November 28, 2017 — CHARLESTON, South Carolina — The fall white shrimp season has been a painful one for South Carolina’s diminished fleet of trawlers, with many people wondering what’s become of all the tasty crustaceans.
“They’re just not here,” said Grace Edwards, head of Shem Creek Fisheries, whose husband runs a trawler.
Fall shrimp landings tracked by the S.C. Department of Natural Resources are running far below average, by hundreds of thousands of pounds. In Mount Pleasant, fundraisers are being held for the Shem Creek fleet.
“They are having a terrible season,” said Jimmy Bagwell, chairman of the Save Shem Creek Corp. “A lot of the boats have gone to Florida and Georgia to try to catch something.”
In McClellanville, Mayor Rutledge B. Leland III runs Carolina Seafood, and he’s seen the same thing.