Yuan Zhou
WRIT-1133
Dr. Eric Leake
May 9, 2012
An
Amazing Aquaculture Product
I was amazed at one extremely delicious seafood dish, Sauteed
Shrimp in Szechuan Style, last week in Star Kitchen. Sauteed Shrimp in Szechuan
Style is only made of shrimps and red peppers. Ingredients of this dish are so
simple that I cannot believe the facts, because the shrimps in that dish not
only are fresh and soft but also are peppery and biting. Because of the taste
of the shrimps, the dish is very delicious and becomes my favorite food.
Seafood Health Facts, a project funded by the United
States Department of Agriculture, said that “Shrimp is the most popular seafood eaten in the United
States. It represents over 25 percent of the nation’s annual per capita seafood
consumption. This calculation indicates that the average consumer eats 4 pounds
of shrimp per year.” We can see that shrimp is important to Americans. Shrimp
is a normal food in our daily life.
In
this paper, I am going to talk about the production of this amazing food. As we
all know, shrimp is an aquaculture product. There are so many kinds of shrimp
in the world. Like the classification of fish, the classification of shrimp can
be divided into two classes, freshwater shrimp and saltwater shrimp. According
to PlanetInverts, a non-profit website, there are more than 300 kinds of shrimp
in the world, which means shrimp is a huge class of living creature. Here are
some kinds of shrimp we used to eat.
In
Seafood Health Facts websites, I have learned that there are significant number species of shrimp but they can
be sold only in one word--- shrimp. Sometimes people sold shrimps and call them prawns, because in
certain international markets people are more likely call some types shrimp as
prawns. Moreover, in Spanish, people call shrimp or prawns as camarones.
Here is an interesting thing. In China, lobster and shrimp have the same
appellation, because Chinese call everything looks like shrimp as shrimp, for
the convenience.
However,
there are only five types of shrimp we usually eat. They are Cold water shrimp,
Warm water shrimp, Wild shrimp, Farmed shrimp and Imported shrimp. Farmed
shrimp is consists of cold water shrimp and warm water shrimp, which are both farmed
by people. According to Seafood Health Facts, “Over 90 percent of the shrimp eaten in the United States come
from farmed sources grown in other countries around the world”, which
means farmed shrimp is significant to the United States. Moreover, the imported shrimp refers to the
farmed shrimp imported from China, Thailand and many other Asian countries, and
the imported shrimp is a major component of American shrimp market.
Cold
water shrimp, known as Pandalid shrimp, are small varieties farmed and harvested
in ocean waters comparing to other sources of shrimp. We often remove the
shrimp shell and previously cook Coldwater shrimp, and commonly used them in
salads, soups, or chowders.
Warm
water shrimp are farmed in tropical area. Based on the color of the shell, we
can recognize the warm water shrimp (white, brown, and pink shrimp). Tiger,
banana and hopper shrimp are the species of shrimp. People buy the warm water
shrimp depending on the taste, texture, size and costs. Of course, different
species of shrimp have different prices.
Wild shrimp is either cold water or warm water species,
and people harvested them from the coastal ocean waters by using traditional
vessels. Because there is an annual production limits set by management
programs, wild shrimp consists less than 10 percent of the shrimp people
consume. Thus, the wild shrimp always used to make traditional flavors and
recipes, which are very delicious, because of the precious raw material--- wild
shrimp.
By looking up the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, I
found that the word shrimp originally comes from the Middle English shrimpe,
akin to the Middle Low German schrempen, which means “pygmy”, or to contract or
wrinkle. It is very interesting that the people in ancient time are likely
named things using their appearance. The book also mentioned that harvesting of
shrimp is starting at 17th century. People in where Louisiana bayou
used seines in circumference to catch shrimps. Moreover, people start to use
machine to harvest shrimps after 1917.
After the research on shrimp, I have found that the
shrimps are more complicated than I was thought, because before my research, I
did not know there were so many kinds of shrimp. The most astonishing thing is
that most of shrimps we have eaten are farmed instead of the wild shrimps. Additionally,
before I do the research on shrimp, I am afraid to eat shrimp, because I think
the shrimp are wild and might become extinct. Therefore I am in a “to eat or
not to eat” dilemma, because shrimp is a kind of very delicious food. However,
after I knew most the shrimps are farmed by human beings, I am not afraid to
eat shrimp anymore.
Work
Cited
Seafood Health Facts.
“Shrimp Market”.
http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood_choices/shrimp.php. 2010.
http://seafoodhealthfacts.org/seafood_choices/shrimp.php. 2010.
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