What to Do About Shrimp
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Most wild shrimp are caught by a process called trawling. In this method large nets are cast and towed through the ocean. However, these nets capture everything in their paths. When fishermen pull up these nets they keep the fish, but often discard the others which makes for unnecessary pain. In my opinion shrimpers should find a better way to catch their bounty. Shrimp trawlers only contribute to only two percent of the shrimp consumption. Yet, they create over a third of the wasted sea life.
Another hurtful process is the making of shrimp farms. Most of the worlds shrimp are found in Southeast Asia, and this is because these countries build farms to raise shrimp. However, this makes many valuable coastlines become inhabitable for other species. For example many types of fish are unable to thrive here, so this means the locals are not able to catch their food, and obtain their necessary protein. Many important plants have been destroyed, and this will actually hurt the shrimp future very soon.
Fishermen have begun to protest the aquaculture, shrimp farms. It has been slow, but they have started to gain momentum. These boycotts are supposed to stop many factors such as over farming, pollution, and save endangered species. Many groups have started to raise awareness and asked the public to protest seafood from certain labels.
Instead of using nets or create farms fishermen could use traps because these have been shown to help keep out any unwanted animals. If a fisherman uses a trap many endangered animals could be saved. Sea turtles are usually captured in the nets, and their numbers have begun to dwindle. The traps can be made so that the turtles could be kept out, and thus their population could rise.
After reviewing these websites traps seem to be the only positive choice. Traps are able to keep other species out, do not pollute, and do not harm the local peoples food source. Truly in my opinion the very best way to this problem would be to not catch shrimp at all and become a vegetarian. Nonetheless is someone must catch shrimp traps seem to be the best choice by far.