The sucking sound that my sister makes when inhaling and salivating on cocktail shrimp gives me pause. Licking the cocktail sauce off of her fingers, she digs in for more. Sarah and my father take turns pulling shrimp from the black spherical plastic dish of displayed cocktail shrimp from Costco, purchased a few hours earlier. Sarah’s lip smacking irritates me more than usual today. She keeps digging.

            My mom calls into the dining room that she needs one of us to make the salad for dinner. Neither Sarah nor dad react, so I walk haughtily out of the room to lend a helping hand, thinking about the mangrove deforestation they are causing with their uncouth lip smacking. “It’s not worth bickering over pushed buttons and lazy attitudes,” I tell myself. I want to focus on quality time with mom and dad before Sarah and I have to travel home to our respective cities. Tomorrow is March 27, 2022.

            For background: Mangroves are sturdy tropical wetland trees that live in saltwater. Their forests fortify coastal shoreline, growing between where low and high tides touch the sea.  Mangrove forest systems are some of the most biologically complex and productive ecosystems in the world, enhancing fisheries and storing atmospheric carbon that would otherwise contribute to global warming. The elaborate root structures that support these mangrove trees are home to young marine creatures like fiddler crabs, pistol prawns, and innumerable species of tropical fish that use mangrove roots as shelter from open water predators. Mangrove forests provide necessary nursing habitat for these creatures to mature safely until they are ready to move and live in more dangerous, open waters.

            Next you may ask, “Why is Sarah’s shrimp gobbling, lip smacking, burp barking behavior related to mangrove deforestation?”

            Shrimp farming is the largest threat to mangrove ecosystems, causing at least thirty five percent of overall mangrove forest loss. This deforestation is unfortunately driven by trending American, European, Chinese, and Japanese obsession with eating shrimp. Whenever my parents order shrimp cocktail, shrimp scampi, or shrimp hibachi at dinner, I can’t stop my brain from whirling into a fit and I begin to obsess over the repercussions of my family’s eating habits. Their shrimp consumption actively wages war on the one marine conservation cause that I care most about: mangrove deforestation.

            Americans consume an estimated four pounds of shrimp per person annually. Coastal forests around the world, especially in Southeast Asian regions such as Indonesia, are suffering from this trend, where “worthless” mangrove forests are cleared to make space for shrimp pools. Regardless of recent attempts to transform shrimp farming into a sustainable enterprise, its practice still devastates mangrove forest cover and threatens mangrove existence worldwide.

            There are ways that we, as readers and citizens, can get involved. Several inspiring organizations are doing vital work to conserve and restore mangrove forests worldwide. These organizations include Mangrove Action Project, the Global Mangrove Alliance, the World Wildlife Fund, the International Union for the Observation of Nature, Mangroves for the Future, and the Bonn Challenge. These organizations cannot fight this fight alone. They need funding, which is where we come in!

            If you’re not financially capable of supporting these organizations, please consider becoming a member by signing up for newsletters and keeping tabs on memorable projects within the organizations that you’d like to get involved with.  Although there are not many current mangrove protection petitions circulating the web, consider starting your own. Start the conversation. Tell your friends what you’ve learned. Get the conversation ball rolling!

            When my sister’s lip smacking dies down and the shrimp cocktail is gone, I will need to find my own way of revisiting the shrimp conversation with my family.

        We all must take a part in the solution. But please, if there’s anything that you take away from this…

        For the love of Pete, stop eating shrimp!!

Where to get involved / donate:

Mangrove Action Project – Donate

Global Mangrove Alliance – Become a Member

World Wildlife Fund – Donate Monthly, Donate Once, More Ways To Give

International Union for the Observation of Nature – Donate

Mangroves for the Future – Get Involved

Bonn Challenge – Make A Pledge