Sharks taking bite out of shrimpers' bottom line
May 12, 2011 11:13 PM EDT
FORT MYERS BEACH - Shrimpers on Fort Myers Beach say they're facing sharks now more than ever. And we found out they're taking a big bite out of the shrimping business.
You think you wouldn't like swimming with these guys – shrimpers say try working with them!
"Almost 30 years doing this, I've never seen anything like what we've experienced," said Fort Myers Beach shrimper Roger Schmall.
He says this season he's been able to get more shark footage than ever before.
"Seen a lot of black tips, bull sharks," he described.
He says they swim up by the hundreds and will take bites out of his catch.
And he explained that every time a shark bites through the net, it has to be patched. After too many repairs, he says the net becomes useless.
That's when the fight with the shark gets expensive.
"My last three nights just off shore of the beach here, I lost six bags, six whole bags to shark bites," said Schmall.
And he says at $2,000 a bag, that's a painful bite - not to mention how much shrimp he loses once there's a hole in the bag.
Shrimpers we talked to say so far, this isn't impacting prices or the quantity of shrimp available to consumers.
By Tyler Gamble
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