Seafood: Environmental Impacts
Shrimp Farms
Equitorial shrimp farms are notorious for polluting coastal waterways with antibiotics and other contaminants, while tearing out mangrove forests that anchor coastal lands and filter pollution. Shrimp farms also displace local subsistence fishers.
Unfortunately, shrimp trawling fares no better in terms of environmental impact. One of the most serious issues with shrimp trawling involves bycatch. Estimates place the ratio of shrimp bycatch at 3.5:1, over ten times higher than the average fishing industry ratio of 1:3. This means that for every one pound of shrimp hauled up, three and a half pounds of unwanted marine life is hauled up with it, most of which is killed and tossed aside.
Learn more about fish farming.