Okay, let’s talk shrimp … as in Gulf Shrimp, as in sweet little nuggets of yummy.
The problem is where to begin that discussion given that the entire Gulf of Mexico ecosystem is drowning in crude oil. In fact, since we still don’t really know how many gatrillion barrels of oil are gushing forth each day, it’s arguable that the area took a fatal blow to the gut weeks ago. Yes, the ocean is a big place, but the Gulf isn’t, and it’s springtime spawning/nesting season, and oil spill cleanup technology hasn’t advanced a whit since the 1970s, and why on earth do people keep saying “if” a hurricane hits. People – there is no “if” in “hurricane season.”
We keep seeing images of the big, sexy animals in their abject oily misery and even as corpses – brown pelicans, dolphins, sea turtles, etc. What’s going to really destroy the Gulf is the death of species such as shrimp, such as all those littler things towards the bottom of the food chain that support those creatures above them in the web of life. All those littler things that can’t swim away, fly away, or get washed off by clean up workers.
In their infancy, shrimp eggs are categorized as phytoplankton. In their adult stages, shrimp are categorized as zooplankton. With that in mind, have a look at the graph below from OceanWorld and see how everything connects to those two niches in the food chain. Remove them (aka "kill them with crude oil") and the system collapses.
Now have another look at that graph. See the boat in the upper left hand corner? That represents not just an industry, but an entire way of life in the Gulf region. (Ironically, the oil industry does too … talk amongst yourselves about this, especially the upcoming Shrimp & Petroleum Festival. ) Even if we’re just talking about shrimping, we’re talking about something akin to breathing for many Gulf residents.
There isn’t a lot of money to be made in shrimping. Like most jobs involving fish and boats, it’s hard, hard, hard work, but it’s part of the fabric that ties together generations. That fabric has been rent asunder by the current situation, which might be the region's third strike.
Shrimpers were able to move their boats out of the way of Katrina and Rita and reboot the industry after the processing facilities got back on track. However, they were then hurled for another loop by the thirst for cheap shrimp that sent consumer dollars fleeing to inferior, unsustainable, and unregulated imports.
As John Besh wrote in his beautiful and now increasingly poignant new book, My New Orleans: The Cookbook, "The irony is that the third- and fourth generation shrimping communities along our coastline managed to surivive Katrina and Rita only to be seriously endangered by the staggering quantities of cheap imports against which they cannot compete, given rising fuel costs. The number of Louisiana shrimpers has shrunk by half since 2000, so the Seafood Marketing Board is helping those remaining shrimpers fight back, teaching them how to direct-retail their catch and most important, to emphasize the superlative quality of these local, sustainably harvested Gulf shrimp. It's not just the critters we need to protect here but also the spirit of our shrimping community. So, always buy wild shrimp, preferably from Louisiana."
The bold emphasis is mine. As I said, his words become more poignant with each passing day. Even if the well gets capped this second, this is going to be a severly stressed system in the short term – and that's just from the crude oil; who knows what the chemical dispersants are doing -- the same dispersants that BP is supposedly banned from using in Britain because of their neurotoxicity, by the way.
There’s also professed hope that the relief wells will be able to stop the flow at some point in the coming weeks, but have you looked at the details of that operation? The new wells – and for some reason we’re blissfully assuming nothing’s going to go wrong with them – have to hit something the size of a dinner plate from hundreds of yards away under the sea floor ... right on target ... nothing but net. Forgive me if my optimism is flagging.
So anyway, back to shrimp, but again, what to say? As the oil plumes drift along in the Gulf like so many surreal death clouds, more and more fishing areas will be closed. Though safe Gulf shrimp are still available to us, it’s quite possible that the next generation will never know what a Gulf shrimp tasted like.
Besh’s book lists 25 entries for shrimp alone. I’m going to get me some Gulf shrimp and get cooking ... while I still can.
This just in however, as of June 24 ... maybe some news?
NOAA Opens More Than 8,000 Square Miles of Fishing Closed Area in Gulf of Mexico
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Ninety percent of the shrimp eaten in America is imported, mostly from shrimp farms in Thailand and other Asian countries, as well as some coastal Latin American countries. The foreign shrimp is much cheaper, even through it has been found to be contaminated with a powerful antibiotic, considered a human carcinogen.
Check out which shrimp fisheries are the most sustainable.
To be filed under “La la la la … I can’t hear you.”
A Gulf Full Of Oil Can't Beat A Tank Full Of Gas
"I hear this a lot. People are disgusted by the oil spill, but what really has them worried is the idea that gas prices will spike."
