SHRIMPING INDUSTRY CONTRIBUTES HEAVILY TO 3 OUT OF 5 OF THE BIGGEST THREATS TO THE OCEAN.
OVERFISHING
Shrimp lives in the bottom of the sea. To catch them, wild catch fisheries need to use large nets that are dragged through the water to the surface, taking with them all the animals that are neighbors of the shrimp, such as turtles, eels and seahorses.
For every pound of shrimp, 6-9 pounds of other animals are killed.
HABITAT DESTRUCTION
Bycatch (non-targeted species caught in the nets) destroys 6 million km2 of seabed every year (⅔ the landmass of the US).
The shrimping industry is responsible for 40% of Mangrove forest loss worldwide (crucial for marine habitats and as oxygen production for humans). This forests sequester up to 4x more carbon than rainforests.
COASTAL POLLUTION
The shrimping industry and traditional shrimp farms, in particular, use huge amounts of water with chemicals and antibiotics that they discharge into the ocean contributing to the pollution and destruction of their surroundings.