Sea otters make the Right Bite
Shedd’s hungry sea otters chomp down 7,000 pounds of shrimp a year. The problem is, serious environmental issues such as habitat destruction and bycatch are associated with shrimp trawling and aquaculture. Bycatch, or unintentional catch, occurs when animals such as sea turtles, large fishes and seabirds become entangled in fishing gear. For every pound of shrimp netted in the wild, up to 10 pounds of unwanted marine life is also caught – and usually drowned or fatally injured.
Shedd’s Right Bite program is all about choosing sustainable seafood – caught or raised using environmentally friendly methods – including what we serve to our guests and to the animals in our care. Because of supply limitations, however, shrimp for the otters remained a distasteful exception. But the Marine Mammals and Sustainable Practices Departments doggedly pursued a sustainable, restaurant-grade source for shrimp.
In 2006 they found it – in the deserts of Arizona.
Desert Sweet Shrimp, a small farm in Gila, was certainly surprised to receive a phone call from an aquarium in Chicago looking for “about 7,000 pounds of shrimp for our sea otters.” Shedd discovered Desert Sweet through research, word of mouth and a hearty recommendation from Seafood Choices Alliance, a global trade organization for the issue of ocean-friendly seafood.
The company’s secret to sustainability is their source of water for the shrimp ponds. Desert Sweet pulls water from an ancient seabed below the Arizona water table to fill its quarantine raceways and growing ponds. When the shrimp are harvested, this water is drained and used to irrigate salt-tolerant durham wheat fields and an olive tree grove. The water then percolates back into the groundwater. Desert Sweet does not add pesticides, antibiotics, or herbicides to the water, preventing pollution and contamination to the surrounding land and water resources.
While we had located a sustainable source, an even larger challenge loomed: Would the sea otters like the new shrimp? Their sensitive palates can discern between different sources of the same food, and they are known for their dramatic displays of distaste when given food they don’t like. Staffers held their breath as they offered the first sample of Desert Sweet shrimp to the otters. Much to everyone’s delight, the otters gobbled it down. With the otters’ approval and successful sampling with the other animals, Shedd has ordered all shrimp for its animal collection from Desert Sweet since 2006.
Desert Sweet has set aside two of its ponds exclusively for Shedd’s order. By supporting a sustainable source rather than buying shrimp caught from the wild, so far Shedd has prevented more than 300,000 pounds of marine wildlife from drowning in shrimp nets.
You can enjoy Desert Sweet shrimp, too. Check out pictures of the farm and order online.
Posted by Michelle Jost, sustainable practices
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