http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/cannibal-shrimp-invasion-begun-165542739.html

Anyone run across these? It is interesting if they are carried by currents etc. in a natural manner is this just survival of the fittest/natural selection or should there be an attempt to erradicate?

I am assuming they are good to eat as most prawns/shrimp are?

Carried into our area by the bilges of international shipping I'd say. Gonna make great tarpon bait. Bet they'll bite you.

Why is it that every invasive species is "Asian"

I smell a conspiracy.

It takes alot of ships from China to stock a walmart!

Many freighters today can carry over 10,000 TEU's( 20' equvilent unit), each teu, aka as a container, may have over 10 tons of weight. If my math is right that is 200000000#, that's a lot of stuff.........Question is how much stuff is in one Walmart.lol........answer, alot !

They are edible and delicious, and produce quite a bit of meat. I don't see a problem here other than a possible run on cocktail sauce.

I have had a Filipino version of Tiger Prawn. Good eats. The only problem I could see with them would be their effect on the plankton and krill populations, and competing with native skrimps for habitat.

The world is shrinking quickly. With the amount of crap that we have moving all over the world, destruction of habitat, and stupid pet owners, its just a matter of time before every critter lives on every continent. Eradication is the proper thing to do. Since this is an invasive species, I see no problems with opening season. Is there a specific way to target these things to start filling up freezers without hitting our natural population? If so, I'd love to see a couple dozen on my grill. Looks like they would go nicely with lemon juice, beer, and french fries.

Any effort of erradication by man is probably doomed to failure, especially of a pelagic species of relatively small critters that seem difficult to detect. I say let evolution do the erradication thing, its way better equipped to do so than we are... If the Tiger Prawns are better adapted to survive than native species, then they will establish themselves and there is nothing we can do to stop them. If they prove to not be better adapted, they will very slowly die off in these waters and won't ever be a serious issue.

I don't get too worked up about all of these so called 'invasive species', usually the reality fails to live up to all of the scary hype. Snakeheads, zebra mussles, largemouth bass, peacock bass etc, most find their niche right alongside native species... Only a few ivasive species ever really truly threaten native species. The python comes to mind in FL.

I have had a Filipino version of Tiger Prawn. Good eats. The only problem I could see with them would be their effect on the plankton and krill populations, and competing with native skrimps for habitat.

The article says they eat other shrimp. Doesn't say if they eat them exclusively, or with a plankton side dish.

I got hungry reading that article..