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Water Log 27.2, August, 2007

Interesting Items

Around the Gulf…

Get out the cocktail sauce! The Mississippi Department of Marine Resources reports that the state’s shrimpers landed 2.4 million pounds of the delicious crustaceans in June. That’s 1.1 million pounds over last June’s catch, and even more impressive when one considers that 2006 was a record year. This year may be even better, according to experts. The upswing in catch over the past two years has been attributed to the busy 2005 hurricane season.

Speaking of Gulf shrimp, a study by researchers Russ Miget and Michael Haby at Texas A&M University suggests that farmed shrimp cannot match the unique flavor of wild-caught shrimp. The Gulf’s popular pink, white, and brown shrimp contain chemicals called bromophenols, which help give them their special taste. Bromophenols are sometimes added to the feed given to farmed shrimp, but they have nonetheless been unable to duplicate the flavor of their wild-caught cousins. The title of the study is “Naturally-occurring Compounds which Create Unique Flavors in Wild-harvested Shrimp.” For more information on the benefits of consuming wild-caught shrimp, visit the Wild American Shrimp, Inc., website at www.wildamericanshrimp.com.

Less encouraging is the recently discovered fact that parts of south Mississippi, like south Louisiana, are sinking. Over the last forty years or so, the coast of the Magnolia State has subsided approximately one foot, according to Kurt Shinkle of the National Geodetic Survey. While this is a slower rate of subsidence than that being experienced by Texas and Louisiana, it is still a problem for people who are relying on outdated elevation maps. The recently created FEMA maps, for example, use elevation data from 1969. Efforts to convince Congress to fund new data – which, at up to $2,000 per mile, is expensive – are underway.

In the Nation’s Capital…

The Food and Drug Administration has blocked the sale of five types of farm-raised seafood from China because of repeated instances of contamination by unapproved additives. The banned species are shrimp, catfish, eel, basa (a catfish-type fish), and dace (a carp-like fish). The ban follows years of unheeded warnings to producers. Fortunately, seafood lovers can still freely partake of wild fish and shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico, and wholesome farm-raised catfish from our regional aquaculturists.

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s supremely unsatisfying Rapanos decision, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers have released new guidance for the filling of wetlands. Thanks to the Court’s opinion, the new regime is less protective of wetlands than the one it replaces.

The bald eagle, proud symbol of the U.S. and one of the Endangered Species Act’s great success stories, has been removed from the endangered species list. In 1963 there were 417 pairs; today, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, there are 9,789. But don’t start planning your bald eagle barbeque. Killing them remains illegal. They are protected by the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

University of Mississippi