Fishermen surprised to catch foot-long shrimp

Shrimpers on the St. Johns River near Jacksonville, Florida had a rare catch on Thursday, pulling in a foot-long Asian tiger shrimp. Representatives for the Trout River Fish Company say they've never seen one this big before.



The Asian tiger shrimp is an invasive species to the St. Johns that eats meat and is impacting the ecosystem on the First Coast. That has shrimpers worried.



"We've been in this business for 57 years," said Kaleigh Rhodes with the Trout River Fish Company. "We do catch them, but to see one that is 12 inches long is rare," said Rhodes.


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"They are aggressive, they are meat eaters and they would love to eat on our shrimp," said Robin Emmett. "Even if they are even half as big as this one, that's a huge shrimp." Emmett says the invasive shrimp are a threat to local shrimpers' supply, but recognises that a catch this big will probably only happen once in a lifetime.