Bubba: "Anyway, like I was sayin,' shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, saute it. Dey's uh, shrimp-kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo. Pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried. There's pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich. That — that's about it."

— from "Forrest Gump"

Chris Hunt/AJC (ENLARGE)

Wild-caught shrimp seem the better choice when it comes to taste and texture.

Becky Stein / Special

Jumbo BBQ Shrimp. See the link to Recipes below.

WANT MORE INFO? Check out these sites: • www.wildgeorgiashrimp.com • www.monterey bayaquarium.com RELATED: • Recipes: Jumbo BBQ Shrimp, Chipotle Shrimp, more • Photos: Butterflying shrimp made easy

Even the largest are only a couple of inches long, but they pack a big punch in the flavor department. When cooked, they're so pink that they have their very own color: shrimp.

Warm weather brings shrimp to restaurant menus, dinner tables and backyard barbecues as a rite of spring and summer, when these ocean creepy crawlers are in season.

But do you know where that perfectly pink pillow of flavor on your plate came from?

Shrimp — like so many other foods from our oceans — come to our markets at a high price, and not just the kind that affects our wallets.

Much of the shrimp we eat at restaurants or buy in supermarkets has been farm-raised in Southeast Asia, in a stagnant pool pumped with fungicides, algicides and pesticides, as well as antibiotics to prevent the spread of viruses. Mangrove forests by the hectare have been leveled to cater to shrimp farming, a lucrative trade too alluring for local economies to pass up. The forests are delicate ecosystems that shelter coastlines from tropical storms and nurse young fish and other species, as well as provide livelihoods and culture for the people who live near them.

After farming, the shrimp are frozen, then sent to markets all over the globe. Since many viruses can survive the freezing process, companies pump the shrimp with antibiotics. One antibiotic, chloramphenicol, is outlawed in the United States because it can cause human aplastic anemia, a deadly blood disorder. But it can still show up in our imported shrimp, according to the watchdog Web site foodandwaterwatch.org, because the United States doesn't employ a "rigorous" inspection program for imported shrimp. Even with required country-of-origin labels in today's markets, we still don't know for sure how these shrimp were farmed.

How did this whole process get started anyway? Why would we want to contribute to such a muddied food chain? With shrimp, it's all about the Benjamins: Imported farmed shrimp are cheaper and therefore very appealing to the American market.

"Cheap food has a very steep price," said Damon Lee Fowler, a cookbook author, food writer and James Beard Award nominee. "Maybe not at the supermarket, but down the line."

Fowler's latest cookbook, "The Savannah Cookbook" (Gibbs Smith, $29.95), calls for only wild-caught shrimp in his recipes.

"I don't want imported. The way they are farmed is irresponsible, and they've been pumped with sulfites and God knows what else," he said. "Plus, they are inferior in taste and texture."

Fowler loves to use Atlantic Coast brown shrimp, in season from June through August in Georgia, because of their sweetness. Georgia's white shrimp season runs from around mid-April to mid-June. Though they are a different species, brown and white shrimp are highly prized because of their sweet flavor and tender texture.

And for the most part, wild-caught shrimp do seem the better choice, especially for taste and texture. According to a recent Texas A&M report, wild shrimp have characteristic flavor caused by a group of naturally occurring chemicals, bromophenols, that can only be found in saltwater seafood. Bottom dwellers, such as shrimp, have higher concentrations of the flavor-enhancing stuff.

Wild-caught advocate groups such as the Wild Georgia Shrimp Association and Wild American Shrimp Inc. have pushed major marketing campaigns in recent years to inform the public of the dangers of imported farm-raised shrimp and increase awareness of the plight of the American shrimper, a group whose numbers are dwindling because of the high cost of fuel vs. the low cost of imports. The group requires certification, so that a label of "certified wild American shrimp" means high quality.

"We managed in four years to get the price of our shrimp raised from $1 a pound to $2.50, but fuel costs have gone from $1 to $4.50, so it's as if we've done nothing," said John Wallace, a shrimper for 30 years who also serves as president and program director of the Wild Georgia Shrimp Association. Wallace has watched as 50 percent to 60 percent of the shrimpers he knows have left to "go get a job on the hill," a euphemism used to mean dry-land employment. "The industry is in worse shape than ever."

So the best thing is to buy and eat wild-caught shrimp? It tastes better, though higher in price, and helps sustain local economies, right? Yes and yes. Easy peasy.

Not so fast: Wild-caught shrimpers still employ the use of trawls, a method that uses a cone-shaped net that's towed behind the boat. Chains weigh the mouth of the net to stir up the ocean floor and catch as many critters as possible, often many that weren't invited, such as endangered sea turtles and other fish, known as "bycatch." Dragging the net, often by methods such as rockhopping (tires are used to roll over the ocean floor more easily) and otter trawling, rips up the sea bottom, and the ecosystem doesn't have time to rebound before trawls come back as soon as two years later.

Some shrimpers in the United States are required to use BRDs (bycatch reduction devices); all shrimpers are required to use TEDs (turtle excluder devices). Wallace says Georgia requires that TEDs on shrimp boats be 98 percent effective. "Trawling doesn't plow up the bottom the way people assume," he said.

But an organization called globalchefs.com disagrees, stating that a better alternative is wild-caught shrimp fished from traps. Traps can entangle marine mammals, though, and Wallace says that though he's heard this method is effective in the Pacific Northwest, Georgia shrimpers "can't catch shrimp that way."

And U.S. shrimp farming hasn't proved cost-effective, though methods here are more environmentally sound.

So what's a shrimp lover to do? Does this mean you shouldn't eat shrimp at all? Of course not. It means that shrimp are special — perhaps you just didn't realize how special. It would be ridiculous to assume that global populations will simply stop eating shrimp. But for now, the best way for us to enjoy them is by saving them for occasions where they can be center stage. And understanding the price tag once they've gotten to the table. There's no such thing as a free lunch, especially when it comes to shrimp.

BUYING THE BEST SHRIMP

Can't tell heads from tails? Here's a guide to help you choose the best shrimp:

WILD-CAUGHT AMERICAN SHRIMP
• Pros: The best flavor, far superior to farmed. Helps local economies and promotes sustainable fishing practices. Trap-caught is the best bet.
• Cons: The most expensive of the lot. Shrimp boats still use trawl nets, which rip up the ocean floor and are bad for the ecosystem.

FARM-RAISED IN THE UNITED STATES
• Pros: Free of antibiotics and other chemicals. Less expensive than wild-caught. Promotes sustainability through the use of natural wetlands.
• Cons: Energy costs for maintaining farms are very high. Practice not widely successful in the United States, which makes the product hard to find.

FARM-RAISED IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
• Pros: Very inexpensive.
• Cons: Chemicals and antibiotics are used. Shrimp are frozen for shipping and kept frozen for longer periods than wild-caught. Flavor and texture are inferior to wild-caught. Destroys local ecosystems and economies by clearing mangrove forests and disturbing wetlands.