Parasite depletes wild shrimp haul off southeast Atlantic coast

[riky]

Parasite depletes wild shrimp haul off southeast Atlantic coast

<p><a href="http://news.yahoo.com/parasite-depletes-wild-shrimp-haul-off-southeast-atlantic-151424923.html"><img src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/_yEFE0hJienjnOEE7jSH9w--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTg2O3E9NzU7dz0xMzA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/Reuters/2013-11-03T151424Z_1_CBRE9A216CQ00_RTROPTP_2_USA-ATLANTIC-SHRIMP.JPG" width="130" height="86" alt="A white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus) with black gill disease is pictured in this handout photo" align="left" title="A white shrimp (Litopenaeus setiferus) with black gill disease is pictured in this handout photo" border="0" /></a>By Harriet McLeod CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Wild shrimp hauls off the southern Atlantic coast have plunged in recent months as a parasite has made it harder for the creatures to breathe, according to state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina. Experts said they believe black gill disease, caused by a tiny parasite, contributed to a die-off of white shrimp between August and October, typically the prime catch season. &quot;It's like the shrimp are smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, and now they're having to go run a marathon,&quot; said Mel Bell, director of South Carolina's Office of Fisheries Management. &quot;Shrimpers are reporting to us that they dump the bag on the deck, and the shrimp are just dead.&quot; South Carolina shrimpers hauled in 44,000 pounds of shrimp in September, less than 6 percent of the September, 2012 catch of more than 750,000 pounds, Bell said.</p><br clear="all"/>

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