The winter cold might have taken a bite out of Lowcountry fish.

Cold may scale back fish yield
By Bo Petersen – The (Charleston) Post E-Mail Print one Comment Reprint or license Text Dimensions: instrument nameclose
device goes right here
The winter cold may have taken a bite out of Lowcountry fish.

Sea trout show up to have been misplaced when drinking water temperatures in December and January dropped low sufficient to kill, recommend the trammel net surveys by S.C. Natural Useful resource Department biologists. The obtaining is from early period spot sampling, so it is also soon to be conclusive.

But the catch was &quotcomparatively reduced.&quot That does not bode effectively for the well-liked inshore finfish or other catches like red drum or shrimp.

In the winter of 2000-01, prolonged h2o temperatures at about 46 degrees destroyed an believed 97 % to 99 % of the shrimp population and caused a massive die-off of sea trout. It took two seasons for the shrimp to recover completely and five seasons for sea trout.

This winter wasn’t so undesirable. The drinking water didn’t keep quite so cold for so lengthy.

But inshore temperatures twice hovered in the upper 40s for days at a time and had an influence. Hundreds of hundreds of dead menhaden have been found on Folly Seashore one early morning in January, apparently killed by the cold water. Countless numbers of dead starfish on Isle of Palms were observed in December in an earlier cold spell.

&quotIt doesn’t search like [water temperatures] acquired reduce than the die-off we noticed in 2000-2001. But it really is decrease than we hoped,&quot explained Mel Bell , DNR fisheries management director.

Anglers also say they are catching fewer sea trout than common.

&quotA number of right here and there, small ones. That’s about it,&quot stated Graham Able of Haddrell’s Stage Tackle &amp Provide in Mount Nice.

&quotThere is a small bit of a double whammy&quot because h2o temperatures dropped to that critical position for the 2nd winter in a row, explained Steve Arnott, DNR biologist. In 2010, related frigid climate in January induced some die-off in the Lowcountry.

Since trammel nets need the fish to swim into the netting, the very low figures may possibly be deceptive, biologists stated. The surveys had been accomplished just as waters commenced warming. Temperatures are now in the mid-50s.

&quotThe fish typically are transferring into deeper h2o and are lethargic. We won’t know until Could,&quot said Phil Maier, DNR coastal reserves director. &quotWe will need to wait around and see for a couple much more months, till the waters warm again up.&quot