Of Whales and Shrimp

The demand for a tiny crustacean is harming the biggest animal of all

An island nation off the southeastern coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, Madagascar got its name from the Venetian explorer Marco Polo, who wrote of an island of riches called "Madeigascar" in his memoirs.

Its isolation has played a role in some of those riches, namely a unique array of biodiversity. Indeed, ninety percent of the nation's 10,000 plant species are found nowhere else.

Humpback whales like the area as well. Each year, about 7,000 of them migrate to Antongil Bay in northeastern Madagascar to breed and calve.

But at the same time, huge shrimp trawlers -- many of them unregulated -- dredge up the bottom of the sea floor, damaging this fragile ecosystem and harming a critical habitat for the whales.

The humpback was once hunted to the brink of extinction. Hopefully, our taste for shrimp cocktail won't put them back there.

GET INVOLVED

• Sign a Wildlife Conservation Society pledge to reduce your shrimp consumption to help protect an important whale habitat

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image: Protected Resouces Division, Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California