The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea

Praise for Let Them Eat Shrimp:

“Kennedy Warne details the many, many ways that we need mangroves, and you will close the book feeling inspired to protect a little appreciated, but much needed habitat.”

— TreeHugger

 “[A] travelog with attitude.”

— Science News

 

Washington, DC (January 2013) — When Americans sit down for an all-you-can-eat shrimp buffet, most have no idea what it truly costs. But the western appetite for cheap seafood is destroying mangrove forests around the world, stripping their inhabitants of their cultural heritage, livelihoods, and homes.

In Let Them Eat Shrimp: The Tragic Disappearance of the Rainforests of the Sea, veteran journalist Kennedy Warne shows how industrial shrimp farming and rampant coastal development are threatening these unique forests and the people who rely on them.

Warne, founding editor of New Zealand Geographic magazine, has traveled the globe to experience the splendor of the mangroves—mystic wetlands home to tigers, hummingbirds, monkeys, and countless other exotic creatures. With his new book, he illustrates what is at stake if they are lost.

Once covering three-quarters of the world’s sheltered tropical coastlines, mangroves provide food and timber for local people; habitat for fisheries and wildlife; and protection against storms and rising seas. As carbon sinks, they also play a key role in fighting climate change. But almost half of these forests have been bulldozed to make way for shrimp aquaculture, vacation resorts, urban expansion, and other development.

The result is not just environmental destruction but the loss of a way of life. Local people who oppose the (often illegal) deforestation have been threatened and even killed. Warne introduces us to these individuals: honey collectors who rely on religious rituals to protect them against tigers in the mangrove forests of Bangladesh; a Bimini boatbuilder who twice ferried Martin Luther King Junior into the mangroves of the Bahamas; mothers scraping a living by gathering cockles in the mangrove mud of Ecuador.

While few outside the affected communities recognize the importance of these forests, their destruction is a loss for everyone. Until mangroves are valued for the ecological services they provide, they will continue to be sacrificed. With Let Them Eat Shrimp, Warne offers a window into the unique world of the mangroves, showing why they are vital to so many.

Kennedy Warne is author of Roads Less Travelled and founding editor of New Zealand Geographic. His articles have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, GEO, and other publications.