August 11, 2014 — On a recent weeklong cruise along the shores of southeast Alaska, the dining room menu included wild salmon, Dungeness crab and sablefish. Many of my fellow 63 passengers had neither heard of nor tasted sable.
No wonder: Almost all of this delectable, nutritious fish caught by Americans is exported, along with about one-third of all our wild catch. Instead, we dine on farmed seafood imported from countries like China, Thailand and Chile; 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of shrimp among Americans, none was served on the trip. A naturalist who lectured on board cautioned that almost all the shrimp reaching American tables is imported, half of it farmed in Asia — mostly under conditions that would ruin even the most voracious appetite.
Shrimp farms in Asia have been swept by bacterial and viral infections. When a site becomes unusable, shrimp farmers simply move on, destroying more miles of mangrove along the shore and wrecking habitats for all manner of wildlife, including spawning fish.
There is nothing inherently wrong with farmed seafood, says Paul Greenberg, the author of two excellent books on seafood, “Four Fish:, The Future of the Last Wild Food” and, just published, “American Catch: The Fight for Our Local Seafood.” Mr. Greenberg describes several efforts to produce and market farmed seafood in an environmentally sound manner.
Read the full story from The New York Times