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Shrimp: The Endless Quest for Pink Gold
The story of shrimp is as delicious as the creatures themselves. Renowned nature writers Jack and Anne Rudloe tell that story with passion, revealing a hidden history that has spanned millennia. You'll discover the human stories and heritage behind centuries of shrimping, around the world; meet the most remarkable of the world's 4,000 species of shrimp; come aboard ragged old shrimp boats, and spy on high-tech shrimp tanks; discover why shrimp may be a restaurant's best friend, and a land speculator's worst nightmare. You'll meet people who love to eat shrimp, the fishermen who roam the seas catching them, and the aquaculturists who raise them in ponds, selling them more cheaply than fishermen ever could. You'll gain powerful new insights into a conflict that's as old as humanity itself: the conflict between hunter-gatherers and farmers. You'll discover the vastness and diversity of both nature and humanity, as you travel from abandoned Mayan tombs to the California Gold Rush; from the heart of Cajun country to the English Channel. You will learn things you never imagined about microbiology and real estate, about economics and ecosystems. And, as you meet the people around the world who've caught, sold, cooked, and loved shrimp, you might just meet your own ancestors. Read this book, and you'll never feel the same way about shrimp again: "you'll love it even more."
251 pages, Paperback
First published December 11, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
August 28, 2019
Another chapter in the death of the commons?
In this eminently readable and very attractive book, Jack and Anne Rudloe chronicle the struggle between recreational fishermen and others who harvest the sea for sport and professional shrimpers; between environmentalists and shrimp farmers; between shrimp exporters the world over and domestic interests.
The battle is fought in diplomatic circles, in legislative bodies and courts of law as well as on the ocean. They also report on the increasing involvement of science and technology that is turning shrimp farming into a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry. No longer do Gulf Coast wives look out over the ocean and sing "Shrimp boats are a-coming/Their sails are in sight./Shrimp boats are a-coming/There's dancing tonight." Instead men and women in white coats solemnly check the salinity, temperature and bacterial content of the water in giant shrimp farms while assembly line machines turn shrimp into a prepared, prepackaged, uniform product for mass market consumption.
In short this book chronicles the dying of an industry and a way of life and the birth of something different, something a bit alien to the old ways. The Rudloes simultaneously make the reader feel for the shrimpers whose livelihood is being taken away from them and for the environmentalists who want to protect the oceans, the mangroves, the turtles and myriad creatures that form the ecology on the ocean floor.
Jack Rudloe is a hands-on kind of guy who has gone out with shrimpers and worked as a deck hand, a man who has spent a lifetime collecting marine specimens for a variety of aquariums, museums, and biological labs as well as for the Rudloe's own Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory. Together they have been aboard a Coast Guard vessel as it stops a shrimper suspected of being in violation of the shrimping laws. They have also attended meetings at which such laws have been fiercely debated. Additionally they are experts in marine biology and in the technology of shrimping. Anne holds a PhD and teaches marine biology at Florida State University. They bring the kind of expertise to the subject at hand that few others could.
Not only that but they also write very well and work hard to be objective. You can smell the foamy brine and the roll of the waves; you can taste the succulent white meat of Litopenaeus (=Penaeus) vannamei (now the most common species farmed) as it comes hot off the grill. And you can sense the pollution from the industrial waste pouring into the seas from plants upriver as well as see the stolid force of condominiums built on land that once was part of an estuary.
This story could play out (and has) using cod fish, tuna or sardines or a number of other sea animals in a hundred different places around the world. Here the story is about a resource of the seas that initially seemed inexhaustible, but like the mackerel crowded seas of the poet soon proved extremely vulnerable to the rapacious appetite of humans.
This book is about shrimp of course but there is a larger question being explored: what is the fate of the oceans and the creatures that live in the oceans? We are living in perilous times for the natural ecology of our seas, and only time will tell us which creatures will survive and which will not.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
In this eminently readable and very attractive book, Jack and Anne Rudloe chronicle the struggle between recreational fishermen and others who harvest the sea for sport and professional shrimpers; between environmentalists and shrimp farmers; between shrimp exporters the world over and domestic interests.
The battle is fought in diplomatic circles, in legislative bodies and courts of law as well as on the ocean. They also report on the increasing involvement of science and technology that is turning shrimp farming into a worldwide multi-billion dollar industry. No longer do Gulf Coast wives look out over the ocean and sing "Shrimp boats are a-coming/Their sails are in sight./Shrimp boats are a-coming/There's dancing tonight." Instead men and women in white coats solemnly check the salinity, temperature and bacterial content of the water in giant shrimp farms while assembly line machines turn shrimp into a prepared, prepackaged, uniform product for mass market consumption.
In short this book chronicles the dying of an industry and a way of life and the birth of something different, something a bit alien to the old ways. The Rudloes simultaneously make the reader feel for the shrimpers whose livelihood is being taken away from them and for the environmentalists who want to protect the oceans, the mangroves, the turtles and myriad creatures that form the ecology on the ocean floor.
Jack Rudloe is a hands-on kind of guy who has gone out with shrimpers and worked as a deck hand, a man who has spent a lifetime collecting marine specimens for a variety of aquariums, museums, and biological labs as well as for the Rudloe's own Gulf Specimen Marine Laboratory. Together they have been aboard a Coast Guard vessel as it stops a shrimper suspected of being in violation of the shrimping laws. They have also attended meetings at which such laws have been fiercely debated. Additionally they are experts in marine biology and in the technology of shrimping. Anne holds a PhD and teaches marine biology at Florida State University. They bring the kind of expertise to the subject at hand that few others could.
Not only that but they also write very well and work hard to be objective. You can smell the foamy brine and the roll of the waves; you can taste the succulent white meat of Litopenaeus (=Penaeus) vannamei (now the most common species farmed) as it comes hot off the grill. And you can sense the pollution from the industrial waste pouring into the seas from plants upriver as well as see the stolid force of condominiums built on land that once was part of an estuary.
This story could play out (and has) using cod fish, tuna or sardines or a number of other sea animals in a hundred different places around the world. Here the story is about a resource of the seas that initially seemed inexhaustible, but like the mackerel crowded seas of the poet soon proved extremely vulnerable to the rapacious appetite of humans.
This book is about shrimp of course but there is a larger question being explored: what is the fate of the oceans and the creatures that live in the oceans? We are living in perilous times for the natural ecology of our seas, and only time will tell us which creatures will survive and which will not.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
October 8, 2010
Jack and Anne Rudloe take the reader on a very readable description about everything related to shrimp. Threaded through their own adventures they educate us on the kinds of shrimp, the history of shrimping, the problems with nets destroying the bottom and catching turtles, the loss of wetlands, the rise of the farm shrimping industry and its devastating effect on US shrimpers and much more. Well written and very enlightening. I needed the background for a fiction story I'm doing with a shrimp boat captain as one of the characters.
May 21, 2012
Shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad...like its myriad uses, the story of America's #1 seafood is nearly bottomless. I read this book for work-related research purposes, but it's actually a great foray into the world of shrimping and fishing for a living. The book focuses mostly on American shrimpers, particularly in the Gulf, and their struggle to make ends meet while stocks dwindle and fertilizer run-off pollutes the oceans. Unfortunately, this is but a small slice of the big picture because 80% of the shrimp we eat is now farmed and imported.
November 19, 2010
Engaging, easy to read narrative that takes the reader from the microscopic (anatomy, different kinds of shrimps) to the large-scale (ecosystem, species conservation, land development, tug-of-war between different but equally important objects). I started with the expectation of learning lots about the little critters, but I ended up with more than that - how the pieces (economic, ecological, biological, political, international) fit together.
May 30, 2011
Shrimp!
The biology of shrimp, the commerce of shrimp, the ecology of shrimp, the taste of shrimp...
Shrimp!
It's rather a quiltwork of information, and you had better be interested in shrimp starting out, but the information is quite readably presented. I was hoping for a stronger ethical stance, one way or another, but this book is more about educating than lecturing or emotion-wrenching, which I also appreciate.
The biology of shrimp, the commerce of shrimp, the ecology of shrimp, the taste of shrimp...
Shrimp!
It's rather a quiltwork of information, and you had better be interested in shrimp starting out, but the information is quite readably presented. I was hoping for a stronger ethical stance, one way or another, but this book is more about educating than lecturing or emotion-wrenching, which I also appreciate.
August 16, 2011
A detailed first-person account on the adventures, lifestyle, and industry of shrimpers. It is the experience of hearing a widely traveled elder tell you about his life and learned lessons. By the later portion of the book, it broadens into a light exposition on the dynamics and environmental consequences of an international sea farming industry of which shrimping is but one portion. It was refreshing and insightful of a lesser known niche in the world.
December 14, 2010
Interesting read. Chapters range from somewhat technical discussions of shrimp biology to tales of the shrimping industry to the history of shrimping. Sounds kinda boring described like that, but it's more engaging than you'd think. The book is paced nicely and you skip entire chapters if you're not interested in a particular topic.
March 15, 2011
This book was more interesting than I thought it would be, but I guess I am a bit of a nerd. It was writting in an engaging style and looked at all aspects of shrimping, from social and economic factors to biology and the environment. It's also made me a bit hungry.
Read
May 13, 2011I like a nice micro-history. I would prefer one on botany, but this might satisfy my interests in agricultural industry and maybe a little Louisiana history. However, I hope it doesn't reveal any yucky secrets because I would hate to stop eating shrimps.
September 29, 2016
Not as compelling as I hoped. Given how shrimpers in the U.S. are struggling so hard I would have thought more of that would come out in this book. A good history, though. The style of two personal narrations was, to me, awkward.
January 1, 2010
An interesting look at shrimp -- their biology, what it takes to catch them, shrimp farming, and ecological/political issues surrounding them. About the only thing missing is the buffet!
April 21, 2011
This book answers many questions for the shrimp-curious, from shrimp history to shrimp sustainability.
June 18, 2011
Informative, especially if you don't know about the Shrimp industry in the US. Also, appreciate the sustainability focus.
November 17, 2012
Short read for anyone interested in the shrimp fishery in the Gulf of Mexico.
July 22, 2013
While this was interesting, about half way through I thought TMI and gave it up. Sure made me want to cook some, tho!
March 10, 2011
My review is here: http://www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blo...
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews