11:59 am Daily Log
When I refer to shrimping, I’m referring to working on a shrimp boat in the ocean, not bait shrimping. In my opinion, bait shrimping is diminishing part of the culture of Charleston by negatively impacting the commercial shrimping industry…you know, the quaint shrimp boats that everyone loves to look at on Shem Creek while they eat their shrimp dinner that has been imported from Thailand or Vietnam or shrimp ponds in some third world country. Bait shrimping is legal for about 2 months and a lot of people do this, but these are the 2 months when the white shrimp are trying to get out of the creeks and bays and into the ocean where they have traditionally been caught by the commercial shrimpers since the middle of the 20th Century. Now, the baiters are using things like cat food to attract the shrimp and catch them before they can get to the ocean. I don’t know what cat food tastes like, but if you use it to attract shrimp then when you eat the shrimp you’re probably eating some cat food too. I have no problem with anybody and everybody going out in their boat and throwing a cast net for shrimp (without bait), but it just seems to me that using bait, which is illegal to do for the commercial shrimpers, is somewhat of a cheat. Use your skill, local knowledge, navigational ability, and experience to find and catch the shrimp, but how much of a challenge is it to bait them and catch them? …not much. Take pride in your ability to hunt down the shrimp instead of buying “Nine Lives” or “Whiskers” cat food and mixing it with shrimp pellets made by some corporation in ‘who knows where’ to “provide” for your family. Better yet, save your money on the fuel, poles, bait, and everything else you buy to go shrimp baiting, and call a local fish house or a local shrimper and buy your shrimp right off the boat…then you can take the wife and family out on your boat and spend some fun, quality time together…or just go fishing with the guys, whatever. Shrimp baiting is illegal in Georgia and if it weren’t for the money that SCDNR gets I believe it would be illegal in South Carolina. Everyone talks about supporting our local people, but how much ACTION does everyone really take to do so?