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Giant cannibal shrimp worry Gulf Coast watchers
Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the Gulf of Mexico, a new menace, this one striped like a big cat, is preying on aquatic life: The black tiger shrimp.
The biggest saltwater shrimp in the world, black tigers “are cannibalistic as are other shrimp but it’s larger so it can consume the others,” Tony Reisinger, country extension agent for the Texas Sea Grant Extension Service, told CNN on Friday.
Because of the threat of disease, the predatory intruder poses a problem for the native shrimp and oyster population of the Gulf, Reisinger said.
"Our oystermen right now are hurting because the oyster season is shut down due to a red tide. But this (black tiger) shrimp poses other concerns,” he said.
Appearing more than 25 years ago, the black tiger’s sudden reappearance is a mystery.
“The first time they started appearing was in the late 1980s on the East Coast,” he said. “Then they disappeared in 1991.”
But following the record-breaking hurricane season of 2005, which brought successive monster storms Katrina, Rita and Wilma, they started showing up again, he said.
“They’re well over 1,000 of them in the Gulf of Mexico now,” he said. “We’ve had five of them caught off Texas.”
Reisinger said he spoke to the Brownsville-Port Isabel Shrimp Producers Association recently to warn them about the shrimp but he was too late.
“It turns our fishermen have been catching them for a while, but they didn’t think they were marketable so they were throwing them back,” he said.
Is there a harvestable population already established in the Gulf? What does that mean for the Louisiana and South Texas shrimp and oyster industry? Many questions remain, Reisinger said.
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are the edible? shrimp lovers dream!!!!
I was thinking the same thing. Kind of like an inexpensive lobster . . . 🙂
I'm waiting for them to mutate into Mothra: winged monster shrimp, preying on Gulf state residents.
The comments on here are better then the actual article. At least a few people in the world still have a sense of humor. All I can say is I love shrimp and lobster...I would be up to trying them out to see how they taste.
If you have caught five of them, I am sure there are many more than 1,000. Ten times that number would probably not be a start.
It's actually not safe to go back into the Gulf and it has nothing to do with that shrimp. All the dispersants can give you a rash and it made me have bloody pee for a few weeks .
I'll take Way Too Much Information for $200, Alex.
right. it was the dispersants.
Throwing them back??? Nooooo! Catch them all! Send them to me!!! I will EAT them!
LOL – they will probably be chasing you
I'll take em!
That's one handsome jaw line.
Aside from the questions left from terrible quotes used to explain the situation, I just want to know why no one is selling those bad boys! They look delicious! Are they toxic or poisonous? Google it is.
Catch Forrest! Catch!
If black tiger shrimp are good to eat, problem solved.
Thats like shrimp filet, wow hope they are edible!
They sell these in California at the markets. They are really good eating. Can't believe the fisherman threw them back.
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=black+tiger+shrimp&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=Cp1&sa=X&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1440&bih=706&tbm=isch&prmd=imvns&tbnid=hoxQ8p4eUXgYGM:&imgrefurl=http://biggestmenu.com/rdr/CA/Huntington-Beach/Izakaya-Zero-1593743/Grilled-Jumo-Black-Tiger-Shrimp-35385&docid=j1oU-Uh-BjnU5M&imgurl=http://http.cdnlayer.com/smoola/00/00/8a/a550918a3240f874_m.jpg&w=500&h=375&ei=kcPrTtPQIMfY0QHQ3vXoCQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=359&sig=101643496838191070512&page=3&tbnh=148&tbnw=188&start=36&ndsp=18&ved=1t:429,r:3,s:36&tx=82&ty=45 Cook em up!
That is one big ass ugly shrimp...but I am willing to grill it up and give it a try.