the first time it's happened, and it won't be the last," says Bell, who can recall at least four seasons in the past 30 years when the white shrimp population dipped to an acute low following an extreme cold snap. The last time it happened was just back in 2014. "And at least we know there are shrimp there," he says of the meager trio that were netted. "In 2001 and 2011, our March sample trawls pulled in zero."
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