Bangladesh
Reclaiming Shrimp Farms from the Grabbers
In southeast Bangladesh, in the coastal areas around Cox's Bazar, in one small area, shrimp farmers have grabbed 12,000 out of 27,000 acres of public land.
Most of the grabbers are leaders of the ruling parties or members of the local government.
Officials have asked the illegal occupants to leave the lands immediately or face eviction.
The Chittagong Coastal Forest Department says land grabbing is increasing. In the last four years, it has filed 458 cases against 1,843 grabbers. The courts have ordered recovery of the grabbed lands, but no action has been taken to reclaim them.
Source: The Daily Star. Land grabbers asked to vacate coastal Parabon forests (http://www.thedailystar.net/2006/07/22/d607220702106.htm). July 22, 2006.
India
Tamil Nadu--Illegal Shrimp Farms to Be Removed
Tenkasi S. Jawahar, the District Collector (the most powerful government official in a district), has assured the people around Kollidam that steps will be taken to remove unauthorized shrimp farms.
Source: Newindpress.com. Illegal prawn farms to be removed: Collector (http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IET20060718033135&Page=T&Title=Southern+News+-+Tamil+Nadu&Topic=0). July 18, 2006.
Indonesia
Charoen Pokphand
Proteinaprima (CP Prima), the Indonesian shrimp farming unit of Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group, planned to raise $150 million from domestic and international investors, then scaled the offering back to $40 million, and then postponed it.
Source: FinanceAsia.com. Construction company completes first 2006 Indonesian IPO with international tranche (http://www.financeasia.com/article.aspx?CIaNID=34885). Anette Jönsson. July 17, 2006.
Indonesia/Japan
Transshipments
According to a July 11, 2006, report in Indonesia's Investor Daily, Japanese officials think that some shrimp exporters in Indonesia, using illegally obtained country of origin certificates, transshipped Chinese shrimp to Japan. The Japanese government asked the Indonesian government to stringently enforce and control its country of origin certificates.
Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service). Japan also looking into illegal shipments of Chinese shrimp from Indonesia. Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com). July 18, 2006.
Mexico
Josh Wilkenfeld
In response to an item on the Shrimp List, Josh Wilkenfeld, who manages a big shrimp hatchery in Sonora, Mexico, discussed some of the finer points of larval rearing:
"...You should be looking at this from the point of view of needing to keep a certain concentration of algae (and other feeds) in the water at all times. The early larval stages (zoeae-1 thru zoeae-3) are filter feeders and they eat continuously. It's basically in one end and out the other, entering as individual particles and coming out in the packaged form of fecal strands. Shrimp larvae are pretty inefficient at digesting and assimilating what passes through their guts, hence if you examine the fecal strands under a microscope, you will often be able to identify what they have been eating, because much of it will look pretty much the way it did going in. In fact, fecal strands are pretty good food, and it's always a remarkable site to see zoeae doing loop-de-loops while consuming there own fecal strands. So yes, they do have the ability to capture, hold onto and consume particles larger than single cells of algae, but still, their primary means of feeding is by filtration.
So for these larvae to feed efficiently, there has to be a certain minimal concentration of particles in the water for them to encounter and consume enough to stay alive. That number hardly changes whether you are stocking at 25 per liter or 250 per liter. Each larva still needs to run into the same number of particles of feed in order to stay alive. As points of reference, I usually try to keep a density of about 75,000 cells per ml of Chaetoceros, along with about 5,000-7,500 cells per ml of Thalassiosira, both of which are diatoms. (I'm afraid I have to disagree with Alec about the use of Isochrysis and/or Tetraselmis. Both of these are phytoflagellates and have very little nutritional value to shrimp larvae in comparison to diatoms, though Tetraselmis does have some antibacterial properties.) I also like to keep algae in the tanks all the way up through myses-3, if I have algae to spare, but there certainly should still be some in the tanks up through myses-2.
Even with a recirculating system, you should be able to get away with minimal water exchange up until zoeae-3, so you can probably avoid the issue of losing your algae as a result of constant flow through. However, if you do find that you want to work with a continuous flow through during the early stages, I would approach the problem based on how much water you are actually exchanging and how much algae you are taking out of the system. Then you would simply have to arrange a constant feed system to replace the algae on a continual basis. You could do this by setting up an elevated algae reservoir tank in your larval rearing area, so that you could gravity flow algae into the LRTs through a drip system."
Source: The Shrimp List (a mailing list for shrimp farmers, "shrimp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com"). Subject: RE: [shrimp] Re: larval algae consumption rates. From: josh.wilkenfeld@gmail.com. July 21, 2006.
Thailand
Heavy Rains Hurt Shrimp Farms
Heavy rains have forced shrimp farmers around Songkhla Lake, a large brackishwater bay in southeastern Thailand, to buy salt water to keep their businesses afloat. Sakda Mannantakul, who operates a large shrimp farm, said the price of salt water had more than doubled, from about $31 to $79 for a 15,000-liter load, delivered by a 10-wheel tractor trailer. The added cost has already pushed some shrimp farmers to the sidelines. Shrimp production from around the lake could drop by up to 50%.
Source: The Bangkok Post. Fishery: La Nina Weather Phenomenon/Rain hurting shrimp farms (http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/17Jul2006_news14.php). Assawin Pakkawan. July 17, 2006.
United States
Florida--Marine Shrimp in Freshwater
This exchange took place on AquaNic:
Request: We need information on farming marine shrimp in recirculating freshwater systems.
Response: Check out this link: http://www.hboi.edu/aqua/training_pubs.html.
[The above link takes you to the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution publications page. Scroll down the page until you come to "HBOI Manuals". The first manual listed is "Farming Marine Shrimp in Recirculating Freshwater Systems". You can download it for free, chapter by chapter, as a series of PDF files.]
Sources: 1. AquaNic (The Aquaculture Network Information Center, a gateway to the world's electronic aquaculture resources, http://aquanic.org/index.htm). Shrimp Discussion Group (http://ag.ansc.purdue.edu/discuss/shrimp.htm). Marine Shrimp in Fresh Water Information (http://www.aquanic.org/discuss/_shrimp/00000f79.htm). Request from: ptoincubator@hotmail.com. July 16, 2006. Response from: AcuaGenesis USA (gleon@yahoo.com). July 16, 2006. 2. Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution Webpage on July 21, 2006. 3. Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, August 1, 2006.
United States
Florida--Shrimp Survive Fire at Mote Marine Laboratory
On July 20, 2006, a six-alarm fire at Mote Marine Laboratory's Aquaculture Park in Sarasota destroyed a building used to raise sturgeon, along with 53,000 pounds of fish. Kumar Mahadevan, president of Mote Marine Laboratory, estimated the structural damage at $1 million to $1.5 million.
The Lab's shrimp research facilities were not affected.
Sources: 1. HeraldTribune.com. Fire a setback--but not a fatal one--for Mote sturgeon work (http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060722/NEWS/607220314). Kara Phelps. July 23, 2006.
United States
Hawaii--Ceatech, Welcome Back
The Hawaii Department of Health has approved a permit for Sunrise Capital to restart the Ceatech shrimp farm on the island of Kauai (south shore).
Source: Pacific Business News. Kauai shrimp farm permit approved (http://pacific.bizjournals.com/pacific/stories/2006/07/24/daily4.html). July 23, 2006.
United States
Kentucky--Will Prawn Farming Survive without Government Help?
Kentucky's Agricultural Development Board was created in 2000 to distribute millions of dollars of tobacco settlement money to help tobacco farmers find alternative crops. Also in Kentucky, the Agricultural Finance Corp makes loans to farmers for their first farm and to make capital investments in existing operations.
"Our goal is coordinating our vision for agriculture development in Kentucky," said Keith Rogers, the executive director of the Governor's Office of Agricultural Policy who also serves as executive director of both organizations, which have distributed millions and millions of dollars in loans, forgivable loans and grants. The Agriculture Development Board, for example, has distributed $212 million to projects ranging from buying new cattle chutes to helping open a farmer-owned ethanol plant in Hopkinsville that consumes vast quantities of corn.
But Rogers said the money is getting tighter. The Ag Development Fund totaled $18 million in Governor Ernie Fletcher's first year in office. But it shrank to $5.56 million in fiscal year 2005 and $1.96 million in 2006, although it is expected to rebound somewhat next year. "Fund resources will continue to dwindle for agriculture development in Kentucky," said Rogers.
At a July 18, 2006, two-hour meeting of the two organizations, the discussion among nearly two dozen members--farmers, agribusinessmen, ag lenders and state officials--was lively.
"I think we've got to put some big money out" to help create new markets for Kentucky ag products such as corn, wheat and soybeans, said Owensboro agribusinessman Billy Joe Miles, a member of the ag finance board. Miles criticized the state's subsidies of freshwater prawn farming. "They...dig a lake and sell $15 (per pound) shrimp in a bucket," Miles said. "But you could buy shrimp at Wal-Mart for $5.99. We loaned a lady $40,000 ... and she's bankrupt today."
Source: Courierpress. First-ever joint ag meeting held in Henderson (http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/jul/21/first-ever-joint-ag-meeting-held-here/). Chuck Stinnett (phone 800-288-3200, email cstinnett@thegleaner.com). July 21, 2006.
United States
Mississippi--Profitable Shrimp Farming in the USA
Ocean Springs...Scientists at the Gulf Coast Research Lab (GCRL, part of the University of South Mississippi's Coastal Science Department) are working to develop profitable shrimp farming in the USA.
In the laboratories and pools at its campus in Ocean Springs and in the greenhouse-like buildings at its Cedar Point facility, researchers are looking for ways to make shrimp farming an economically feasible enterprise that will put domestic shrimp on the plates of USA consumers.
Shrimp farming is a complex business that involves protecting the shrimp from disease, finding an environmentally safe way to raise them, and then making a profit. Jeff Lotz, chairman of the University of South Mississippi's Coastal Science Department, says, right now, that's not possible. Lotz says the problem is the influx of cheaper imported shrimp from countries like Thailand, Indonesia and India.
Part of the marketing strategy, Lotz said, is to highlight the health benefits of fresh shrimp. "Shrimp caught or grown here can be delivered iced and head on, which is good for things like shrimp boils. A lot of it is marketing. We have to find a way to interest consumers in paying higher prices for fresh shrimp."
Tom McIlwain, a retired professor and scientist at GCRL, said, "What we're looking to do is develop a system that will enable someone in Chicago to grow shrimp and to sell fresh to high end restaurants...." GCRL is developing an environmentally safe, recirculating system.
Source: Gulflive.com. GCRL researchers looking to develop shrimp as cash crop (http://www.gulflive.com/news/mississippipress/index.ssf?/base/news/1153649804277630.xml). John Surratt (email jsurratt@themississippipress.com, phone 228- 934-1427). July 23, 2006.
United States
Mississippi--Marketing Freshwater Prawns
Washington, DC...On July 14, 2006, Chuck Conner, a deputy secretary with the United States Department of Agriculture, announced matching grants for market research and demonstration projects in 25 states. "These grants will be used to explore new and innovative approaches to marketing USA food and agricultural products and to improve the efficiency and performance of our marketing system," said Conner.
Prawn farming (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) got one of the grants:
Mississippi...$50,425 to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce, in cooperation with the Kentucky Department of Agriculture and Mississippi State University, to identify key quality characteristics of freshwater prawns to use in marketing the product to consumers and high-end restaurants in the Central South region of the United States.
Source: United States Department of Agriculture Website. Newsroom/News Release (#0252.06). USDA awards grants for agricultural marketing projects (http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?contentidonly=true&contentid=2006/07/0252.xm). Ed Loyd (202-720-4623) and Joan Shaffer (202-720-8998). July 14, 2006.
United States
Washington, DC--Country of Origin
On July 18, 2006, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI, the nation's leading advocacy organization for the seafood industry) updated its members on the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) plans for implementing mandatory country of origin labeling of raw shrimp products in retail stores:
On July 26, 2006, in Kansas City, Missouri, USDA initiated the compliance phase of its country of origin labeling program. At a workshop for auditors from 14 state agriculture agencies, it offered a "train the trainer" type program. The training is intended to teach the selected state agencies what USDA wants to examine in retail stores.
NFI has learned that USDA will furnish the states with a list of stores they have selected for auditing and the state auditors will go into the field to conduct the inspections. This will occur sometime in August after USDA gives the states time to conduct additional training of auditors within their respective agencies. As envisioned by USDA, the state auditors will conduct their audits and will leave preliminary audit reports with store managers. The USDA will collect completed reports from the state auditors and then determine if follow up action is necessary. States are not authorized to take enforcement action directly, but they are empowered to audit and report their findings to USDA.
If audit results suggest significant violations were observed, USDA will write letters to stores citing the apparent violation(s) and provide 30 days for corrective response from the store. Assuming an adequate written response from the store, a follow up audit will be scheduled for a future date to check on the action taken by the firm. Failure to respond to the letter will trigger inspection by USDA with potential for enforcement action such as civil monetary penalties.
USDA plans to get 30 states covered in the next two years and will begin to audit some seafood suppliers before the end of 2006.
NFI will continue to monitor the progress of the USDA compliance program and will report on the training workshop. If you are part of the distribution chain for raw, imported shrimp in the USA, it is important that you keep good records. For a refresher on country of origin requirements and to see examples of records, go to: http://www.ams.usda.gov/COOL.
Information: Geraldine M. Thomas, Manager, Member Relations and Communications, National Fisheries Institute, 7918 Jones Branch Drive, Suite 700, McLean, VA 22102 USA (phone 703-752-8888, email gthomas@nfi.org, webpage www.nfi.org).
Source: National Fisheries Institute. Subject: NFI Member Alert: USDA to Initiate Cool Compliance. From: gthomas@nfi.org. July 18, 2006.
Vietnam
Production Statistics
So far in 2006, according to the Ministry of Fisheries, shrimp farmers have stocked 14.2 billion postlarvae in more than 604,000 hectares of brackishwater ponds.
Source: VietnamNetBridge. News Highlights: Business (http://english.vietnamnet.vn/reports/2006/07/593729/). July 21, 2006.
Vietnam
Tra Vinh Province
In the Mekong Delta, shrimp farmers in Tra Vinh Province have been producing tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) since 1989. The province now has over 1,000 hectares of intensive ponds. Some shrimp farmers raise oysters in their ponds. The oysters help clean the water, reduce diseases and contribute to profits.
By June 15, 2006, according to the Tra Vinh Department of Fisheries, more than 30,000 households in the province produced nearly 2 billion postlarvae. Because of bad climatic conditions, unstable water quality and low-quality postlarvae, pond survivals have not been good.
Crab farming, which started in 2005, has been successful. Crabs bring high prices, and the markets are stable.
Source: Nhan Dan. Tra Vinh diversifies aqua-culture models (http://www.nhandan.com.vn/english/business/150706/business_tra.htm). Dang Van Buong. July 15, 2006.
