Huge Asian Shrimp Invading Gulf of Mexico 20.10.13 Scientists at a marine research lab on Dauphin Island in the Gulf of Mexico are reporting the presence of a growing numbers of invasive predator shrimp species, the Asian tiger shrimp, in waters off the coast of Alabama. Tiger shrimp, whose native habitat stretches from southern Japan through Southeast Asia to South Africa, are known for distinctive black stripes, can grow to the length of a mans arm and weigh as much as a pound. And, while the monster shrimp are just as edible as U.S. shrimp, marine scientists are trying to figure out whether they will upset local ecosystems and possibly supplant the smaller local brown and white shrimp. Invasive species are always a problem because they did not evolve alongside the local species and the tiger shrimp are especially worrisome because unlike regular US shrimp, which are scavengers, the tiger shrimp are aggressive predators that eat shrimp, crabs and clams. How they arrived in the Gulf is not entirely known, but many scientists believe that they are the progeny of some 2,000 animals that escaped from the Waddell Mariculture Centre in South Carolina in 1988. Another contributing factor is that global warming is causes US coastal waters to warm, which is the habitat the Asian tiger shrimp prefer, allowing for them to more easily reproduce. treehugger/ocean-conservation/giant-invasive-tiger-shrimp-invade-us-waters.html
Posted on: Sun, 20 Oct 2013 03:05:02 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015