(photo credit: Georgia DNR)
COLUMBIA -- The non-native Asian tiger shrimp was first spotted in South Carolina waters in 1998.
But natural resources agencies are still trying to determine what the monstrous, striped creatures are doing to native shrimp.
That’s why state officials in South Carolina and Georgia are asking the public to help manage and study the Asian tiger shrimp.
“Tiger shrimp are raised in shrimp farms around the world and can grow to three times the size of our native shrimp,” said Georgia Coastal Resources Division biologist Todd Mathes, in a news release.
“The impact of non-indigenous species on native fauna is often unknown.”
If caught in South Carolina waters, the S.C. Department of Natural Resources says anglers who want to contribute frozen specimens should drop the creatures off at Bluffton’s Waddell Mariculture Center or DNR Marine Resources Research Institute at Fort Johnson.
Prior arrangements should be made first by contacting firstname.lastname@example.org or calling (843) 953-9840.
If only emailing only information to SC DNR about a captured tiger shrimp, the public should include the date, depth, place, and method of capture, along with its weight, length, and gender, and a photograph, if that’s possible.
Meanwhile, Georgia DNR announced a new web-based reporting system to monitor tiger shrimp in June.