(Toxic) Shrimp Cocktail

Ask any Marylander – when you’re born and raised there, the Chesapeake Bay is a big deal. It’s a part of who you are. And I am no exception.

As a kid at my grandparents’ house on Irish Creek – a little inlet of the Bay – I would spend hours “chicken-necking” for Maryland blue crabs – an appropriately named process, as it involves dangling chicken necks into the water from a piece of twine and waiting for crabs to pinch at the bait so you can swoop them up with a net. At nine years old, I remember the pride on my dad’s face when I single-handedly caught three and a half dozen crabs in one day (a meal that could now run you upwards of $150 in a restaurant).

When I was 15, I stopped eating meat – yes, including crabs. But after a few years the Maryland girl in me started caving – and crabs became the one exception to my animal-free diet. Over the years, I’ve slowly incorporated other shellfish – mussels, oysters, lobster.

Most recently, I added shrimp to my list. This was particularly pivotal because it brought sushi to another level for me. I traded cucumber and avocado rolls for spicy shrimp, shrimp & mango, and shrimp tempura. But just before lunchtime yesterday – as I was day dreaming about the sushi special around the corner ($8.50 for any two rolls and a salad!) – our sustainable seafood expert sent me a few links about (sigh) shrimp.

You can imagine my disappointment upon reading that most of the shrimp we find on menus and in markets is either harvested from industrial ponds in tropical foreign countries where they’re exposed to untreated sewage, pesticides and antibiotics – or is caught by U.S. fisherman through bottom trawling, which clear-cuts our ocean floor and traps unwanted other sea life like sea turtles (called by-catch) along the way.

I got gazpacho.

The good news is, to be environmentally responsible and avoid eating a meal that’s been festering in a stew of bacteria and chemicals – I don’t have to cross shrimp off my list all together. The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified the first-ever sustainable shrimp fishery – Oregon Pink Shrimp – last winter. I’m not yet sure where to find this on the East Coast – but after yesterday, I’m on the lookout. Let’s hope some more shrimp fisheries follow their lead.

P.S. Check all of your seafood purchases for blue MSC certification stickers to help make better choices for the ocean. 

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