Wild and found in Asia, fishing methods make these unsustainable due to high levels of bi catch.
For your convenience we have included the following information from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
| Penaeus monodon | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Subphylum: | Crustacea |
| Class: | Malacostraca |
| Order: | Decapoda |
| Suborder: | Dendrobranchiata |
| Family: | Penaeidae |
| Genus: | Penaeus |
| Species: | P. monodon |
| Binomial name | |
| Penaeus monodon Fabricius, 1798 |
|
| Synonyms [1] | |
|
|
Penaeus monodon (common names include giant tiger prawn, jumbo tiger prawn, black tiger prawn, leader prawn, sugpo and grass prawn) is a marine crustacean that is widely reared for food. The natural distribution is Indo-West-Pacific, ranging from the eastern coast of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, as far as South-east Asia, and the Sea of Japan. They can also be found in eastern Australia, and a small number have colonised the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. Further invasive populations have become established in Hawaii and the Atlantic coast of the USA (Florida, Georgia and South Carolina).
Both sexes reach approximately 36 centimetres (14 in) long, and females can weigh up to 650 grams (23 oz), making it the world's largest species of prawn.
P. monodon is the most widely cultured prawn species in the world, although it is gradually losing ground to the whiteleg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Over 900,000 tonnes are consumed annually, two-thirds of it coming from farming, chiefly in south-east Asia.
Sustainable consumption
In 2010, Greenpeace added Penaeus monodon to its seafood red list – "a list of fish that are commonly sold in supermarkets around the world, and which have a very high risk of being sourced from unsustainable fisheries".[2]
References
- ^ "Species Fact Sheets: Penaeus monodon (Fabricius, 1798)". FAO Species Identification and Data Programme (SIDP). FAO. http://www.fao.org/figis/servlet/FiRefServlet?ds=species&fid=3405. Retrieved January 10, 2010.
- ^ "Greenpeace International Seafood Red list". Greenpeace. http://www.greenpeace.org/international/seafood/red-list-of-species. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
