I don't blame you, Jim. I only buy wild caught Atlantic shrimp when I know where the shrimp boats dock. Being in coastal FL has some advantages.

"Being in coastal FL has some advantages."

That certainly is one of them. Wild caught shrimp aren't readily available here, except during the short Maine shrimp season. And Maine shrimp are tiny, although good.

Jim

Thanks Jim. Over the past couple years I've cut WAY back on the amount of shrimp I cook due to all of these concerns. Unfortunately I've experienced really sketchy quality with the "USA wild caught" shrimp sold frozen at the likes of Wegmans and Whole Foods, so shrimp has become a "special" meal at my house, only served when I'm up for paying a premium for the stuff I half-way trust.

This is why I don't eat seafood. Other than Maine lobster, at a fisherman's co-op in Maine, I don't eat seafood any more - too toxic, too endangered and too expensive.

This is one of the main reasons I do not eat (or make for family and friends) ANYTHING from southeast Asia.

Alexa

the only fish I eat anymore is sardines and pickled herring--both small, low on the food chain, low in contaminants, and still good for you (the Omega 3s). Once in a while I buy canned wild caught salmon. Otherwise, no fish for me.

And I do dearly miss shrimp and scallops.

I only eat local prawns. Short season. Bought live off the prawn boat yesterday.

Alive and jumping.

I think forgoing all seafood, or even most seafood, is going a bit too far. There are only certain kinds I don't eat and for specific reasons. For example, I stay away from anything raised in warm, crowded ponds. Actually, I probably eat more seafood than all other kinds of meat because I like it and I can get plenty of good quality seafood locally.

Ann, those beautiful prawns are small (if I am judging the scale of the picture correctly) and pink, much like Maine shrimp. But the Maine shrimp I can get are not alive.

Jim

Does anyone know the status of Gulf Shrimp?

There was a shrimp festival in Galveston last year, in September, I think, and the shrimp there is doing fine, although I do not know about Louisiana and Mississippi. I look for shrimp from Mexico - the best I've had was when I was in Vera Cruz and could watch it being caught. The shrimp get very big there.

I was in a Chinese market last week-end and avoided all the shrimp they had. They also had some scary products from People's Republic of China with some rather severe warnings on them. I really need help shopping in the Chinese markets - they are very different from the Japanese markets that I go to, but also further away. I trust what I find at the Japanese markets, but the Chinese markets scare me. I'll try to post more on that later. I bought a few products that I really don't know what they are, and there were plenty more that looked interesting, but I had no idea what to do with them.

I very seldom eat swordfish any more, due to over fishing and contaminate levels, but I have not really cut back on tuna/sashimi or on salmon. I tend to buy Alaskan King Crab when I find it for a good price, but I'm very selective about buying shrimp.

Lars

First let me say, I've had hand exema and my hands are very sensative. I tried to serve King Crab, but after I heated them up and tried to break the joints, the insides of my hands turned bright pink. I don't know what chemicals were in the crab claws so I tossed them. An expensive lesson! Now I stick to FL seafood, except for salmon.

I had a bad reaction to farmed Thailand shrimp about 6 weeks ago. It seemed like an allergic reaction. I'm now being tested for possible allergy (the first, a blood test, happily came out negative) but I highly suspect it was the batch of shrimp itself. I will be much, much more cautious in what I buy in the future! Lesson learned the hard way.