Which are the least bad prawns?

[LookingForwardToSummer]

This has been bothering me for a while. I love prawns but only buy them about twice a year and with guilt.
So... is it better to buy cold water prawns (may contribute to overfishing, remove base of food chain etc) or farmed tropical ones (mangroves destroyed, air miles etc)?
I stand in the shop picking up one then the other.

Definitely not cultivated ones. Only buy ones caught in North Atlantic which are not overfished. Check out Rose Prince's savvy shopper book and telegraph column. www.telegraph.co.uk/wine/main.jhtml?xml=/wine/2004/10/23/edprawn23.xml

Thank you, that's really helpful! I knew about the mangroves but hadn't realised the full impact of the damage.

oh i remember seeing the after-effects of trawling for wild prawns in SE Asia - 'by-catch' (fish, dugong, dolphin, sharks) washed up dead on the beaches - hauled in and hurled back. and folk said that their own fishing was being rapidly destroyed by the 'factory' boats in coastal waters. it's no exaggeration to talk of the 'rape' of the oceans...