Category

Shrimp

Brown, white and pink shrimp are popular with cooks and diners, but very complicated and controversial in the conservation world, due to viruses from aquaculture, bycatch harm to endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, pollution from oil and gas production, and tensions over poaching and black market purchases.

Interviews

Narrator: Tony AmosTitle: TEDs, Turtles and TrustDuration: 00:02:08Date: March 2, 1997Tony Amos, a long-time researcher at the Marine Science Institute in Port Aransas, ran the Animal Rehabilitation Keep, a wildlife rehabilitation center where he saw a number of injured sea turtles and other creatures damaged by shrimp trawls. Here he explains struggles with Turtle Excluder Devices (TEDs), and laments the economic pressures on shrimpers and the lost trust between them and environmentalists.Narrator: Deyaun BoudreauxTitle: Turtle Excluder DevicesDuration: 00:02:08Date: February 24, 2000Deyaun Boudreaux, environmental director for the Texas Shrimp Association, describes shrimpers' costly efforts to use Turtle Excluder Devices while trawling, and notes the rebound in sea turtle numbers seen in the Gulf of Mexico in recent years. Narrator: Andy SansomTitle: BulldozerDuration: 00:01:32Date: July 31, 2023Andy Sansom served as executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife from 1990 through 2001. During his tenure, one of the biggest concerns in the coastal fishery program was the risk posed by the shrimp aquaculture industry, and the chance that it might introduce non-native shrimp or exotic disease into the Texas bay system. Here, Dr. Sansom recalls one close call.Narrator: Andy SansomTitle: Cap and TradeDuration: 00:01:42Date: July 31, 2023Andy Sansom served as executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife at a time when the agency embarked on an effort to reduce the pressure of shrimp trawling along the Texas coast. One of the tools the department used was to cap the number of trawlers allowed to operate, and, in so doing, create a cap-and-trade market to efficiently allocate the remaining shrimping licenses among the fishery. Here, he tells that story, and shares lessons he took from it in how other natural resources might be fairly managed.Narrator: Diane WilsonTitle: Shrimp FarmsDuration: 00:05:42Date: October 23, 2003Diane Wilson is a fourth-generation shrimper from Seadrift, Texas who has been involved in protecting the fishery and water quality along the Central Texas coast, guarding the bays and near-shore areas from industrial pollution as well as discharges from shrimp farms.