When we buy a pack of shrimp at the supermarket, we hardly imagine what’s behind those small crustaceans. Recently, however, an international investigation has documented from the inside some of the most controversial aspects of the global farmed shrimp industry, including mutilations of reproductive females, gigantic farms, destruction of mangroves and precarious working conditions.
Documenting this complex and decidedly controversial reality were the photojournalists of We Animals, in collaboration with the Animal Welfare Observatory, who visited farms and plants in Ecuador and Indonesia in 2025 and 2026.
The truly shocking images show for the first time an industry that involves billions of animals every year but remains largely invisible to consumers.
The investigation follows the entire production cycle, from the hatcheries where the larvae are produced to the breeding, harvesting and plants where the animals are washed, shelled, frozen and packaged.
In Indonesia, a major exporter of farmed shrimp, photojournalists have documented huge expanses of tanks, often equipped with aerators that keep the water moving day and night. The growth cycle generally lasts about 100 days. But it is in the hatcheries that one of the most disturbing aspects of the investigation emerges.
Cut out an eye to stimulate reproduction
The females used for reproduction are exploited to produce a very high number of eggs. According to We Animals, they can lay eggs up to 35 times, with reproductive cycles repeating approximately every four days. After hatching, the nauplii, the first phase of the shrimp’s life, are transferred to farms where they will continue to grow.
And it is precisely on breeding females that one of the most controversial procedures in the entire industry is practiced.
It is called eye stalk ablation and consists of removing one of the two eye stalks of females intended for reproduction. The intervention is used to stimulate egg production and has long been documented in commercial shrimp hatcheries.
The images from We Animals show the procedure without filters: the females are selected and kept in a containment area, while the operators cut off the eye stalk. In some of the videos you can see the scissors used for the operation and the animals during and immediately after the mutilation.
It’s a particularly difficult passage to ignore and truly upsetting. The question of the possible pain that crustaceans feel, then, cannot be dismissed as a simple supposition. In recent years, a growing body of evidence has accumulated on the sensitivity of decapod crustaceans, the group to which shrimp, crabs and lobsters also belong. Precisely for this reason, eye stalk ablation is increasingly at the center of discussions on the welfare of these animals.
Images from the investigation also show dead breeding females and animals appearing weak or in poor condition.
WARNING: STRONG IMAGES. Viewing is not recommended for sensitive people.
@Observatory for animal welfare / We Animals
@Observatory for animal welfare / We Animals
When will eye stalk ablation be banned?
Eyestalk ablation is not yet banned throughout the shrimp industry. Some certification standards are gradually introducing the ban: the Global Seafood Alliance has announced for example that all BAP certified shrimp producers will have to abandon the practice by the end of 2030. The Aquaculture Stewardship Council is also introducing a transition towards the use of non-ablated broodstock, with different times depending on the species.
However, one thing is already certain: scaling is already prohibited for organic shrimp produced according to EU rules. In fact, European legislation prohibits the removal of the eye stalk and also similar practices such as incision, ligation or crushing.
It’s not just a question of animal welfare
The other side of the industry emerges especially in Ecuador, where shrimp farming has reached an enormous scale. In the last ten years, the country’s production has almost quadrupled and shrimp have become Ecuador’s main export sector, surpassing crude oil. However, the expansion has profoundly transformed large areas of the Pacific coast.
Mangroves are particularly affected, ecosystems that are fundamental for coastal biodiversity, coastal protection and carbon storage.
According to the data reported in the survey, approximately 220,000 hectares of coastal territory are now occupied by ponds for shrimp farming. In some areas of the Gulf of Guayaquil the loss of mangroves is up to 90%, while at the national level the reduction in historical mangrove cover is estimated at 57%.
We Animals was able to realize the real extent of the phenomenon thanks above all to aerial photography. From the water level the mangroves can still appear to be a continuous natural landscape. From above, however, a dense network of pools, embankments, canals and facilities appears that extends along the coast.
According to NASA Earth Observatory, in some areas of the Gulf of Guayaquil almost 60% of shrimp farms occupy areas where mangrove forests previously existed.
And that’s not all yet. The impact of the shrimp industry is not just on animals and ecosystems. The report “Cheap Shrimp, High Costs“, created by Foodrise for the Animal Welfare Observatory, also examines the conditions of those who work in the supply chain. According to the data reported, approximately 63% of aquaculture workers in Ecuador do not have a formal contract, a figure that illustrates the precariousness of a significant part of the sector.
The report also draws attention to the environmental impact of feed production, the management of farm waste and the use of antibiotics, with the resulting concerns related to antimicrobial resistance.
It is difficult, therefore, to consider shrimp simply as a cheap product that arrives on the shelves of our supermarkets. Behind it are an international supply chain and costs which in many cases are incurred far from the countries in which the product is consumed. Animals, workers and the environment thus end up paying part of the real price of an industry that must produce more and more to satisfy global demand.
And the shrimp that arrive on our tables?
They may seem like problems that are very distant from our daily lives, but in reality the investigation concerns us too. Europe is a major market for farmed shrimp and Ecuador has become one of its most important suppliers. According to the Animal Welfare Observatory, Spain alone imports more shrimp from Ecuador every year than are fished or farmed overall in the entire European Union.
A package purchased at the supermarket can therefore be the last link in a supply chain thousands of kilometers long, in which what happened to the animals, the mangroves and the people who worked on the production remains completely invisible to the consumer.
And it is precisely this invisibility that is the underlying theme of We Animals’ investigation: billions of shrimp are farmed every year, but their living and dying conditions almost always remain far from the eyes of those who purchase them.
The images of the investigation instead force us to look at what we normally don’t see. At that point the question is no longer just how much a package of shrimp costs. It’s also who, and what, is really paying the price.
