Oil Spill Seafood: Is Wild Gulf Shrimp Better Than Farmed?
Special from Mother Jones by Kiera Butler
A few months back, Cactus, one of my favorite local burrito places, announced that from now on, it would begin serving sustainably caught shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. I was impressed that this scrappy little taqueria had resisted the temptation of ridiculously cheap imported shrimp: 90 percent of all shrimp consumed in the US comes from notoriously ecologically disastrous farms in Asia. (Red Lobster Festival of Shrimp, I'm looking at you.) But last week I noticed a new sign up: Cactus' shrimp supplier was reassuring customers that the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico hadn't affected the shrimp, that so far they were perfectly safe to eat. I was skeptical: Oil is nasty stuff. Which got me wondering: For the time being, wouldn't it be safer to stay away from Gulf shrimp, at least until the spill is under control?
Not yet, says Micahel Massimi, a scientist at Barataria-Terrebonne National Estuary Program. "So far, we're looking at fairly significant fishing closures but still plenty of coastal estuary and good shrimping to the west of the spill." Right now, only 23 percent of the Gulf shrimping waters are closed because of the spill. That could change with winds or currents, but the Louisiana Department of Fish and Wildlife (LDFW) has announced the spring shrimp season will officially start today in most open areas, and at the end of the month in others. (It's too early to say yet how the oil spill will affect the second shrimp season, which typically lasts from August through December.)
But oil moves, and so do shrimp. So is there any chance that oil-contaminated shrimp could make it to your local fishmonger (or my taqueria)? It's extremely unlikely, since all US seafood is subject to fairly rigorous inspections by food scientists before it can be sold. Martin Reed is the founder of the online sustainable seafood supplier I Love Blue Sea. "Most people who eat shrimp--they don't know it's coming from a farm abroad where they pump them full of antibiotics," says Reed. "I'd be much more worried about that than eating anything out of the Gulf." (More on imported farmed shrimp below.)
So for now wild Gulf shrimp is still the better choice, but it doesn't come cheap: It's already more expensive than farmed shrimp, and the spill will only drive the price up, likely by about 20 percent says Lance Nacio, a third generation Gulf coast shrimper. Aside from closures, another major reason for the price spike is a shortage of labor: Many Gulf fishermen and shrimpers have been hired by a BP subcontractor to help clean up the spill. "But the biggest thing now is actually stopping the leak," says Nacio. "Until they stop it, who knows how much we'll have to deal with."
Imported farmed shrimp: The cheapest and most abundant shrimp on the market. It's also the most environmentally destructive, says Megan Westmeyer, who runs a sustainable seafood program at the South Carolina Aquarium. Most imported shrimp comes from South and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh mostly), where shrimp farms have replaced the mangrove that once served as a natural barrier between the coastline and the ocean. Shrimp farms are also notoriously dirty: Waste from the farms is often pumped into the ocean, and pesticides and antibiotics are both in heavy use. Sometimes these substances leave the farm with the shrimp. "Very often inspectors find chemicals that are banned for human consumption by FDA on imported shrimp," says Westmeyer.
Wild shrimp: In general, domestic wild shrimp, which accounts for about 10 percent of all shrimp consumed in the US (of that, about 75 percent comes from the Gulf), is considered signifcantly more sustainable than farmed shrimp. Still, it's not perfect: One of the major criticisms of wild shrimping in the US is its high rate of bycatch--other species (like sea turtles and large fish) end up dying in the nets along with the shrimp. Two simple net innovations have dramatically reduced bycatch in recent years: The Turtle Exclusion Device (TEDs), a kind of trap door in the net that allows turtles to swim out, is about 97 percent effective, says Westmeyer. Bycatch Reduction Devices (BRDs), which allow small fish to swim out through a small hole at the top of a net, are about 20-30 percent effective. The Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board is currently working with scientists at Louisiana State University to develop a sustainable shrimp certification program, which "will certainly include a close look at bycatch," says LSU fishery researcher Mark Schexnayder.
Domestic farmed shrimp: Only a very tiny amount of US shrimp comes from domestic farms, though freshwater prawns grown in "closed loop" systems get the Monterey Bay Aquarium's stamp of approval, and some sustainable farms in Central America seem promising as well. Thankfully, environmental regulations in the US prevent people from setting up cheap farms like those abroad, so sustainable shrimp farming is still very expensive. Researchers at South Carolina's Waddell Mariculture Center are experimenting with environmentally friendly and economically viable shrimp farming models.
Trap-caught shrimp: Larger Pacific shrimp species (most commonly spot prawns) are sometimes caught in traps, which pick up significantly less bycatch than nets. Trapping is hard work, though, and these shrimp simply aren't as abundant as the varieties in the Gulf, so they're harder to find and more expensive.
More questions about shrimp and sustainability? Check out this shrimp guide, courtesy of the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch program. Wondering whether Gulf oysters are still safe to eat? Read this.
Ellen Kanner: Meatless Monday: The Gulf Without Seafood
Angela Perkey: Cleaning Up the Oil Spill: What You Can Do Now
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bottom trawling, the way wild shrimp are mostly caught, is inherently unsustainable (like oceanic clear-cutting) unless done over uninhabited bottom (other than the shrimp of course)...also uses lots of oil...hence the 75th annual shrimp + petroleum fest
www.shrimp-petrofest.org
a good, sustainable time for all...
Loading comments… The (a) right approach to stopping this disaster in its tracks is pretty simple:
Fabricate a thick-walled, 21" or so diameter pipe (which therefore matches the original in diameter) that has a new valve attached leading to a standard fitting on one end and the other end is tapered to something quite small, say 6". In the tapered section, which itself should be fairly long, there should be perforations (holes) provided. The taper will go into the bore which has blown out. In the section between the taper and the valve, radial rings should be attached (welded) to the pipe. These rings are there to provide ample mechanical attachment to prevent the pipe from later being blown out.
This device, taper down and valve open, should then be driven into the well's bore hole, valve open so that pressure does not build u, and then it should be cemented securely to the bottom of the valve so that the rings are embeded fully in the cement. Once fully cured, THEN close the valve.
Of course, then remedial action should be taken to either cap the well or, at the least, provide even more protection from a blow-out.
Ample fabrication facilities are readily available and the cement should not take that long to cure; this spill could have and should have been stopped LONG ago!
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Not a single one of these Rat B@stards could man up and take responsibility for this disaster that has ruined the entire southern coast of the US...How much longer are WE the people going to allow these CORPORATIONS to destroy our life support system?.......DESTROY THESE CORPORATIONS....Starting NOW !!....No second chances....no 75 mile limit BS,,,,
If this was the policy from the beginning....Safety measures and plans ABC and D would be in place.....the only plan they had was called GREED
.......One coast down ......Two to Go.....Are you willing to take that risk? Make them pay...with a CORPORATE DEATH PENALTY!!!....RETROACTIVE!!
although not as muddy as river living catfish---------
Wouldn't be too worried if I had much faith in GVT inspectors anymore, they seem to hav failed in some big ways over the last few years.
http://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/
Local seafood typically costs more but I believe you get what you pay for ... better taste (opinion) and more healthy (fact) ... support of a local and stressed economy.
I realize not everybody has the same options but please read the labels and ask your vendors where their seafood comes from. And instead of buying 2 pounds of plastic (farmed) shrimp, consider 1 pound of the real thing.
So, besides the extremely unhealthy state in which the shrimp are grown, the environmental cost is huge. Mangrove forests are the nursery for the ocean. They are arguably the first link in the chain of life.
Unfortunately, shrimp farming is extremely lucrative. Most ponds are on land not owned by the business person. There are even shrimp farms in national parks! Khao Sam Roi Yot is the best example. A large part of this former wetland is now shrimp farms. It's downright pathetic.
I like shrimp, but I avoid any food imported from China or Asia. I try to buy wild caught U.S. but am concerned about bycatch. With meatless Mondays I'm trying to eat more seafood but also be a responsible consumer.
I like shrimp and would like to add it to my Monday menus.
First Posted: 05/10/10 01:16 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 05:25 PM ET