Scampi

Scampi is not the most environmentally friendly of food products due to the high number of food miles involved in its production, and the nature of its production.

It is a popular choice for a pub meal, or to keep frozen at home. However, most people don't know what Scampi is made from.

The production of scampi involves catching large prawns / langoustines, whose tails then need to be shelled. This is a fiddly process which has to be done manually. This can mean that the langoustines are sent thousands of miles.

The langoustines are also caught by bottom-trawling, which results in a great deal of by-catch.

Open Seas is a Scottish organisation that is campaigning for people to say no to scampi as a result. It is an environmental charity with several campaigns.

According to Open Seas:

Scampi is produced from langoustine caught by bottom-trawling, causing extensive damage to our marine environment and fish stocks.

Bottom-trawl vessels have free access to trawl 95% of our inshore seas. 

There is no effective monitoring in place. Not only do the heavy nets disturb fragile seabed habitats, the small mesh used catches and kills huge volumes of other marine life.

For every 1kg of langoustine caught at least another 1kg of other marine life is also caught in bottom-trawl nets.

This is known as ‘bycatch’ – and the wildlife in bycatch often ends up being killed and discarded.

Images: Open Seas