Officials with the Department of Natural Resources in South Carolina say water temperatures haven't been this cold this early in the winter season since the early 1960's.
That chill is threatening the sea life living in the water.
Mel Bell is the director of the Office of Fisheries Management with DNR. "In a typical winter where it's sort of gradually cools, the animals there like shrimp will move down into the deeper water where it's a little warmer. In this case when it just drops like a rock, a lot of the animals were caught up there and we had some mortality there."
The longer temps stay at those critically cold levels, the more marine life is threatened. That's what DNR officials blame for the thousands of dead starfish that washed ashore near Charleston this week. And earlier this month, when temperatures dropped drastically, more than a hundred sea turtles were hospitalized after going into a hypothermic state.
Now, the focus shifts to other vulnerable marine life -- shrimp, trout and red drum. Everette Silver is a local fisherman. "When the water gets cold out there the fish will actually get lock-jawed, they will not bite."
And if the fish aren't biting, the fishermen aren't selling. That means the cold also threaten the livelihood of local fishermen and shrimpers, forcing them south into warmer waters. "It just costs us more expenses on our fuel, ice and bait, having to go into another port to get the fish off loaded," Silver said.
DNR has gone as far as to close the commercial fishing season early, hoping to help sustain populations. While that may leave fishermen and shrimpers out in the cold, they say they'll worry more about what they can control. The weather is not one of those things.
"The cost of fuel, the regulations get put on us here and there and more stuff they keep regulating and that's, the cost effectiveness of it is what's more or less. I think the shrimp are gonna be there whether we're there or not," said Scott Cook, VP of the Northern Chapter of the South Carolina Shrimpers Association.
DNR officials say if temperatures get colder, they may put more regulations on fishermen this season.
