Jumbo Appetite for Shrimp

What shall we do? Since shrimp are on all the red lits, maybe we need a new model of what to do with unsustainable fisheries? Just say no doesn't seem to be working. We need to engage seafood buyers (large and small) in the political & policy process to fix unsustainable fisheries IMHO.

Thanks for posting this and the link with the figure. I appreciate being pointed to the information that gives me some positive action to take, so I can stop just wringing my hands in guilt and maybe get off my butt and do something.

Zuska, I've become so hardened I can't tell if you're serious. If you're not, I would completely understand. Daniel and I often discuss that all of the 'awareness' being raised often simply leads to a guilty conscience and no action and, morever, no results. Have you read our minds?

My apologies. I've given no solutions (as Mark points out). I would counter to Mark that the 'Just Say No' approach hasn't truly been tried. We've never staged a shrimp boycott or anything close to one and many people that consume shrimp are at the buffets in the heartland where no Seafood Wallet Card dare go...

As for the industry side of things, my strongest suit is in the atrocious waste (discarded bycatch) by shrimp trawlers in Africa. Maybe Mark can give us an update of how far along the MSC or other sustainable seafood advocacy groups are in terms of shrimp capture/production?

I really really love shrimp. And not just because I am describing new species of them. I often cook various items using shrimp. For my family and I it is an essential source of protein as I don't eat beef, pork or poultry (A lacto-ovo-pisco vegetaraian? or just a non-terrestrial meat eater?). I do carry my seafood watch card with me when I got to the grocery. I don't eat farmed salmon and avoid predatory fish whenever possible, mostly eating farmed catfish and tilapia.

For many families like mine that don't consume terrestrial meat, where should we get our protein! My wife is swedish so we could never give up shrimp and fish. That would be akin to asking for a divorce. What can the consumer do about getting 'good' shrimp at their local supermarket? (open question to anyone reading) I know the bag of frozen, deveined, tailless critters i have in my freezer is from Thailand. But that is my only choice, even at Wegmans (our local upscale grocery, akin to a whole foods) I believe.

*sigh*

Kevin Z, I appreciate your frustration and admire your attempts to scrutinize your household's diet. The catfish and tilapia are good choices (and likely labeled correctly) but do make sure to watch their origins (you've likely seen the Chinese seafood stories). You might also be disheartened to know that most herbivorous fish are fed fishmeal so that they grow (and thus can be sold) more quickly. A question for you: why don't you consume terrestrial meat? What makes you prefer shrimp to free-range chicken, beef, or even tofu (I realize there are only so many cubes of tofu one can eat)?

Well, I do eat tofu and tempeh too, but you are right: only so much tofu (we had tofu pizza tonight lol - with zucchini, olives, avocado and assorted cheeses). I was once a more strict vegetarian, but I grew up in Iowa on the Mississippi and love seafood. I don't have any good reasons for not going all the way back to terrestrial meat other than I haven't had any for 15 years and just not used to it nor feel the need or desire to eat it.

I do know about the fishmeal. Its certainly a problem with catfish. But it has also gotten to the point where I can taste the difference in typical american grocery fish versus fresh fish from a fish market or even from fish i buy when visiting other countries. I ate the best salmon I've ever had in my life just at regular little restaurants in Sweden. I just don't understand why Americans already seem to settle for low quality crap. We have such a walmart mentality as a nation.

Hello Jennifer,

I am a Fisheries Biologist, and I was having a discussion with some friends about the sustainability of the shrimp fishery. Would you be able to recommend some literature to read (preferrably scientific papers) that show the decline in shrimp population?

-Rob-

While it's true that imported shrimp (wild and farmed) is on the Avoid (red) list of the Seafood Watch pocket guides, there are also shrimp choices in the yellow and green lists. Pink shrimp from Oregon, along with BC spot prawns are in our best choices category. At Seafood Watch, we try to help consumers understand that there are choices, and some are better than others. A number of NGOs are working with suppliers and retailers to help them source more sustainable options. Rob - I hope you'll take a look at our peer-reviewed research, for each of the shrimp species we have investigated to date: http://www.mbayaq.org/cr/SeafoodWatch/web/sfw_factsheet.aspx?gid=20

As I mentioned previously, most of my work that deals with shrimp is in the developing world. Yes, CPUE has declined for shrimp in Mozambique and Tanzania, for instance, but more importantly, it is more the practice of bottom trawling (which cannot be sustainable because it affects the habitat upon which shrimp and other fisheries depend) and the incredible wasted fish as discards that make shrimp fisheries unsustainable. In general, the shrimp trawling fleets are culpable in negatively affecting local food security.

This big picture study on global discards by Zeller and Pauly is a nice summary: Good news, bad news: global fisheries discards are declining, but so are total catches.

Alison, thank you for pointing to some literature and, moreover, to some shrimp fisheries that are less offensive. Here we do have choices whereas many sub-Saharan African fishers and their families do not.