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Whiteleg Shrimp (Penaeus vannamei)

Whiteleg Shrimp

Penaeus vannamei

Not EvaluatedNE

Photo: Herman Gunawan, Bangka, Indonesia. · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Keep or release?

Where are you fishing?

Size limits, seasons and female rules are set by each state. Pick yours to get a verdict.

TIDE covers New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland rules, plus federal protections everywhere.

Verifying against GBIF…

Conservation status

IUCN Red List
Not EvaluatedNE

Not evaluated globally. The wild population is not the concern — this is the most farmed shrimp on Earth, and farming practice is what determines its footprint.

What Not Evaluated means

No global Red List assessment exists. Regional stock assessments are the better guide for this species.

On your plate

Common Seafood

The most consumed seafood in the United States. Certification and farm type matter far more than whether the species itself is threatened.

Regional fishing status

Overwhelmingly farmed in Asia and Latin America. Pond expansion has cleared large areas of mangrove forest; US wild shrimp trawls are legally required to use turtle excluder devices.

If you buy it

  • ASC or BAP certified farmed shrimp avoids the worst mangrove and effluent practices.
  • US and Canadian wild-caught shrimp must use turtle excluder devices.
  • Recirculating and inland farms have the smallest habitat footprint.

Conservation status and seafood sustainability are two different questions. A species can be Least Concern globally and still be overfished, protected or unsustainable where you are.

Habitat

Coastal waters and estuaries; farmed in brackish ponds

Range

Native to the eastern Pacific; farmed worldwide

Size

Up to 23 cm

Diet

Detritus, plankton and small invertebrates

Lifespan

1–2 years

Group

crustacean

More shrimp is eaten in the US than any other seafood, and most of it is this one species.

Shrimp farming has destroyed large areas of mangrove — forests that buffer storms and store several times more carbon per hectare than rainforest.

Turtle excluder devices, required in US shrimp trawls, cut sea turtle deaths dramatically where they are enforced.

Cook this species

Ways to cook Shrimp

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