<div class="gmail_quote">2011/10/10 spike <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:spike66@att.net">spike66@att.net</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d"><br></span></p><span style="color:#1f497d"></span><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">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.</span></p>
</div></div></blockquote><div><br>And if anyone wants to rant at me for answering old threads.. feel free! I am deserving. Am trying to catch up...<br> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
<div link="blue" vlink="purple" lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color: rgb(31, 73, 125);"><u></u><u></u></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1f497d">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. <br>
</span></p></div></div></blockquote><div><br>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...<br>
<br>If you have a strong stomach for over the top environmentalist bilge, here is a Greenpeace produced piece that does give you the idea...<br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcD_jTgVA&feature=related">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUHcD_jTgVA&feature=related</a><br>
<br>And now for something perhaps a bit more factual...<br><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trawling">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trawling</a><br><br>Alverson, et all suggest that shrimp fishing has the highest rate of bycatch of any fishery, according to Wikipedia (cited in above article).<br>
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.<br>
<br>
And finally, a humorous approach to bycatch<br><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oVzM6LR-A">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7oVzM6LR-A</a><br>Where they claim that there are 5 pounds of bycatch for every pound of shrimp. I've heard worse numbers than that before...<br>
<br>It may be worse for the larger shrimp too, though I can't find a reference on that right now.<br><br>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.<br>
<br>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... :-)<br>
<br>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!<br><br>-Kelly<br><br></div></div>