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.