After writing about two of the highest carbon foods, which are beef and lamb, it seems a mini-series is developing. The next high-carbon food, to make a trio, is farmed shrimp. Some of us may have had a kiddie shrimp cocktail or taken a family vacation to a southern state, say, Florida or Alabama, and had one or more family dinners which included shrimp. That shrimp may have been locally sourced and could have been wild. 

Farmed shrimp is not that. The words ‘shrimp farm’ might seem somewhat comical because farms generally don’t have anything with the odd little crustaceans. There’s a whole lot of shrimp grown on shrimp farms which are dedicated ponds, lakes, and tanks just for raising them. “Farmed shrimp accounts for 55% of the shrimp produced globally. Most shrimp aquaculture occurs in China, followed by Thailand, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, Brazil, Ecuador, and Bangladesh, and it has generated substantial income in these developing countries.”

You might not think much about farmed shrimp or know how many there are. The total number number is simply massive: “440 billion (90% subjective confidence interval [SCI]: 300 billion – 620 billion) farmed shrimp are killed per year.” Yes, it’s hundreds of billions every year.

To get right to the point as it relates to carbon, in certain coastal areas shrimp farms destroy mangrove forests. “Some forms of shrimp farming have had a devastating effect on mangroves around the world. These mangroves are vital for wildlife and coastal fisheries, and serve as buffers to the effects of storms. Their loss has destabilized entire coastal zones, with negative effects on coastal communities.”

Destroying mangrove forests releases a lot of carbon. Maintaining shrimp water quality in their tanks, ponds, and lakes requires energy which generates carbon. Growing food or capturing it to feed them also is energy intensive, resulting in carbon emissions.

You may have noticed a great amount of farmed shrimp is grown in Asian countries, meaning when it is market-ready it must be transported, which releases carbon emissions as well. In the US, about 90% of shrimp that is consumed is imported from foreign countries. That means a tremendous amount of farmed shrimp have to be transported by cargo ships across thousands of miles of ocean. Cargo ships generate huge amounts of toxic air pollution, including high carbon emissions.

Another source of carbon comes from a rather grisly fact — about 50% of farmed shrimp die while in captivity. They never make it to the point where they can be killed and eaten by people. “It is typical for ~50% of shrimp to die before reaching slaughter age. This equates to around 1.2 billion premature deaths a day on average.” Dead, decomposing shrimp in anerobic conditions, meaning oxygen-deprived, can release methane which is a potent greenhouse gas.

Mangrove forests are one of the best natural ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere. Climate change caused by us humans is real. So, damaging and destroying one of the best natural ways to remove carbon from the atmosphere is quite harmful. Mangrove forests also provide many other free benefits, but this article is mostly about farmed shrimp and climate change because farmed shrimp is high carbon.

So, it might appear that farmed shrimp are not that damaging for mangrove forests, right? Nope. Extensive mangrove destruction has occurred. “According to a United Nations report, between 1980 and 2012, a fifth of the world’s mangroves were cleared to make way for shrimp farms. In recent years, Bigelow said, some countries have made strides in replanting mangroves and passing laws that require farms to plant additional trees for every tree lost. But coastal shrimp ponds have other negative impacts.”

Farming hundreds of billions of shrimp every year generates too much carbon and it’s not necessary for human nutrition to eat farmed shrimp. Millions of people might like to eat them, but they are not essential for humans. There are plenty of other food sources that are not so high in carbon and don’t contribute to climate change as much.