Wood’s Fisheries
Port St. Joe, Fla.
Florida’s Gulf Coast is a major shrimp-fishing area, and the local supply was hit pretty hard by the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Wood’s Fisheries has a game plan to help keep the local shrimp populations healthy and intact.
Why we chose this shrimp:
With wild shrimp catches, Wood’s fishermen pay special attention to maintenance of both the shrimp stock and habitat. “We really started pushing a lot more with traceability and sustainability … because we want to make sure that we always have shrimp to go out there and catch,” says Antley, the fisheries improvement coordinator. Wood’s has also developed an entirely landlocked shrimp farm that sources from a deep underground saltwater aquifer. It’s isolated from wild shrimp populations, thus carrying no risk of contamination.
Better practices equals better profits:
Antley is working with other companies in the Florida shrimp industry to develop a set of sustainable shrimping standards. Planned monitoring tactics include video observation on boats and equipment inspections. “We want to reward the fishermen that are doing it right,” says Antley, “so we’re going to pay a higher amount to these guys.”
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