A sailor looks through the window of a fishing boat in the Argentine Sea. “A fisherman wants to fish just as a hunter wants to hunt. We want to come back with a full load, and the more, the better,” explains Captain Cacho. “If I go out and catch shrimp but the net brings in 300 hake and 200 boxes of shrimp, I can’t bring all that back to the company.” Captain Lobito explains why so much fish is thrown back into the sea: “The company is the one that controls you, and because of the waste that remains at the bottom of the sea, there are more and more crabs in this area.” When the boats pull up their nets, they catch the species they are looking for and others that get caught by accident. This is called bycatch or incidental catch. Once on board, the crew returns everything that has no commercial value to the sea.
In 2023, the Mundo Marino Foundation rescued a Magellanic penguin entangled in fishing lines. In Argentina, more than one million pairs of Magellanic penguins inhabit 71 colonies along 4,500 kilometers of coastline.
Borboroglu, director of The Penguin Society, noted that current challenges for penguins include climate change, pollution, the adverse effects of fishing, and habitat degradation. He emphasized that poor management of commercial fisheries is a major global threat to marine environments. Competition for food in penguin feeding areas and bycatch during fishing operations represent “significant impacts” on the welfare of these charismatic birds.
Shrimp are exported from Argentina both whole and as tails. Spain and Japan prefer whole shrimp, while China and the United States only consume the tails. Processing shrimp within the country adds value to the product and generates thousands of jobs. However, this processing leaves behind almost 50 tons of heads that have a significant impact on the environment. Some companies still dump shrimp heads in open municipal landfills in the province of Chubut. In recent years, this has caused serious environmental problems in Patagonia, such as soil and groundwater contamination, gas emissions into the atmosphere, and an increase in the population of kelp gulls, which feed on this waste and can act as disease vectors for whales. In 2021, some companies launched a project to treat shrimp waste. Although still in development, shrimp waste can be used in various industries, from flour production to pharmaceuticals.
The boots and work pants of the Veraz seafood processing company are stained with red pigment from shrimp. Argentina currently has the largest wild shrimp (Pleoticus muelleri) fishery in the southern hemisphere.
Fishing boat working off the coast of Chubut Province, Argentina. Crustaceans have several important traits that increase their intrinsic productivity and resilience, promoting continuous increases in catches despite widespread overexploitation and depletion of other species. These traits have allowed crustaceans to adapt and benefit from a wide range of anthropogenic alterations, such as overexploitation or seabed degradation caused by bottom trawling, some of which are direct interventions aimed at favoring crustacean populations, while others are indirect and unintended results of other actions.
The processing plant aboard a shrimp fishing vessel in Argentine waters is temporarily shut down while the crew works to haul in the net with a new catch destined for this facility. This vessel can bring in up to 30,600 kg of fresh shrimp at the end of its fishing trip to the east.
Shrimp sushi. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, approximately 4 billion kilograms of shrimp are consumed worldwide each year. Forty-five percent of shrimp are caught by trawling, while the other 55% are produced on shrimp farms.
In 2011, the Mundo Marino Foundation received around 20 sharks per month that had been affected by fishing. One angel shark and four leopard sharks could not be released and are kept for educational purposes. Mirta García, a professor and researcher, explains that sharks take years to mature and have a low capacity for regeneration. They are apex predators: their absence causes a cascade effect that affects the entire ecosystem. The southwestern Atlantic is vital for the survival of the angel shark. Bycatch is fish that is discarded dead or injured because it has no commercial value or is prohibited. Sharks, rays, and manta rays are often caught in shrimp fishing. This problem is of increasing concern worldwide
“At one time, the whiskers of shrimp exported to Japan were combed,” says one of the exporters. Since 2000, shrimp have become the most consumed seafood product per capita in the United States, surpassing even canned tuna. According to the National Fisheries Institute, shrimp consumption in that country has shown a steady increase since 2013, peaking in 2021 with an average of 2.6 kg per person. Shrimp accounts for 38% of total annual seafood consumption in the United States, surpassing canned tuna, tilapia, Alaska pollock, pangasius, cod, and crab in combined volume. This trend is not unique to the United States: the global shrimp market is projected to grow at an annual rate of 6.72% over the next five years, reaching an estimated value of $69.35 billion by 2028 (sustainablefisheries.uw.org).
Tons of shrimp heads are dumped into an organic pile at the Patagonian Environmental Center in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. This project, created two years ago by five companies, seeks to reduce environmental impact by researching the various uses of shrimp heads, from flour to pharmaceutical products. Argentina exports both whole shrimp and shrimp tails. Processing shrimp in the country adds value to the product and creates thousands of jobs. However, this leaves behind 50 tons of heads that have a significant impact on the environment. Some companies still dump shrimp heads in open municipal landfills in the province of Chubut. In recent years, this has caused serious environmental problems in Patagonia, such as soil and groundwater contamination, the release of gases into the atmosphere, and the growth of the black-headed gull population.
Shrimp is by far the most consumed seafood in the world, followed by salmon and canned tuna. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, global shrimp consumption reaches approximately 4 billion tons per year, of which 170,000 tons are consumed in Spain.
In the waters of the Argentine Sea, industrial shrimp fishing is a key source of food and employment. It is a kind of “orange gold” that, for those who make their living from its exploitation, provides salaries so high that not even oil workers can match them.
However, this thriving industry, which seems to have no limits on the extraction of the resource (something that specialists still cannot explain given its abundance), has consequences for the health of the sea. Fishing is the extractive activity with the greatest impact on biodiversity in the area.
Parallel to its growth, leveraged by the abundance of shrimp, there has been a decline in other species. In addition, much of what is caught does not reach port: statistics indicate that ten times more is thrown back into the sea than is stored in the holds. Thousands of tons of shrimp shells are thrown into the sea, causing all kinds of consequences for the balance of the waters and soils. Meanwhile, the bycatch of this enormous machinery wipes out key species such as rays, sharks, and turtles.
All of this presents a dilemma: how can we take advantage of this opportunity for income and job creation in a country in crisis without exacerbating decades of marine degradation?
