Intensive Shrimp Farming Research in Texas

Dr. Tzachi Samocha Produces Nine Kilos of Shrimp per Cubic Meter

In a recent trial, Dr. Tzachi Samocha and his team at the Texas AgriLife Mariculture Research Laboratory in Corpus Christi produced more than nine kilograms of western white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) per cubic meter of water.

The team has driven down shrimp prices from above $5.00 per pound—the current USA average for super-intensive systems—to approximately $2.00 per pound.  A three-month growout period allows nearly four crops per tank per year.

Samocha’s indoor, limited-discharge, super-intensive system is stocked at 530 shrimp per cubic meter.

The 40-cubic-meter raceways do not discharge water during the three-month production cycle.  Bacterial flocs help stabilize water conditions, assimilate nitrogen compounds and provide nutrition for the shrimp.

“We’re always on the borderline, pushing the envelope on dissolved oxygen (DO),” says team member and aquaculture technician Tim Morris.  “When we add feed, you can literally watch the DO drop.  In 30 minutes, you’ll see it go from 4.5 milligrams per liter to 3.5...  You ride the balance between life and death.”

Those rapid declines and the slow DO recovery to safer levels after feeding demand careful scrutiny.  It is also vital to track DO levels to determine whether pumped air will be adequate to restore DO, or whether more costly liquid oxygen is necessary.

Managing oxygen is the cornerstone of the operation.  Each raceway is equipped with a series of eighteen 5.1-cm airlift pumps, six one-meter-long air diffusers and a partition running down the center to keep water circulating in the proper direction.  Under the partition, a 5.1-cm PVC pipe is positioned to deliver air from a Venturi injector powered by a two-horsepower pump.

The team analyzes water samples weekly for alkalinity, settable solids, turbidity, algal counts, total suspended solids, volatile suspended solids, carbonaceous biological oxygen demand, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate-nitrogen and reactive phosphorus.

During the early stages of production, DO and pH are monitored at least twice daily with hand-held instruments.  As the shrimp grow, water quality decreases and oxygen demand increases.  At around 30 days into the production cycle, Samocha’s team deploys YSI 5200 continuous monitors, set to log DO and temperature readings at five-minute intervals and trigger an alarm on their computer monitors if levels drop below chosen thresholds.

“It’s very crucial that you stay on top of things and modify your management accordingly,” cautions Samocha.  “If oxygen is low and you are dumping in feed, I can guarantee within a few minutes you will have stressed shrimp at the surface.  If you don’t have this monitoring system, it is very risky for your production.”

Darrin Honious of YSI in Yellow Springs, Ohio, points out that the YSI 5200—which can simultaneously monitor temperature, DO, pH, conductivity, oxidation-reduction potential and salinity—is designed specifically for the punishing conditions of aquaculture.  In addition to continuous monitoring and alarms through audio signals, emails and even phone alerts via a hookup with a Sensaphone® remote monitoring system, the 5200 can also be programmed to control pumps, paddles, liquid oxygen valves and feed systems.

Samocha’s team uses YSI’s AquaManager™ software to record and display the data from the 5200s.  Morris says the system allows him to not only monitor the system in real time at the lab and remotely from his home computer, but also to track trends over hours and days.  That’s vital, especially because the super-intensive production tanks periodically experience slow downward trends in DO.

One of the most significant adjustments that has arisen from continuous, real-time monitoring of the system is the fine-tuning of the feeding regimen.

Until Day 56 of Samocha’s trial, the shrimp were fed four times daily, at 8:30 and 11:30 a.m., and at 2:30 and 4:30 p.m.  When biomass reached 6 kg/m³ and DO dropped precipitously after feeding, the four daytime feedings were cut back by one-third to two-thirds, and the remaining feed was fed at night with belt feeders.

The system yielded an average feed conversion ratio as low as 1:1.2 and a weekly weight gain of 1.3 grams per week to produce as much as 9.23 kilograms of market-sized shrimp per cubic meter.  The closed system successfully prevented viral outbreaks, and mortality was less than 0.5 percent per week.

Samocha and his team think it would cost approximately $992,000 to build eight 500 m³ tanks capable of producing 3.8 crops a year.  At a price of $3.27 per pound for 21-to-25-count shrimp and production costs of around $2.60, the system could pay for itself in about 3.1 years, while delivering an internal rate of return of more than 28 percent.

With few regulatory challenges and no cost for discharging and replacing water, the system has extra appeal in the tightly regulated United States.

Information: Tzachi Samocha, Ph.D., Professor, Regents Fellow, Texas AgriLife, AgriLife Research Mariculture Laboratory, 4301 Waldron Road, Corpus Christi, TX 78418, USA (phone 1-361-937-2268, fax 1-253-390-6081, email tsamocha@ag.tamu.edu, webpage http://ccag.tamu.edu/mariculture/flour_bluff_mariculture/index.php).

Information: Darrin Honious, YSI, 1700/1725 Brannum Lane, Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387, USA (phone 1-937-767-7241, fax 1-937-767-9353, email aquaculture@ysi.com, webpage http://www.ysi.com/aquaculture).

Source: Aquaculture Update.  YSI Aquaculture.  Super-Intensive Shrimp System Provides A Look Into The Future (Scroll half way down the page to find the article).  Photo credits, Tzachi Samocha.  Website visit on June 5, 2009.

Country Reports

Australia

Shrimp and Barramundi (a fish) Conference

The 2009 Australian Prawn Farmers Association (APFA) and Australian Barramundi Farmers Association (ABFA) Conference is set to take place on July 29 and 30, 2009, at Jupiter’s Casino, Townsville, Queensland.  The conference will focus on the future of aquaculture.

Source: The FishSite.  Australian Prawn Conference Looks Into the Future.  June 3, 2009.

Canada

Largest Coldwater Shrimp Fishery Closes Down

On June 2, 2009, the Association of Seafood Producers, which represents 11 shrimp producers in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, one of the world’s largest suppliers of coldwater shrimp, announced that it would no longer purchase shrimp from fishermen, blaming the rising value of the Canadian dollar, a dwindling global demand for seafood—and no more space to store the product because not all of last year’s shrimp harvest has been sold.

The decision leaves up to 2,000 plant employees out of work indefinitely.

Last year, the province processed about 30,000 tons out of a total global production of about 70,000 tons of coldwater shrimp.

Source: Google.com/Hostnews.  N.L. shrimp production shut down, processors blame weak market and high dollar.  Tara Brautigam (The Canadian Press).  June 2, 2009.

Europe

A Weak Shrimp Market

Demand for shrimp is decreasing in all the major European importing countries.  Compared to 2007, annual figures for 2008 indicate that shrimp imports decreased by 7% in Spain, 2% in France, 8% in the United Kingdom and 1% in Germany.  In general, the drop in demand was most noticeable among processed, chilled and value-added products.  The retail chain segment has reduced its orders significantly and stocks are said to be piling up as a result of consumers’ reduced purchasing power and reluctance to buy comparatively expensive products.

In nearly all European countries, consumers have adjusted their buying habits to the global economic downturn.  They save money by not eating in restaurants and not buying expensive food items—a trend that is expected to last for some time.  All EU countries are predicting more difficult times and a worsening economic situation for all of 2009, giving little likelihood that comparatively expensive food items, like shrimp, will register an increase in demand.  The period of Lent (40 days before Easter) is normally a good period for seafood consumption, particularly in Southern Europe.  This year, however, demand was below expectations.

It appears, though, that European consumers are not ready to completely give up festive foods and that, occasionally, they are ready to pay higher prices for high quality products, like wild-caught and organic shrimp.

Source: GlobeFish (from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations).  Shrimp Market Report/Europe.  Karine Boisset.  May 2009.

India

Pictures of the Shrimp Industry

To view eleven, big, beautiful, high-resolution photographs of the shrimp farming and shrimp fishing industries in India, click on the link below.

Source: BBC News.  Indian Shrimp Farming Industry.  June 7, 2009.

Ireland

Fake Shrimp

At a festival in Galway, one vendor advertised King Prawnies—a shrimp look-alike made from the much cheaper surimi, a minced fish paste, flavored, colored and shaped to look like big shrimp.

Source: Independent.ie.  It’s the end of the line for our fishing industry, warns film.  Roisin Burke.  June 7, 2009.

Malaysia

Penaeus vannamei Farming

Black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) was the species of choice for Leow Chuan Huat, but after three consecutive years of whitespot, followed by slow growth rates, he had no choice but to shift to the white shrimp (P. vannamei) at his farm in Bagan Lallang, Selangor.

When Leow started six years ago, he usually stocked 180,000 monodon postlarvae per hectare and production was good at 7 metric tons per hectare.  Gradually, however, production began to decline, hitting a low of 2.5 tons per hectare, and the slow growth rates continued.

Now, the farm gets a supply of specific pathogen free vannamei postlarvae as part of a deal with its feed supplier.  Growout survival is good at 80 to 93 percent.  In a 0.7-hectare pond, stocked with 600,000 postlarvae, output can reach 9.3 tons per hectare after 110-120 days.  The benchmark that Leow uses is that for each 100,000 PLs stocked, the maximum output is about 1.5 tons of 50-count-per-kilogram shrimp after 110 to 120 days.

Three partial harvests are usually completed before the final harvest.  The first harvest of 30% of the stock occurs when the shrimp reach 70-75 count per kilogram, followed by a second at 60 count per kilogram and a third at 55 count per kilogram.  The interval between harvests is 2-3 weeks, depending on the market situation.

Source: AQUA Culture AsiaPacific (Editor/Publisher, Zuridah Merican, email zuridah@aquaasiapac.com).  Marine Shrimp/Choosing vannamei shrimp.  Zuridah Merican and Khoo Eng Wah (a consultant who operates an aqua farming training center in Sepang, Selangor, Malaysia).  Volume 5, Number 3, Page 8, May/June 2009.

Myanmar

Finds an Outlet for Its Farmed Shrimp

Because of its appalling human rights record, the USA and European Union have imposed sanctions on Myanmar’s exports of farmed shrimp.  Myanmar even lost its market in Bangladesh for a while.  A businessman in Maungdaw, Myanmar, said, “For the past several months, we could not export shrimps to Bangladesh.  However, the obstacle is now somewhat over after negotiations between Bangladeshi and Myanmar businessmen.  Now shrimp from Myanmar are being exported to Bangladesh through the Maungdaw border trade zone...but the price is very low.  We have not made much profit from the business.  We do not want to export the shrimp to Bangladesh, but have no alternative country to export the shrimp to,” said the businessman.

Exporters sell number-one quality shrimp to Bangladesh for $6.52 a kilogram.  For number-two quality, the price drops to $4.64 a kilogram.  It is exported from the Teknaf Border Trade Zone in motorboats across the Naff River.

Myanmar businessmen have also opened a combined fish and shrimp sales center in Maungdaw, which also exports shrimp to Bangladesh.  According to a 2008 report, that sales center exported 100 tons of shrimp to Bangladesh.

Bangladesh has made it mandatory that shrimp from Myanmar be of standard quality and packaged for export to international markets.  Most shrimp from Bangladesh are exported to European and Middle Eastern countries.

Source: Narinjara.  Burma Exports Shrimp to Bangladesh at Low Prices.  June 5, 2009.

United Kingdom

Lobsters—Question on Eye Stalk Ablation

Magmus Johnson (m.johnson@hull.ac.uk): What is the time between eyestalk ablation and molting in adult northern lobsters?  Information: Dr. Magnus Johnson, Lecturer in Environmental Marine Biology, Director of Research Centre for Environmental and Marine Sciences, University of Hull, Scarborough Campus, North Yorkshire YO11 3AZ, United Kingdom.

Judith Weis (jweis@andromeda.rutgers.edu): It would depend on where they were in the molt cycle at the time, I would think.

Ernie Chang (eschang@ucdavis.edu): Ablation results in a molt interval that is about one-third that of adult lobsters.  The molt interval of your animals will of course depend upon factors such as size, nutrition and temperature, so it is difficult to state an absolute time period for a post ablation molt. You could roughly predict this if you knew the length of the previous molt interval.

Source: Crust-L, an email-based mailing list for crustacean scientists (To subscribe, send an email to LISTPROC@VIMS.EDU.  In the body of the email, put SUBSCRIBE CRUST-L).  Subject: [CRUST-L:4260] Eyestalk Ablation and Moulting.  June 4–5, 2009.

United States

Florida—AREA

Jason Mulvihill, president of AREA, a supplier of aeration, water systems and other equipment to shrimp hatcheries worldwide, reports: I am not sure if you are aware of our expansion.

We created a sister company—AQUATICAS CONSTRUCTION—to provide vertically integrated solutions to aquaculture facilities and other industries worldwide.  These services include:

• Consulting

• Systems/Facilities Design

• Bid Specifying

• Installation

• Project Management

• Start Up

• Commissioning

• Training

Information: Jason E. Mulvihill, President AREA and AQUATICAS CONSTRUCTION, 1088 West Mowry Drive, Homestead, Florida 33030, USA (phone 1-800-257-2732, fax 1-305-248-1756, email info@areainc.com, webpage http://www.areainc.com).

Source: Email from Jason Mulvihill to Shrimp News International on June 2, 2009.

United States

Maine—Greenpeace to Release Third Report Card on Supermarkets

On June 30, 2009, Greenpeace is scheduled to re-release a report ranking USA retailers according to their sustainable seafood purchasing policies.  This would be the third time the environmental activist organization has published Carting Away the Oceans: How Grocery Stores are Emptying the Seas, a 70-page report.

When the report was initially released in June 2008, all 20 supermarket chains cited in the report received a failing grade.  When it was re-released in December 2008, four retailers—Whole Foods, Ahold USA, Target and Harris Teeter—earned passing grades, or scores of 40 or more out of a possible 100, for strengthening their sustainable seafood purchasing policies.

On June 2, 2009, John Hocevar, oceans campaign director for Greenpeace USA, said this time around “there will be some interesting news to report, with some changes to the ranking order,” adding that some retailers have progressed “substantially”.

He also said, “Most disturbing, I think, is that several retailers have yet to address the sustainability of their seafood at all, despite the overwhelming data showing that changes are needed to prevent the collapse of many fish stocks.”

News of the report’s USA re-release comes about two weeks after Greenpeace Canada released Out of Stock, Out of Excuses for the second time, which again failed Canada’s eight major supermarket chains for employing inadequate sustainable seafood purchasing policies, or no policies at all.

Following the report’s re-release, Greenpeace activists targeted stores from British Columbia to Ontario.  At a Safeway store in British Columbia, four young Greenpeace activists were arrested for chaining and locking the doors of a frozen seafood case, filling a shopping cart with so-called red-list, or threatened, species and then wrapping yellow caution tape around the case and cart.  Since then Greenpeace activists have protested at Costco, Wal-Mart, Save-On-Foods and Metro stores.

Source: SeafoodSource.com.  Editor Steven Hedlund (shedlune@divcom.com).  Greenpeace to re-release U.S. retail report card.  Steve Hedlund.  June 2, 2009.

United States

New York—The Crustacean Society Excellence in Research Award

It’s time to put forth your nominations for the 2009 The Crustacean Society Excellence in Research Award.  Any carcinological researcher who has provided years of exemplary service to the field may be nominated.  A list of previous recipients can be found at http://web.vims.edu/tcs/?svr=www (look under Society Business in the white column on the left side of the screen).

Send all nominations to Chris Boyko at the address below.  Include a brief explanation on why the person was nominated and a CV if you have one.  No self-nominations!  The plan is to present the award (either in person or in absentia) at the Toyko meeting of the Crustacean Society on September 20-25, 2009.  All nominations must be submitted no later than June 30, 2009.

Information: Christopher B. Boyko, Division of Invertebrate Zoology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street,  New York, NY 10024 (fax1-212-769-5277, email cboyko@amnh.org).

Source: Crust-L, an email-based mailing list for crustacean scientists (To subscribe, send an email to LISTPROC@VIMS.EDU.  In the body of the email, put SUBSCRIBE CRUST-L).  Subject: [CRUST-L:4272] Nominations for 2009 TCSERA.  From: Christopher B. Boyko.  June 9, 2009.

United States

Washington DC—Subsidies for Shrimp Feed

The Associated Press reports: A federal stimulus package for the struggling aquaculture industry will include $50 million for feed subsidies.  The USA Department of Agriculture (USDA) will distribute the funds in the form of grants through state agriculture departments based on the amount of feed utilized in 2007.

Source: FIS United States.  Aquaculture industry gets USD 50 mln for fish feed.  Natalia Real (editorial@fis.com).  June 16, 2009.

United States

Washington DC—FDA’s Website

If you want to keep up-to-date with the USA Government’s laws, regulations, actions and announcements on the use of antibiotics in aquaculture, check out the link in the source below:

Source: USA Food and Drug Administration Website.  Animal and Veterinary.  Aquaculture.  May 27, 2009.

Venezuela

China and the Communitarian Shrimp Farm

A Chinese delegation is visiting Venezuela to develop joint projects in aquaculture and marine fisheries.  The possibility of building a 20-hectare, Communitarian Shrimp Farm is being evaluated in the state of Anzoategui.

Gilberto Gimenez, the president of the Socialist Institute of Fisheries and Aquaculture (INSOPESCA), said, “We are going to greatly boost shrimp consumption.  ...Now we have the possibility of driving a socialist shrimp farming model that will not only foster the creation of sources of work for the community, but will offer another food source for Venezuelans.”

Source: FIS United States.  China accord to ‘greatly boost’ shrimp production, consumption.  Analia Murias (editorial@fis.com).  Month Day 2009.

Yemen

New Project

On June 7, 2009, the Yemeni Ministry of Fisheries Wealth signed an agreement with Khalij al-Phil Company to build a fish and shrimp aquaculture project worth $16 million.  Khalij al-Phil will also set up a processing and marketing center for fishery products.

Source: The FishSite.  Yemen’s Shrimp and Finfish Project to Begin.  June 9, 2009.

Classified Advertisements