Word: shrimps
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Farming of crayfish in China--the largest supplier to the U.S.--is a relatively low-maintenance, drug-free business carried out in rice paddies. Next come the vegetarian freshwater species that do not need large quantities of fish meal--carp, catfish and tilapia. At the bottom are salmon and shrimp, onetime luxury foods that, thanks to aquaculture, can be purchased around the world in any season at supermarket prices. Both species eat several pounds of fish meal to gain a pound of weight. And both create lots of waste...
Some of the antibiotics that fish farmers give their stock to minimize disease pass easily into the surrounding environment, and some are highly toxic. Last year traces of the banned drug nitrofuran, which is dangerous to humans, were found by European Union inspectors in shrimp from Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. According to Wang Sihe, an expert with the Jiangsu Seawater Fisheries Research Institute, Chinese shrimp farms have mixed fish food with antibiotics and dumped it into fish ponds. Chloramphenicol, an antibiotic that can cause fatal anemia in humans, has also been used...
...fetid water that runs off shrimp farms is particularly damaging to the environment. Thailand, with 25,000 coastal shrimp farms, is the world's largest exporter of shrimp--$3 billion worth in 2001 alone. Through last June, Thailand accounted for 28% of the shrimp imported into the U.S. But this commerce is costly. Long strips of coastline south of Bangkok now look like powdery gray moonscapes. Shrimp farms can raise the salinity of the surrounding soil and water, poisoning the land for agriculture. Some flush their effluent into the sea, killing mangrove trees. Shrimp farming is also practiced in Brazil...
Boatmen who catch wild fish and shellfish are often more strictly regulated than seafood farmers, whose wholesome image has helped them resist government oversight. But after eight years of discussion, shrimp farmers around the world are considering adoption of a universal certification process that would require them to comply with standards on the siting of ponds, effluent treatment, the reduction of chemicals and disease management. In exchange, their products would be labeled eco-friendly. By 2004, labels indicating whether seafood is farmed or wild will become mandatory in the U.S. (though they won't be required on restaurant menus). Jason...
...techniques like those used at Venture Point are widely adopted, fish farming could become sustainable while remaining profitable. If methods don't change, either voluntarily or by government regulation, we may get plenty of fish and shrimp to eat--at least for a while--but lose the wild stocks they came from and the clear blue waters in which they once swam...