Mount Pleasant, SC - Hoping to rebound from a terrible 2008 season, local shrimpers are set to cast their nets this season, but they are facing new problems.

Shrimpers say there is not much a catch to be had so far this year. Those brave enough to go out in Thursdays rainy, windy weather came back with tiny catches. One shrimper says he caught just eighteen shrimp a few days ago.

A way of life for many is going by the wayside

“I’m going to do it as long as I can,” lifelong shrimper Rocky Magwood says. “If it keeps going like this I’m going to have to find something else.”

Those words are something shrimper Rocky Magwood thought he would never say.

“I’ve been doing this my whole life. I have never really done anything else,” Magwood added.

Last year pricey fuel prices plagued Shem Creek shrimpers, but this year their nets are simply empty.

“Normally it is 300 to 400 pounds on a drag and now we can’t get ten to fifteen pounds a day,” Magwood said grimly.

The Magwoods say they cannot find shrimp where they used to and now they are headed south, hoping for better luck in Beaufort and Edisto.

Folks are still coming to buy shrimp and other seafood at the Wando Shrimp Company, but there is not much to sell.

“We don’t have many boats unpacking,” Lisa Sigman, owner of the Wando Shrimp Company says.

Sigman’s family has owned the Wando Shrimp Company since 1949. She has seen Shem Creek change over the decades. Years ago there were five similar seafood packing companies lining the creek, now Sigman is alone. Not only have the businesses died out, but the amount of shrimp boats has declined as well.

“We used to unload twenty to thirty boats. We would have the semi-trailer in the front and we would unpack hundreds of boxes,” Sigman said. Now only six boats are still in service. “We don’t have the semi-trailer here at all. Whatever we have, we sell to the public.”

“If this foretells what the season is going to be like, we are in trouble,” Magwood said.

That uneasy forecast could sink this decades old business.

The impact is not just felt on the creek. Some restaurants that buy local say they would prefer to pay the higher prices for local shrimp instead of using imported shrimp. They say their customers can tell the difference.

Despite the short supply, shrimpers say they are fighting to keep their prices low.

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