Posted on 04/01/2009 5:23:55 PM PDT by fight_truth_decay
For me, purchasing shrimp is a moral dilemma. I have to have conversations with a pantheon of deities in order to just put a package of shrimp in my shopping cart.
Why would something as simple and tummy-rubbing as shrimp do this to my already fragile psyche? Because the methods used to get it to my grocer’s seafood case are environmentally detrimental.
Both wild-caught shrimp and farm-raised pose problems that just make me squirm. When I was younger I was Mr. Environmentalist. My school reports were always about natural power sources (that was before it was called “alternative energy” or “green energy”). As a teen, I wrote letters to the leaders of foreign governments about environmental issues and my concerns about their countries’ practices. There is even a law in Minnesota (my homeland) dealing with the proper disposal of toxic chemicals that I was the instigator for and major force behind.
Now I’ll admit in recent years my stance has softened and I’m not walking around with petitions to get free dental care for the whales anymore, but I still consider environmental factors when I go to the grocery store. Deciding what kind of shrimp to buy brings these issues to the front of my mind.
Let’s start with wild-caught shrimp, which has been the bane of environmentalists for a long time. I was once an activist against shrimp trawlers. Shrimp caught by trawl is the worst environmental disaster since the seven plagues. A giant net is dragged behind the boat scooping up everything in its path. Law requires a special escape hatch to allow turtles to escape, but everything else goes in.
When full, the net is pulled in and dumped onto the deck of the boat. The crew then picks through all of the creatures and removes the shrimp individually. Once all the shrimp are pulled out the remaining “bycatch” is dumped back into the ocean, most of it now dead or near death. Seagulls follow these boats because they know that eventually a smorgasbord of dead fish will be served from the back of it.
Shrimp trawlers catch approximately 2 percent of the world’s shrimp but produce one-third of the world’s bycatch. The ratio of sea life caught in the nets that isn’t shrimp but that will inevitably die on the deck of the boat ranges between 5 to 20 pounds of bycatch for every 1 pound of shrimp caught. The thought of up to 20 pounds of sea life dying so I can have 1 pound of shrimp is very distressful to me.
The fact that wild shrimp have to fight for survival makes them have thicker shells (thicker shells mean more flavor), firmer flesh and more complex flavor. There is even a movement starting promoting that wild shrimp be sold with identifiers, like American Viticultural Areas or special regions, similar to what oyster farms did with marketing “Blue Points” and “Hog Island.”
While the flavor of wild shrimp is usually better than farmed shrimp, the quality can vary a great deal. After all, the shrimp has had no standards placed on it until it hits the processor. So now I have to consider ... wild shrimp will most likely (though not definitely) taste better than farmed, but what about all of that wasted sea life?
Farm-raised shrimp was the savior of the ocean when it was first started but the profit caused a problem. It was TOO profitable. Everyone wanted in and shrimp farms sprang up all over. Farming solves the issue of the massive amounts of dead bycatch, but miles and miles of coastal mangrove forests have been cleared to make the shrimp farms. Mangrove forests create intertidal habitats where the trees grow in a great tangle of roots and branches, giving prime breeding and nursery habitat for countless aquatic species. The removal of these forests now leaves these small creatures no place to hide from predators.
The shrimp farms feed the shrimp fish meal until they reach a harvestable size, at about four and a half months. Farm-raised shrimp is not fed for a week prior to harvest, which not only saves money for the farmer but cleans out the digestive tract (sand vein) of the shrimp so they don’t need to be de-veined.
The flavor of farmed shrimp isn’t generally quite as good as wild-caught, but the consistent quality is assured. It is so reliable that a plate full of farm-raised shrimp look like they were cloned. Yet the loss of the intertidal habitat that shrimp farming has caused may result in grave damage to the species that used to breed in them. Though the effects may not be felt for another decade or more, by then it may be too late to repair the damage.
I get a sad chuckle at the idea that the very bycatch that shrimp trawlers throw out as waste into the ocean to rot could be kept and turned into fish meal that the shrimp farmers could then use. I guess it’ll be a while before we live in that world of cooperation. All these issues make me want to become a vegetarian, but when you look into the eyes of a young potato and it just tugs at your heart ...
Shrimp is a lot like fowl. Just like chicken, turkey, guinea hens and hummingbirds all taste differently, shrimp varieties taste different from each other. Where the shrimp lived and what it ate greatly affects the taste. All shrimp are high in calcium, iodine, and protein. The cholesterol levels in shrimp actually improve the levels of LDL to HDL and lowers triglycerides, so in the end shrimp is great food for dieting. But it should be mentioned here that the only seafood species higher in cholesterol than shrimp are squid and caviar. A typical meal of 10 medium/large sized shrimp gives you about half of the American Heart Association’s recommended daily amount.
Personally I believe one of the reasons that shrimp is so popular in American cuisine is because the average person doesn’t know what a poorly cooked shrimp looks or tastes like. When I look at grocery store pre-cooked shrimp I cringe because most of it looks overcooked already. You can tell if shrimp is overcooked by looking at it. Perfectly cooked shrimp will make a “C” or half moon shape. If the shrimp makes a full-circled “O”, or even a full curl like the number nine, that shrimp is overcooked, and though it will still taste like shrimp it will be overly chewy. If you want truly superior tasting shrimp you need to buy it raw with the shell on, cook it in the shell and peel it yourself.
Cooking the shrimp with the shell on will give you more shrimp flavor, but if you want to flavor your shrimp with a traditional Louisiana shrimp boil or Old Bay seasoning you will want to peel the shrimp first.
So with all of this information about shrimp, I bet you’re wondering: when I do buy shrimp, what kind do I purchase? Most of the time I get farm raised tiger shrimp, but once in a while one of the deities in my head get me to purchase wild shrimp. Gotta go with what they recommend.
This recipe will cook a dozen shrimp perfectly. Ross A. Christensen is an award-winning gardener and gourmet cook.
I saw a report from Europe on PBS. Apparently, Holland is ready for raised ocean levels and is planning accordingly, buildings that can float AND industry such a shrimp farming and things that yield from brackish waters.
I thought, wow...they’re not b******** that we cause it, they’re planning to deal with it.
HUH?
No, you don't. Shrimp, crabs, and crawfish are boiled with shells on!
I think the bigger problem with Chinese and Thai farmed shrimp is that they are raised in toxic conditions and are much more likely to make the diner deathly ill than wild American or Panamanian shrimp.
The idiot doesn't know much about ecology.
So, just think about all those happy seagulls.
That’s strange. Why don’t they just improve their levies? They’re already under sea level, what’s another few inches?
Overcooked shrimp aren’t nice. They’re tough and a little dry. Shrimp are very easy to overcook and you want to yank them off the heat when they’re no longer grey or you get shrimp leather.
Darn. All this shrimp talk is making me want seafood.
What unconscionable excess! 33% of the days meals contains -- gasp -- 50% of the days cholesterol! How are they going to get exactly 33% of each RDA of everything in each meal unless you eat the same thing for every meal? Besides, since when is any RDA for anything considered undesirable (fat, salt, etc.) not extremely conservative?
He’s tasted hummingbirds!?!?
..and head-on is best but most folks can’t even find head-on shrimp.
You know, maybe they welcome the opportunity to do the brackish farming?
What a frigging dilemma.
Thank god i don’t have this guys problems.
Has he seen how big the ocean is lately?
While in the Coast Guard, I had to pull up bodies with the shrimp still eating on them. So.......raise them as you will, I'll eat bream, bass and catfish thank you.
I keep shrimp as “pets”. Vampire shrimp, amano shrimp, etc. I also have mussels and clams, and some weird crayfish I found, in the same tank. My husband gets the stockpot out every time there’s a power outage.
Not much meat on a hummingbird drumstick!
Note: No hummingbirds were harmed during the making of this cake.
Yum... what a delightful-looking cake. Send it on over!
I am actually eating large shrimp right now. In my own created recipe. What you do is steam them about 2/3 the way and then dump them into a steaming pot of Spanish rice made with a blushing amount of crushed tomatoes.
And then have a cup of Fisherman's Wharf coctail sauce to dip them in with by the tail while eating the Spanish rice. And drinking something cold.
This is not how Spanish chefs make paella; You don't need all that stuff like saffron powder and scallops and crabs and lobster tails and bread and butter and sangria.
This recipe takes half an hour to create straight from the store.
Seriously...I could go for some scallops and linguini right now!
Eons ago...We used to gather mussels for dinner off the rocks at the waters edge at low tide. Now, same area, they are not nearly as abundant as they once were. Flounder were plentiful to catch as well. Then over the years with all the dragging--the foreign (Russian) "factory/canning " ships sat offshore awaiting the Gulf of Maine fisherman to tie up and unload..even the sea urchins were a delicacy to the Japanese buyers. Prices paid were enticingly high back then.
Times have changed.
There is a place for all of God’s creatures right there next to the mashed potatoes.
Polly pissy pants..
Save the whales, kill the babies.
In my search I cannot find anyone ever eating or tasting or sipping the little hummers.!! My guess it was made up for effect or an embelishment of the story. Part of a "fish tale". ;)
I would love to sample whale meat and seal meat. I tried everything else I could find. Octopus is a fish chewing gum. Squids become breaded calamares like onion rings. Sharks have little bones. Maybe those flourescent fish 4000 feet down are tastier?
I assume you are celebrating hummingbirds coming back. They use their wings as fans. Like bees. They are nesting in CA now.
Clowns like this need to be boiled instead of the shrimp!
Save the shrimp for when all the enviros have been boiled!
Like many things in real life, statistics and stories can be misleading. Especially when one has an agenda.
Not all shrimping, everywhere, is as he describes it to be. Even the type of shrimping he is talking about isn't always like he's talking about. For one thing, describing typical Gulf of Mexico style shrimp nets (such as he is referring to) as being "giant", is fairly ridiculous.
Reality is more complex than his simplistic description suggests.
Site to show Gulf of Maine shrimp & info.
I want wild caught with heads on. Nothing comes close to the flavor.
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