Shrimp travel from the ocean to your plate via one of two methods: trawlers ply the open ocean for “wild” shrimp while a growing number of shrimp are farmed in coastal “aquiculture” pens. Both methods are extremely destructive.

Clearcutting the ocean floor

Shrimp trawling brings in about 2-3 million metric tonnes of shrimp every year. It also wreaks havoc on rich seabed communities. In this method, a shrimp boat drags a trawl (a huge, conical net) along the bottom floor of the ocean, scraping the bottom and scooping up whatever is in the trawl’s path. (See “Clearcutting the Ocean Floor”) Trawling is not only destructive, it is extremely wasteful. For every 1 lb of shrimp caught, 5 lbs of unwanted bycatch are trapped in the net. Many species of turtles and fish are left on the deck to die, then thrown overboard in an unnatural concentration of decomposing flesh that pollutes the area.