Louise Salle 11:43 a.m., December 21, 2022

To ensure that they reproduce more, the laying mothers of the shrimp we eat often have their eyes removed.

A very widespread practice abroad, but not very popular with French breeders who, however, only produce a very small part of the shrimp consumed in France. 

For New Year's Eve, in a verrine or served fresh on a platter, shrimp will be part of the party!

But few people know that to produce them in large quantities, sometimes an eye is removed from the female shrimp.

This practice is very widespread, particularly in Southeast Asia, Madagascar and Latin America, where most of the shrimp we eat in France come from.

But it is considered barbaric by the defenders of the animal cause.

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Plucking out the eye to remove the gland blocking reproduction

Egg-laying shrimp are not eaten, because they only serve to hatch the larvae.

But for them to lay more, the trick is to tear off a small antenna, the peduncle, at the end of which is an eye.

"At the base of the eye is a gland that regulates the reproductive activity of the shrimp", explains Nicolas Rabet, researcher in crustacean biology at the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN) and the University of Paris 6. "This gland blocks reproduction, except at certain times of the year," he continues.

"When we remove the eye, therefore, we remove this gland and we remove the blockage of reproduction, which for the breeder is of interest since he can have larvae at any time of the year."  

It's a mutilation that makes her suffer

Jean-Sébastien Bruant, a French shrimp breeder in Charente-Maritime does not hold this technique close to his heart.

"Tearing out her eye is probably a mutilation that makes her suffer," asserts the general manager of Fermes Marines du Soleil, located on the island of Oléron.

“Even crustaceans are equipped with nervous systems and can feel pain”.

So he uses other methods.

"Through light, temperature, we were able to understand how to put our shrimps in the best possible state of well-being, which means that they only think of one thing: to reproduce at the time of the season," he said.

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But this know-how respectful of the natural cycle of the shrimp produces fewer larvae, and costs more.

In France, we only consume a hundred tonnes of locally produced shrimp per year, compared to more than 100,000 tonnes of imported shrimp.