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| photo; Clive
Shirley |
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| Shrimp
Farms are destroying coastal environments |
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Warmwater
shrimp farming represents 25 % of world shrimp
production.(1)(2)
It is practiced in over a dozen countries
throughout the world. Shrimp ponds are dug
in mangroves and wetlands using heavy machinery.
Mangroves are being lost at an alarming rate
around the world, and it is estimated that
shrimp farming has been responsible for 38
% of this loss.(3)
As an example, the mangrove forests of the
Gulf of Thailand have been reduced from 940,000
acres to 40,000 acres (a 96 % loss).(4)
Mangroves are important reproduction sites
and act as nurseries for a vast number of
animals. They are a key ecosystem for biodiversity.
They also buffer the effects of cyclones and
tsunamis. Without this natural protection,
hundreds of thousands of people are exposed
to natural catastrophes. |
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Shrimp farming
requires large quantities of industrial products
to succeed. Farmed shrimp swim in a soup of
chemical products, pesticides, antibiotics
and decomposing organic waste. Also, the waste
from these ponds is poured directly into the
rivers and oceans in the form of toxic sludge.
Already suffering from the disappearance of
mangroves, corals, fish and other animals
are smothered by this filth. Subsistence fishermen
can no longer catch enough to sustain themselves
and feed their families. |
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Intensive
shrimp farming is subject to disease, which
can also wipe out wild shrimp populations
in the affected region. As an example, wild
shrimp disappeared from the Gulf of California
from 1987 to 1994, following an epidemic in
Mexican shrimp farms.(5) |
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Shrimp farms
must be seeded with young shrimp larvae, some
of which are produced commercially. However,
most farms still rely on wild-caught larvae.
In the latter case, the bycatch rate is reported
to surpass 100 to 1; for each shrimp larva,
over 100 other small organisms (fish fry,
mollusk larvae, etc.) are captured and destroyed.(6)
In Vietnam, less than half of the shrimp
larvae are produced commercially.(7) |
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| Shrimp
Farms and Social Injustice |
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Motivated
by the lure of money, many Asian farmers have
converted their rice paddies and fields to
shrimp farming. True, many of them make more
money than they used to, but for the majority,
who had to borrow thousands of dollars to
start their business, they remain deeply in
debt. Furthermore, shrimp ponds are so polluted
that they cease to be productive after 5 to
10 years. It is then impossible to convert
the pond back to its original use because
they are too polluted and salty.(8)
This spells catastrophe and bankruptcy for
the farmers. Intensive shrimp farming is the
opposite of sustainable development. |
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Several
cases of illegal land grabs have been
documented in Asia, Central and South
America, where unscrupulous financiers
have bribed politicians to obtain property
rights in costal areas, robbing villages
of their ancestral fishing and farming
rights. These villages are then pushed
to ruin and famine. Conflicts are ongoing
to this day, where farmers and protesters
are intimidated, beaten and killed by
security people working for theses illegal
shrimp farms. |
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