HILTON HEAD ISLAND - A program in the Lowcountry is trying to raise shrimp for fishermen to use as bait year-round.

Currently, bait shrimp can be caught off South Carolina's coast from May to December, but much of the bait shrimp sold in the state comes from large hatcheries in Florida.

The South Carolina program at the Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton aims to raise a disease-free line of native white shrimp for recreational fishermen. It is being paid for by a three-year federal grant.

"The continued harvesting of bait shrimp in the ocean has been considered environmentally unsustainable. We're trying to develop the technology where we'll be able to start a bait industry," said Al Stokes, manager of the center and a wildlife biologist for the state Department of Natural Resources.

But commercial fishermen who catch bait shrimp aren't as excited.

Instead of raising shrimp, Clay Cable, vice president of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association, said the state should allow commercial shrimpers to catch bait shrimp after the season ends.

"Instead of going into pond-raising, I suggest they authorize shrimpers (to catch bait shrimp) who have been run out of business by some of their activity," Cable said.

The project began last May when the center's biologists found 58 female shrimp without viruses. The shrimp produced 20,000 offspring. Many were given away to hatcheries, but 500 were kept at the center.

Scientists trick the shrimp into spawning by controlling light and temperature.

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