Shrimp is the most popular seafood in the United States. But far from the romantic notion of a Florida shrimper, a la Forrest Gump, catching wild shrimp and bringing it fresh to eager consumers, more than 80% of the shrimp we eat is produced by industrialized shrimp farms in Southeast Asia or Central and South America. Thailand is the leading exporter of shrimp to the United States, followed by Indonesia, Ecuador, China and Vietnam. Traditional shrimp farms produce 445 pounds of shrimp per acre. Industrialized shrimp farms produce as much as 89,000 pounds per acre. Due to the intense crowding and filthy water, the shrimp producers routinely dose their shrimp with antibiotics. In the U.S., it is illegal to use antibiotics in shrimp farms but this law isn’t applicable to imported shrimp. The daily feeding of antibiotics to shrimp encourages antibiotic resistance in the ponds. In addition to the antibiotic-resistant bacteria that may taint the shrimp we eat and cause food poisoning, the shrimp flesh may contain residues of antibiotics, such as penicillin, causing an allergic reaction, which may be fatal to a small percentage of the population.
In addition to antibiotics, shrimp producers use a vast array of pesticides in their ponds. As many as 13 products are regularly dumped into a typical shrimp pond. All but one of the pesticides used globally in shrimp production are banned for use in U.S. shrimp farms. These chemicals remain in the shrimp, which is then served up to consumers, potentially causing human health impacts. And when the FDA inspected less than two percent of the 860,000 imported seafood shipments in 2006, you can bet that contaminated shrimp is reaching consumers.
The industrial shrimp farm has far reaching impacts beyond the shrimp. About 3.7 million acres of tropical coastal mangroves have been converted to shrimp farms, destroying important habitat for fish, birds and people. So much waste builds up in the farm ponds that the farmers have to move on, leaving the water polluted and mangrove forests destroyed. Additionally, it takes two pounds of wild fish to grow one pound of farmed shrimp, As a result, farming shrimp actually uses more fish than it produces, which puts more pressure on wild fish populations.
If you think just switching to imported wild shrimp is better, think again. Shrimp trawling has the highest bycatch of any commercial fishery-for every pound of shrimp hauled in, three to 15 pounds of unwanted animals die in the process. U.S. shrimp trawlers outfit their nets with devices to let sea turtles and some fish escape from their nets to reduce the amount of unwanted animals caught.
As a consumer you should avoid industrially produced shrimp. Instead,
- Choose wild-caught domestic shrimp.
- Choose shrimp that have been farmed in the United States by an environmentally responsible closed-system shrimp operation, such as OceanBoy.
- Ask at grocery stores and restaurants where their seafood comes from and if it is industrially-grown or wild-caught.
For additional information see Suspicious Shrimp, a Food & Water Watch publication.
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Welcome to Verda Vivo. My name is Daryl Warner Laux.
Thank you !!!
Holy wow. Great post. I think to ask where my coffee comes from, and my vegetables, but it never occured to me that people should ask where their shrimp come from. And any reputable place should be able to answer that too!
Ashley Sue, I rarely eat shrimp any more. The small shrimp from Oregon are okay but if you look at origin of most of the shrimp it’s imported. ~ Daryl