Shrimp vs. Prawn?

We got a lot accomplished today.  Everyone is in the process of gathering their research and finishing their group or individual assignments.  Travel arrangements are in order.  We also contacted Linda Thornton to arrange meeting times.  For the first three working days we will be interviewing and shooting at Cardelli, Aqua Mar and Haney farms.  

We also learned a great deal about shrimp today.  Do you know what the difference between a shrimp and a prawn is?  Well, we sure do!  Our group had a healthy discussion on where we buy our seafood and if we prefer king prawns or jumbo shrimp.  http://www.buzzle.com/articles/prawns-vs-shrimp.html

The consensus of the group was while many of us enjoy shrimp cocktail, we don’t exactly know where our shrimp is coming from. Which is why, we’ve decided to trace the shrimp’s movement back to the source. Our first step is to go from the plate at a local restaurant to South Street Seaport market where it’s purchased. We want to see what decisions the buyers make when they choose the shrimp to be featured on the menus.  We plan to film them next week and will report back with our findings!

And we're off!!!

This is so exciting!  As Pace University students in the Media and Communication Arts program, we are thrilled to have the opportunity to participate in this travel course to Belize.  We’re producing a documentary about the world of shrimp farming.  In our excursion we plan to learn and explore this country, its culture, and new areas of its environment.

Linda Thornton is one of the few women shrimp farmers in the world.  She is a dedicated and well-known advocate for sustainable aquaculture in Central America and a valuable resource for our film.  Ms. Thornton originally from Illinois, vacationed in Belize where she fell in love with the lifestyle and beauty of the country.  Being an experienced shrimp farmer her transition to Belize was smooth.  Since relocating to Belize, she learned how to farm shrimp and currently manages Aquamar, one of three shrimp farms we will visit.  http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/aquaculture/grandma.html

One of Ms. Thornton’s main goals is to develop ways to farm shrimp that isn't harmful to the environment.  In many parts of the world, farms that produce the frozen shrimp result in the destruction of mangrove forests and other costal ecosystems.  These farms use large amounts of water and generate choking flows of waste in the water.

We are honored to have Andy Revkin, a veteran New York Times environmental correspondent, author of the Blog Dot Earth and senior fellow for environmental understanding at the Pace Academy for Applied Environmental studies, to help plan and execute this film with us.

Currently, we’ve started the pre-production process.  So far, we have handed out individual and group assignments. All students are in the stages of researching and brainstorming film ideas.   We hope you join us on our journey to Central America by following our Blog. We will detail our exploration into the world of shrimp farming and our experiences as we learn new aspects of the environment.