Shrimp! Sustainable?

OK, my obsession of the day is how to eat sustainable shrimp. It all started with the advent of BBQ season here in Seattle. This gets a mixed reception from us vegetarians. Bottom line is: bring your own. I went to Safeway to pick up some shrimp for kabobs and the bag of frozen shrimp they had said the shrimp was from Thailand. I consulted my fish list that I keep in my wallet and it was on the AVOID list (imported farmed or wild shrimp is out). Well, I blamed Safeway for having limited choices and bought the bag. I later looked at the bag in my freezer from Trader Joe's, which lists the shrimp coming from Balgladesh. Oops. Upon further research via google, I learned a lot about how farmed shrimp is wreaking environmental havock on mangrove regions, and trawling in open water produces a 2:1 ratio of dead bycatch (fish, jellyfish, etc) to shrimp. Although the trawling nets have reportedly come a long way, and allow for turtles and other fish to escape (they used Turtle Escape Devices [TED's] and bycatch reduction devices [BRD's] to help) 2:1 doesn't seem like a great ratio. The best solution right now seems to be Oregon shrimp, which is the first of its kind to be certified sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). Oregon shrimp is probably easier to find on the West Coast, but can be found at Wegman's on the East Coast.

One last thing, here's a petition going out to grocery stores to urge them not to sell shrimp that is not sustainable. I signed it and specified that for Trader Joe's and Safeway, I expected more!

I feel so educated now, and I'm going to stop buying shrimp so haphazardly!