FOUND: Never frozen Florida Shrimp

[eatravel]

The Beach Fish House, located at 1963 Queen E., receives a shipment of fresh Florida shrimp every Friday afternoon (approximately 15 per pound). I tried them this weekend, and it was my best Toronto shrimp experience ever!!! $19.99 per pound.

[duckdown]

I would love to find some live shrimp here in Mississauga/Brampton!

[Charles Yu]

Around June and November, when weather is more ideal for shipment and hence lower perishable rate, one would actually find ' live swimming Florida Shrimp' being sold in outfit like the small specialist fish monger ( Silver dragon? ) at Finch and Midland!! Usually cramped into two huge fish tanks! Price varies from $14.99 to $21.99 depend on season.

[JamieK]

I've purchased fresh Florida shrimp at Diana's Seafood but it's good to know about the Beach location.
http://www.dianasseafood.com/

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Diana's Seafood
2101 Lawrence Ave E, Toronto, ON M1R, CA

[missp58]

You can also get fresh florida shrimp at Mike's at the St Lawrence Market.

[foodyDudey]

And Bill's Lobster has something similar, they call them Gulf Shrimp. The price is usually $13.99/lb, and they are fresh, not frozen and defrosted.

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Bill's Lobster
599 Gerrard St E, Toronto, ON M4M, CA

[Flexitarian]

I usually buy my fresh wild, never frozen, Gulf shrimp at Bill's Llobster and they did tell me last time I was there that they were from the Gulf of Mexico. They always taste so good and I sure don't mind paying more for these vs the low cost shrimp from Asia (Thailand, Vietname, etc) that are grown inland in artificial ponds laden with chemicals, antibiotics and the like (apparently these ponds also undergo a chemical bath in between raising new crops of shrimp in order to clean out all the debris)..

But, I am wondering though, are these Florida shrimp farm-raised or wild?

[tbonetak]

From what I can tell from seachoice.org, they're most likely wild caught. Unfortunately, that still makes them rate at least "of concern", due to the rates of bycatch and impact on habitat from bottom trawling.

[Flexitarian]

Seachoice.org does not tell you whether the particular seafood you are buying is wild caught or not. The way you use that website and the wallet card or (free) iPhone app they provide is to identify what you are buying (ie wild caught/farmed, the species, method of harvesting, etc) and then check seachoice.org to see if it is the best choice, you should avoid it or there are concerns.

Maybe there is no farmed Florida shrimp so the only shrimp from Florida is wild but do we know this?

[tbonetak]

Hence the words "from what I can tell" and "most likely."

I wasn't for a moment suggesting that seachoice.org can tell you how or where the fish sitting in front of you was caught; I am aware of how the wallet card works, thanks.

But with a quick scan of the viability, variety and sources of the shrimp species listed on their site, it's evident (at least to me) that the odds are against them being from a sustainable source if they're from Florida.

http://seachoice.org/profile/result?n...

Do I know this for a fact? No. I know there are shrimp farms in Florida, but I also know that most of the shrimp we get from Florida are some variant of Mexican brown shrimp, which fall into the last two categories of shrimp on seachoice.org's site: Warmwater. They are both either listed has "avoid" or "some concerns."

Does this mean conclusively there are no sustainable shrimp from Florida for sale here? Of course not. And it's definitely worth asking the question. Even if they're not sustainably sourced, at least fishmongers will become aware of the increasing demand for them. But if I didn't have anyone to ask and I had to hedge my bets, I'd expect they're wild caught.

[tbonetak]

Just to correct a small inaccuracy in my previous post, it seems the pink shrimp, also listed by seachoice as "some concerns" or "avoid," are the most-harvested shrimp in Florida.

http://research.myfwc.com/support/view_faqs.asp?id=23

Nevertheless...

I think it's also telling that while the Florida Department of Agriculture has vigorously promoted wild-caught shrimp...

http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/press/20...

their brochures on aquaculture make no mention of shrimp farming whatsoever.

Again, is this conclusive proof that the ones the OP found are not farmed and thus (possibly) sustainable? No. It's just that much more unlikely.

[tbonetak]

Whoops. Forgot a link to the Dept of Agricultlure Aquaculture brochures.

http://www.fl-seafood.com/aquaculture...

[eatravel]

I've asked, and those shrimps are previously frozen.

[Flexitarian]

I'll have to ask again. Maybe I was mistaken. Still, they taste incredible. I'd rather have previously frozen but wild high quality shrimp than never frozen but should have been.