Review
For foodies, Asian tiger shrimp is a rare delicacy on the table, it can sell for 100 yuan a catty in the Chinese market, and the price in Southeast Asian markets such as Japan is also ridiculously high.
Compared to other dried shrimp, Asian tiger shrimp has a flexible taste and is used as a high-end ingredient in many restaurants, which is loved by foodies. But the United States on the other side of the ocean does not think so, since it was introduced to the United States, due to the lack of natural enemies, the Asian tiger shrimp has been flooded in the United States, thirty centimeters has a pound.
Curiously, why don't Americans dare to enjoy this kind of food?
Asian tiger shrimp breed in large numbers in the United States
Asian tiger shrimp, also known as penaeus tabula, can grow up to 312 grams, which has a great advantage in size over other shrimp; the shell of tiger shrimp is dark brown, and most of the tiger shrimp shell has obvious yellow tabby stripes, which looks very fierce.
Moreover, Asian tiger shrimp has a strong adaptability to the environment, is easy to be farmed, and is not easy to die when transported, becoming the favorite product of most shrimp farmers in Asia.
In fact, the tiger shrimp originated in the Indian Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean, and was later discovered by southeast Asian merchants, and many foodies in Asia preferred Asian tiger shrimp, so it took root in Asia and became a rare dish in local seafood products.
In the 1980s, not only southeast Asian businessmen valued the quality of Asian tiger shrimp, but also an aquaculture farmer in South Carolina, USA; these Asian tiger shrimp looked tender and fat, large, and vigorous, and it was indeed a good breeding product.
So the farmer purchased a batch of Asian tiger shrimp from Asia to try the effect; the number is not much, if it can be accepted by the US market, then the scale of breeding can be expanded later.
However, it is the farmer's decision that makes the United States face a serious "tiger shrimp disaster" today.
Originally, these tiger shrimp lived in the waters designated by farmers, and everything was safe; but in 1988, there was a rare storm in South Carolina, usa, which caused heavy damage to the farmed waters, and more than 2,000 Asian tiger shrimp were blown into the natural waters by the wind, and they took root.
This head, I'm afraid, is a meal
By the time Asian tiger shrimp reappeared in The American eye, it was already 2012.
According to the results of the 2012 statistics of the Us Federal Geological Survey, Asian tiger shrimp are occupying local waters at a very frightening rate of reproduction, with Asian tiger shrimp on the east coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico achieving nearly 20-fold growth in two years and gradually expanding into the Atlantic.
As an exotic species, Asian tigerfish can be said to have no natural enemies in the United States, and the most restrictive of its growth is the local water temperature conditions; before 2012, the water temperature on the east coast of the United States and the Gulf of Mexico was between 11 ° C and 26 ° C, which made the Asian tiger shrimp face the situation of freezing to death.
However, global warming effects have been remarkable, and the minimum temperature in these two waters has been raised to 13 °C, which has given Asian tiger shrimp a unique breeding machine.
Americans are not used to Eating Asian Tiger Shrimp
According to conservative estimates, if the Asian tiger shrimp were allowed to grow in two waters, the United States would have to produce at least 800,000 eggs per breeding season; in a few years, the Americans would not be able to see other aquatic creatures on the east coast, because the entire waters were already occupied by the Asian tiger shrimp, and other organisms faced serious existential threats.
It is said that one side of the water and soil to raise the other side of the family, the Asian tiger shrimp in the process of "localization" in the United States has also undergone certain changes. The water quality here gives Asian tiger shrimp a larger size, normally only growing to 15 centimeters, but in the United States, fishermen have caught a 30-centimeter Asian tiger shrimp, which has almost doubled its head.
If this kind of thing falls on Asian farmers, I am afraid that we will wake up laughing in our dreams; the number of breeds is large, the size is large, and if it is put on the market, it can earn a lot of money. However, Americans do not think so, and many states and counties have listed Asian tiger shrimp on the blacklist of invasive alien species; locals can dispose of Asian tiger shrimp at will, whether it is hunting or selling.
The problem is that the U.S. market doesn't seem to be interested in Asian tiger shrimp; Asian tiger prawn, which seems delicious to Asians, is not popular with American foodies.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon, the Asian tiger shrimp produced in the water quality of the United States is hard in meat quality, and it loses the fresh sweetness of the shrimp meat; no matter how big the Asian tiger shrimp grows, the meat quality is naturally not welcomed.
And we all know that the United States does not have so many tricks in the cooking recipes of China, what steaming and frying, a shrimp can make dozens of tricks. But American chefs don't have this concept, so Asian tiger shrimp has not become a delicacy in the hands of chefs, and Americans can't love it.
More importantly, health departments have found that Asian tiger shrimp living in the waters near the Gulf of Mexico carry a variety of diseases; these diseases are also highly contagious, resulting in large-scale deaths of crabs, oysters and other organisms living in the surrounding waters.
Although not sure whether the epidemic would endanger human safety, the Americans who learned of the news did not dare to try the Asian tiger shrimp easily.
Since it could not be eaten and could not be driven away, Asian tiger shrimp soon flooded in the United States, so that the local government had to introduce some mandatory measures to reduce the number of Asian tiger shrimp.
For example, the waters are cleaned regularly every month, fishermen are encouraged to catch tiger shrimp, and even subsidies are issued to them.
epilogue
In fact, at present, the United States has long become a paradise for invasive alien species, and species that are difficult to grow in other regions are particularly outstanding when they come to the United States.
The Asian tiger shrimp is just one of the representatives, in addition to the forest king Burmese python; Burmese pythons are difficult to survive in the Forests of Myanmar, after being brought to the United States in 1980, they have now bred more than 300,000, an amazing number!