[ExI] Shrimp (was Re: bull whoops ass)

Kelly Anderson kellycoinguy at gmail.com
Sun Nov 27 19:12:13 UTC 2011


2011/10/10 spike <spike66 at att.net>

>
> This whole thing has been simmering in my mind all weekend and putting me
> in a foul mood, so do allow me this one rant, and I will let it go, or try
> to.  We are all allowed an occasional righteous rant here occasionally, if
> we don’t abuse the privilege, and this is mine.
>

And if anyone wants to rant at me for answering old threads.. feel free! I
am deserving. Am trying to catch up...


> ****
>
> I have long known of bullfighting, and try to not think about this
> practice which I find most distasteful, for I have no moral high ground.
> Not only do I occasionally eat beef, I eat shrimp at every opportunity.
> One bull can feed an army of proles, but an army of shrimp must be slain to
> provide a most tasty sushi-meal for a single prole.  Furthermore, the bull
> is a farm animal one would suppose, but most shrimp are taken from the
> wild.  So this isn’t a moral argument exactly, although I may redouble my
> efforts to give up shrimp and cut down even further on beef.
>

Spike, You know that I don't usually give the environmentalist/
anti-capitalists/ OWS crowd an inch... but I do make a personal exception
with shrimp. Most of the shrimp in the United States is harvested from the
Gulf of Mexico and other continental shelves via a method known as bottom
trawling. The bycatch of this method is atrocious. Bycatch are the fish and
other animals that are caught, but not kept.. just thrown back into the
ocean. In addition, since the trawling is done on the bottom with weighted
nets, it destroys the bottom of the ocean floor, so plants, sea anemone,
coral and other such bottom dwellers are killed in addition to the animals
co-habitating with the shrimp. A video is worth a thousand words on this
one. It's even more striking when you know what the bottom of these areas
is supposed to look like... see the related video from the Arctic area for
a comparison...

If you have a strong stomach for over the top environmentalist bilge, here
is a Greenpeace produced piece that does give you the idea...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcD_jTgVA&feature=related

And now for something perhaps a bit more factual...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trawling

Alverson, et all suggest that shrimp fishing has the highest rate of
bycatch of any fishery, according to Wikipedia (cited in above article).
Alverson D L, Freeberg M K, Murawski S A and Pope J G. (1994) A global
assessment of fisheries bycatch and discards. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper
No 339 Rome, FAO 1994.

And finally, a humorous approach to bycatch
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oVzM6LR-A
Where they claim that there are 5 pounds of bycatch for every pound of
shrimp. I've heard worse numbers than that before...

It may be worse for the larger shrimp too, though I can't find a reference
on that right now.

I was unable to find the National Geographic video of shrimp trawling and
bycatch in the Gulf that initially turned me off to shrimp. I still love
it, but I find my conscience pricked every time I indulge in the tasty
buggers, which isn't all that often any more.

I'm not an environmentalist in the anti-capitalist way, but I do love the
earth and will do things to protect it. Passing on shrimp is one of the
easiest things I can do that has a pretty big impact. I look forward to the
day when we can grow shrimp in the lab... in Kansas... :-)

I still love a good steak... even though a cow will put out more greenhouse
gas than an SUV... go Bessie go!!! Turn up the heat!!! I'm investing in
land in Canada... LOL!

-Kelly
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