Seafood Buffet
Mind my wounded eyes,
for they have seen
the horrors of dead
mammals stinking
a beach in paradise.
Mature male sea lion
with bits of the net
and torn skin
tangled into his visible
decaying ribs.
I scatter the birds
dropping to my knees,
this beautiful beast
strung and suffocated,
accidentally assassinated.
My tears flooding, as
I look up only to see,
four more exactly
like him, but in their
own stage of atrophy.
The last being only
a pile of bones,
none the less
the net, the net
is familiar. You see —
Sea lions didn’t die alone
on this beach in paradise,
there were crabs and
birds and sharks
and skates and —
Rays. More than a dozen,
with their fleshy wings
amputated to be
used for bait and
perfectly circular “scallops”.
Skates, cousins of the rays,
with their cartilaginous
fleshy wings are less
abundant, and therefore
higher value.
Birds, with their ruffled feathers
and broken necks.
Did they get caught in the net?
Perhaps a worse
fate for them.
The net was green,
or black or blue.
Each hole a perfect square
three inches wide,
to catch anything bigger.
What are they
supposed to catch?
What seafood that swims
is only barely larger
than three inches wide?
Shrimp, it’s those goddamn shrimp.
Decapoda, Crustacea,
Arthropoda, Animalia.
Plate, Plater,
Cocktail, Buffet.
Think about this —
90% of shrimp trawled in the Gulf of California are shipped to the United States but,
shrimp from the Gulf of California is only 3% of the shrimp the United States receives.
The next time,
you see shrimp,
on the edge,
of a martini glass.
Think about that one
beach rotting with bycatch,
feel their fear as the net
only tightens with
their attempted escape.
Think about how,
Northern Peru admitted
that 93.3% of the
shrimp trawling catch is
indeed, not shrimp.
Think about how,
the shrimp trawling grounds in
Southeast Asia used
to be carpeted in
ancient coral reefs.
Think about how,
trawling is only capable
on Continental Shelves, Bays, and Estuaries;
AKA, the most biologically productive
ecosystems on Earth.
Think about how,
Gulf of Mexico shrimp boats
only come to shore
once a month after
catching 42,000 pounds of shrimp.
Mourn, not just the lost lives
of the shrimp hanging
on your martini glass,
but the lives of the tangled animals
trapped beside them.
Understand my horror,
at the seafood buffet.