DNR News
** Archived Article - please check for current information. **
January 11, 2012
Commercial shrimp trawling season to close Jan. 17
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources closes the South Carolina commercial shrimping season in state waters on Tuesday, Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
This past year the state’s legal trawling zone, which normally opens in late May or early June after the peak spawning period of white shrimp, opened on June 22nd. Last year’s opening was delayed several weeks due to the impact of unusually cold water temperatures on the state’s overwintering white shrimp. This delayed opening combined with closure of federal waters to trawling off South Carolina for several months contributed to the successful rebuilding of the white shrimp populations seen this past fall.
The S.C. Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has various measures to determine season opening and closing dates. The season closure is based on numerous factors including water temperature, predicted weather patterns, DNR trawl survey information, landings data, economics of the fishery and ongoing discussions with trawl operators. Typically, analysis of these factors results in the closure of the commercial shrimp trawl season around the middle of January each year.
According to DNR biologist Larry Delancey, "DNR sampling trawls collected below average numbers of white shrimp in late summer and fall of 2011, but size was larger than average. If temperatures remain mild, there should be adequate amounts (of shrimp) for spring spawning."
Three seasons define the commercial shrimp fishery calendar. The first, white roe shrimp season, opens in the spring when the DNR has judged that an ample quantity of these shrimp have had an opportunity to spawn. The brown shrimp season typically occurs during the summer months, and the larger fall white shrimp season, composed of offspring from the spring roe crop concludes the remainder of the three seasons in the fall.
The shrimp trawl fishery is South Carolina’s most valuable commercial fishery, with close to $6 million worth of shrimp landed each year; the majority of these being white shrimp.
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