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Marine Shrimp

Back in the 1970's Jacques Cousteau and others popularized the vision of "farming the seas". Since that time, perhaps the most successful form of ocean farming has been marine shrimp culture. 

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The technology now exists to bring selected adult shrimp (called broodstock) into reproductive readiness within on-shore tanks. This process is called maturation. The result of successful maturation is controlled spawning of eggs which quickly hatch into microscopic nauplii. Hatchery technology allows more than 60% of farm raised nauplii to reach post-larvae status (compared to fractions of 1% in the wild). Post-larvae can be sold and transported to separate farm facilities. These facilities can take the form of tanks, raceways or earthen ponds, some as large as 40 acres each.  Shrimp farming is now practiced in many countries around the world. There are just under an estimated 376,000 farms world wide covering about 3 million acres (source: World Shrimp Farming 1999). Most of these are in tropical, developing countries where climate, land values and labor costs make the business more economically feasible.  However, recent advances in clear water recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) and low or zero discharge biofloc systems are allowing indoor shrimp farms to reach market size of 22 grams in 90 days at densities of 500 shrimp per cubic meter.  This technology can make shrimp farming economically feasible in much of North America, Europe and the Caribbean where cool temperatures or limited suitable land made it impossible.

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The original vision of ocean farming was to mass produce inexpensive seafood to help feed the world's growing population, especially in developing countries. The modern reality of shrimp culture is to mass produce profits, promising jobs and an improved economy for the farming country.  During 1999 an estimated 814,250 metric tons (nearly 1.8 billion pounds) of shrimp were cultured (source: World Shrimp Farming 1999). This was a 10% increase over the previous year's production but not enough to keep up with the world's growing demand for shrimp. The industry still needs more investors with more good ideas on how to raise more shrimp, larger and faster with less land, less impact on the natural environment and more benefit to the producing countries.

Live Shrimp Prices

Pennaeus vannamei (a.k.a. Ecuadorian white shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei)

All our L. vannamei broodstock are considered "Disease Free/ High Health".  They are derived from Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) broodstock and then genetically selected for resistance to a variety of viral diseases such as Taura, White Spot and IHHN.    By definition, true SPF shrimp are only available from certain government approved facilities.  Once they leave those quarantine facilities, they are considered 'High Health".  SPF shrimp, although free of any specific disease or virus, are often a "blank slate", with no natural immunity or resistance to disease.  For this reason our shrimp often outperform SPF shrimp in real world growing conditions.  P. vannamei can be acclimated and grown at lower salinity water after the age of PL25.  Full strength seawater is 32 but some farms raise these shrimp as low as 3 ppt.  Low salinity culture is progressively more stressful on the shrimp and alters their final flavor.  But it may be an option for some shrimp farmers.

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Postlarvae PL 10 size   (0-150,000)                    $29.95/thousand

Postlarvae PL 10 size   (160,000-300,000)         $27/thousand

Postlarvae PL 10 size   (320,000-500,000)         $25/thousand

Postlarvae PL 10 size    (over 500,000)               Ask for quote

Postlarvae PL 25 size                                          $65/thousand

Adult shrimp 30 grams                                      $25 each

Broodstock shrimp, minimum 250 pairs          $120 each

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Pennaeus monodon (a.k.a Black Tiger prawn)

Black tiger prawns can grow very large and are farm raised in many parts of Asia.  But in recent years monodon culture has experienced many disease problems, both in the hatchery and the grow-out phases.  We do not currently have a good source for small quantities of post-larvae for culture in the USA.  Under certain conditions we can import or trans-ship larger quantities of 1 million or more PL from foreign hatcheries.  Please contact us for more information.

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Pennaeus duorarum (a.k.a. Pink shrimp, Farfante duorarum)

Pink shrimp are native to the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida.  In the wild, they like to burrow into the sand in current-rich areas, sometimes with only their eye stalks exposed.  Duplicating this environment on a commercial scale has been difficult.  There are no commercial grow-out facilities using pink shrimp that we know of.  But culture to a medium size for bait shrimp in the Southeast USA is possible.

 

Postlarvae PL 10 size                                              Call for availability

Wild caught medium and adult                             $1.75 each 

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