State income tax filing deadline is Monday
May 13, 2016
Howard Badeaux
May 17, 2016
A photo of a colossal shrimp alongside a claim that it was caught in a Terrebonne Parish waterway is a hoax, meant to be taken as a joke but accepted by many who viewed it as fact.
“Wow caught this big boy at Robinson Canal, last night, in a cast net,” proclaims a Facebook post by David Martin, a Montegut seafood dealer, alongside a shrimp held in a person’s hand that is nearly the size of a forearm. “Ya should have seen that net just a jumping. This big white weighed close to 5 pound. Bigger than the tiger shrimp I caught last year.”
The post appears on the Facebook page of Martin’s company, Purdy Dawg Seafood. He acknowledged posting it during an interview Friday morning, and acknowledges the statement was untrue. So far, the posting has been shared directly from the page 2,450 times.
“It was intended as a joke of course,” Martin said. “It was nothing disgraceful.”
The picture of the shrimp had been used on the Web site of the Tetap Japan Frozen Seafood Company, http://www.tetapjayafrozenseafood.com/seafoodproducts.html.
The creature in the photo is most likely a prawn, a freshwater, shrimp-like crustacean, which can grow to very large sizes. Some local supermarkets have sold giant prawns, listed as a product of Senegal. They are also sold at the French Market on Decatur Street in New Orleans. Some experimental aquaculture operations in the U.S. grow them, including some in the Appalachian region. But the prawns are all fresh-water creatures.
Comments in response to the post include suggestions that the creature is a product of the 2010 BP oil spill, the Fukushima, Japan nuclear disaster, and a that it is proof Louisiana shrimp are harvested too early in their life cycle. There is no scientific evidence to support any of those. And there are no indications that the goliath penaeid in the photo is coming to waters near you any time soon.
“The only invasive shrimp that we know of is the Asian tiger shrimp,” Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries biologist Jeff Marks said. “We are not aware of any instances of Asian freshwater prawn.”
The claim that the giant was caught in Robinson Canal is also sketchy. Louisiana’s inshore waters don’t open to shrimping, including use of cast nets, until May 23.
Louisiana SeaGrant specialist Julie Falgout, who was made aware of the post, said it is an example of why caution – with claims about seafood or anything else – should be questioned and vetted when they appear on social media.
“It is amazing how fast things can make it around the world,” Falgout said. “So people need to be careful.”
Editor’s Note: The Times ran the photo on its Web site, www.houmatimes.com, but removed it when a determination was made that it was posted with false information.
