Catchin' a few sea critters

I cooked shrimp for dinner tonight, so that's probably why I was thinking about this trip. Early this year (I think it was about February), I got to go on a real shrimp boat turned tour shrimp boat in Brunswick. It was so cool, and smooth. I didn't even need the dramamine that I took beforehand! The Lady Jane and her crew - captain Larry Credle, son Cliff and first mate - were awesome. And the birthday party I intruded upon was middle school boys. They were hilarious. Check out the Lady Jane and my article in Southscapes.

Here's what I wrote for the UGA-CAES magazine (Southscapes):

Cliff Credle swings the net over the catch table and tugs it open. Hundreds of fish, a few shrimp, some mud and a horseshoe crab spill out. Last year, the Lady Jane took 4,621 passengers on 167 trips off the coast of Brunswick. The 60-foot vessel was the first, and is currently the only commercial fishing trawler in the United States certified to carry passengers. She can take out up to 49 per trip.

Credle's ocean heritage goes back to Blackbeard, the notorious pirate who left three Credle brothers unemployed when he gave up his dastardly deeds in 1712. Blackbeard dropped them off at North Carolina’s Outer Banks, and their descendents have been fishing the East Coast ever since. Credle’s great-grandpa became a shrimper.“Everybody’s got water in their blood,” Credle said.

Pulling in the Lady Jane's net is “like Christmas,” Larry said. “You never know what you’re going to catch.” They’ve pulled up a prehistoric megalodon shark tooth, multitudes of sharks, eels, puffer fish and, of course, tons of shrimp.

And some of my favorite photos: