Invasive Black Tiger Shrimp On the Rise in the Gulf of Mexico
Black tiger shrimp are monsters, the kind of creatures that make you think that maybe "jumbo shrimp" isn't such an oxymoron after all. The distinctive black-and-orange-striped shrimp can grow to more than a foot in length and over a pound in weight. And according to the Galveston Daily News, they're invading the Gulf of Mexico.![]()
Photo by Clay Irving Black tiger shrimp for sale in Thailand.
This doesn't sound like such a bad thing on the surface. After all, Black tiger shrimp are delicious. The Penaeus monodon is widely raised for food throughout Asia, to the extent that the giant shrimp has been placed on Greenpeace's infamous "red list" of species that are sourced from unsustainable fisheries.
While the Black tiger shrimp is hearty and fast-growing -- farmers can raise up to 40 tons of shrimp per acre a year -- the farms that typically house them in places like Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh are terrible for the surrounding environment.
Black tiger shrimp showing up in the Gulf of Mexico must mean that our waters could be a sustainable, wild fishery for these brutes -- right? Wrong.
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