Shrimp Season Starts in Lowcountry

Courtesy of Larry Spruill, WJCL

HILTON HEAD ISLAND, SC- It is shrimp season in the Lowcountry. The shrimp industry brings in $7 Million a year to South Carolina, but shrimpers in the Lowcountry say they may not reel in that much this year.

They say last season was not a good one, due to a wet colder than normal winter.

Those winter conditions caused the shrimp to either die or not harvest enough to sell.

Andrew Carmines with Hudsons’ Seafood on Hilton Head says so far things are looking better, but the shrimp are a lot smaller this year.

Carmines says they are still re-cooperating from last year, which is making things tough for local restaurants to sell the smaller shrimp, “The shrimp industry for restaurants right now is very tough to serve the local shrimps and I hope they make the decision to do it. We always will here at Hudsons’. It’s a part of our DNA. It’s a part of our roots and it’s what we do. It makes it really tough for a lot of restaurants to do that, so it’s important for customers to encourage restaurants to do that,” said Andrew Carmines.

Carmines says in a good year, Lowcountry shrimpers harvest about 500,000 pounds of shrimp. He’s hoping for a similar turnout this year.