"Big Shrimpin" on the Discovery Channel

[Thiad]

You're right - absolutely. I'm still trying to figure out what this, and many of the shows on that channel, have to do about history? If I turn on the "HISTORY" channel, I expect to find programming about, oh, HISTORY - you know, civil war, things that happened 300 years ago, hard hitting exploration and archeology digs - things like that.

Instead, you have AX MEN and PAWN STARS and this junk. I won't be surprised when Toddlers & Tiaras shows up on the history channel because, I guess, it is history.

History Channel = Re-Writing what the Definition of "HISTORY is!

My own fault for actually tuning in, I guess (and reason enough to get rid of my TV).

 

[Plane Trouble]

Ax Men.... Damn, I forgot about that one... Pawn Stars, absolutely doesn't have anything to do, what so ever with history, and further more, those guys are con artists. I feel the same way, its my fault for tuning in too... How about "Ancient Aliens" on what? The History Channel? So basically you have a show dedicated to in implausible and unnecessary explanation.... Lovely.... TLC? I remember when TLC didn't actually suck, but of course that was back when the shows on "The Learning Channel" didn't consist of birth stories (been through 2 with my wife, thats plenty thanks) and wedding shows.... National Geographic has shows on it that are still exceptional, although its now being over-run with Law Enforcement themes: Alaska State Troopers, and Frontier Force, just to name a couple.... I could get a second job @ bitching!!

 

[Thiad]

As someone said, every channel is turning in to "Spike TV".

At the Smithsonian Channel would be good, but they repeat everything 10x per day.

 

[mike_s]

so most of this "by catch" that they dump back..... does most of that survive or die?


I've only seen one episode of this show, but was surprised they didn't keep some of the by-catch for some other market? say for cat food, etc. I guess it's not worth the space it takes up and the work involved for the lower cost per pound?

 

[Plane Trouble]

Planet Green, owned by Discovery is ok, they run a lot of shows like "Wild Pacific", "Wild Russia" etc... and they do it in marathon succession, which is nice........ Until........ until....... I switched over the other day and they literally ran a BBQ Cook-off show the entire day....

 

[mike_s]

well it's pretty bad when the History channel has turned into a reality TV show. I mean there isn't much "history" on it anymore.


National Geographic is the same way. I think it's pretty pathetic of them seeing how their channel lineup has turned into "redneck TV" considering what a respected magazine they had.




but then again, even the Weather Channel is doing reality TV shows now. They are doing Alaska Coast Guard shows in a regular basis. (Ironically it's Al Roker who's production company is doing them).



It seems that all of these channels are going bonkers to do Alaska based shows now. Discovery, TLC, History, National Geogrpahic. etc.

why? because of tax money credits offered to any show filmed in Alaska, to help "promote" Alaska. :shakeshead:

 

[Hank49]

As with so much else, the desire for the huge catches is consumer driven. I stopped buying wild caught shrimp a few years back simply because of the by catch and turned to farm raised. However, farm raised shrimp, especially that from Asia, is fraught with so many issues - environmental destruction, diseases, overuse of antibiotics, that much of what is sent to this country for sale is prohibited for safety reasons.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Another species off the dinner menu.

At the risk of sounding biased here, since I DID start this thread, a lot of what you're saying is bad about shrimp farming is old news. The industry has come a long way since the destruction of mangrove forests back in the boom of the 80s. That soil proved bad for shrimp production so it stopped.

There was another booom in the 90s as China got into this and there was indiscriminate use of some antibiotics. Chloramphenicol was one. But this became known and shrimp were randomly tested. If your batch tested positive, whole containers were destroyed at shippers expense. It wasn't worth the risk.

Diseases are under control due to better water management and a very intensive selective breeding process and genetic selection for resistance....and incredibly fast growth. Thailand is doing some incredible things genetically.

Ponds in modern farms have plastic liners with 0 water exchange during the cycle. They don't leach water into fresh ground water sources.

Production has gone from 2000 lbs per acre per crop to 18,000 with food conversion ratios dropping from 2:1 down to 1.2:1.

Yeah, I farm shrimp. I had to throw these facts out there.

 

[Thiad]

Actually, I like hearing that and knowing the facts. Thank you for that information.

 

[Mike]

Love pawn stars, I want Chumley as my dive buddy, he's smart...

 

[Plane Trouble]

Chumley is probably philosopher of science on the weekends... Ph.D in theoretical and computational neuroscience....