Gulf American Shrimp

Wood’s Fisheries’ Shrimp Farm

On December 10, 2009, I interviewed Mark Godwin, president of Wood’s Fisheries, a family-owned, shrimp processing company in the Florida panhandle that has been in the shrimp business since 1860.  Today, Wood’s is mostly a processor/distributor/marketer of Wild American Shrimp—but it also runs Gulf American Shrimp, LLC, a 25-acre, semi-intensive shrimp farm not far from its modern processing plant in Port St. Joe.

Shrimp News: Hi Mark, I didn’t talk to you last year, so why don’t you give me a little update on your shrimp farming results in 2008 and then tell me about 2009.

Mark Godwin: Every year has been better than the one that preceded it.  In 2007, I stocked 25 postlarvae per square meter and produced 57,300 pounds (2,292 pounds per acre), but only got 35.5% survivals.  I bought postlarvae from OceanBoy [out of business] and everybody that stocked their PLs in 2007 had problems.  We did, however, have an average growth rate of 1.4 grams per week—which was encouraging.

In 2008, I stocked 30 animals per square meter and produced 73,593 pounds (2,900 pounds per acre), with survivals of 42%.  The jump in survivals made a big difference.  I had a decent growth rate of 1.3 grams per week.  My food conversion rate was 1.4.  Our FCRs have always been good.  Our efficiency with feed is what has allowed us to cover all our expenses.  We can produce a pound of shrimp with 1.4 pounds of feed; that’s very efficient.

In 2008, I bought postlarvae from Shrimp Improvement Systems and had no problems with it, but I didn’t get the postlarvae into the ponds until June 7th.  A lot of the shrimp farms in the United States received their animals late in 2008, and on top of that we had a spring flood that delayed us even more.  So, I lost five or six weeks at the beginning of the season.  My growout season was rather short.  I like to keep the shrimp in the ponds for at least 165 days.  In 2008, one pond had shrimp for only 136 days, another for only 140 days.  The longest any pond held shrimp was 157 days, and that pond was harvested late in the season (November 11-12, 2008) when the shrimp were not putting on much tail weight because of the cooler water temperatures.

Shrimp News: Tell me about 2009.

Mark Godwin: In 2009, we harvested 90,701 pounds, averaging 3,600 pounds per acre.  The food conversion ratio remained good at 1.53.  Survival averaged 43.4%.  I stocked a little more intensively in 2009, right at 39 PLs per square meter.  I got my ponds stocked on time (May 14, 2009) and had a nice long growout season.  All of the ponds held shrimp for over 160 days.  The last pond was harvested at 173 days.  Everything was better in 2009, except average growth rates, which were a little lower than what I’m accustomed to.  The average growth rate across the farm was 1.2 grams per week.  That could have been better.

Shrimp News: Can you make a go of it at these levels?

Mark Godwin: The farm has paid its operating expenses every year.  One of the encouraging things is that for the past three years our production costs per pound have remained about the same because of the way we manage our feed, which represent 37% of our operating costs, and that’s probably low compared to other shrimp farms.  That’s because our feed conversion ratios are so good.

Shrimp News: What are your plans for 2010?

Mark Godwin: We’re considering expanding the farm.  We have the numbers that show that it works, but we’ve got to be larger to make a good business out of it.  We’re looking at six more ponds, which would more than double our size, to a little over 50 acres.

One of our greatest assets is that we’re vertically integrated.  We have unloading docks, a processing plant, our own storage freezers, brand recognition, a marketing arm and now a shrimp farm.  For a shrimp farm to succeed on its own would be a very tough go.  This year, for example, would have been much worse for us if we didn’t have our own freezers for storage.  When the time came to harvest the ponds, shrimp prices were scraping along the bottom.  We were able to harvest the ponds, pack the shrimp under our brand, put them in our freezers and, hopefully, we will be able to sell them at a higher price when the market improves.  Not many small shrimp farms in the United States have that capability.

Information: Mark B. Godwin, President, Wood’s Fisheries, Inc., 464 Angel Fish Street, P.O. Box 927, Port St. Joe, Florida 32456, USA (phone 1-850-227-1517, fax 1-850-229-8414, email mark@woodsfisheries.com, webpage http://www.woodsfisheries.com).

Source: Mark Godwin, telephone interview by Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, on December 10, 2009.

Country Reports

Bangladesh

New Shrimp Inspection

Freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii) have been cleared for export to the European Union.  Now the EU is checking the country’s marine shrimp (Penaeus monodon) farming industry.  On January 18, 2010, an EU team arrived in Bangladesh to visit shrimp farms and processing plants to determine if the country’s shrimp exports meet European standards.  The team will evaluate the country’s protocols for controlling antibiotic residues in animals and animal products.  The future of the country’s exports to EU countries largely depends on the team’s report, said an official from the Bangladesh Department of Fisheries.

The EU team will check to see if unloading docks, depots, processing plants and farms in Chittagong, Cox’s Bazar and Khulna have enforced the health and hygiene standards it suggested in November 2009.  Experts say any deviation from the standards could lead to a bad report by the team and a possible ban on Bangladesh shrimp in 27 EU countries.

Source: The Financial Express.  EU Team on Crucial Shrimp Farm Visit, Exporters Wary.  January 20, 2010.

Bangladesh

Antibiotics

On January 19, 2010, Parliament passed a bill prohibiting the use of antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids and harmful pesticides in animal and fish feeds.  Abdul Latif Biswas, the Fisheries and Livestock Minister who proposed the bill, said, “[Currently], we cannot maintain the safety standard of fish and animal feed due to absence of law on this.  ...This obstacle has stood in the way of exporting shrimp....”

Source: BDNews24.com.  New Law Bans Harmful Ingredients in Fish, Animal Feed.  January 19, 2010.

China

Meeting of the International Crustacea Congress

“International Crustacea Congress 7” will be held in Qingdao, China, on June 20–25, 2010. You can download the announcement for it at http://www.vims.edu/tcs/icc7_announcement.pdf.  The website for the meeting is at http://www.crustacea.org.cn/7th/index.html.

Information: Organizing Committee for ICC7, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao 266071, China (phone +86-532-82898568, fax +86-532-82898578, email icc7qd@gmail.com, webpage http://www.crustacea.org.cn).

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).  Re: The second announcement of ICC7!  From Jeffrey Shields (jeff@vims.edu).  January 14, 2010.

Ecuador

Of 1,500 Unregistered Shrimp Farms, Only 400 Start the Registration Process

Only about 400 of the 1,500 illegal (unregistered) shrimp farms in Ecuador have initiated the registration process, a process the government says must be completed by March 31, 2010.

Registration requires that the farms:

• Affiliate workers with Social Security

• Make payments for health insurance

• Comply with mangrove reforestation plans

Some 2,500 shrimp farms exist in Ecuador, said Diego Rodriguez, head of the Coast Department of National Directorate of Aquatic Spaces, the entity that’s coordinating the registration process.  Of that total, 1,000 shrimp farms are fully documented and 1,500 operate illegally.

Companies that began their operations in 1999 will not be permitted to register because it was illegal to start a shrimp farm in Ecuador in 1999.  “Those shrimp farms will have to return the lands to the State,” Rodriguez said.

Source: FIS United States.  Just 400 Shrimp Farms Launch Regularisation Process.  Analia Murias (editorial@fis.com).  January 19, 2010.

Ecuador

El Oro Province—Conference

[Computer Translation]: “Machala Acuícola 2010” will be held in Machala, El Oro Province, on September 1–3, 2010.  The Technical University of Machala (Ecuador), the University of Nariño (Colombia), the University of Tumbes (Peru) and the Latin American Aquaculture Society Foundation organized the conference.  It will include technical presentations by international experts and a trade show.

Information: Lorena San Miguel (lorenasanmiguel@hotmail.com) and Johnnie Montealegre (jcmaqua@gye.satnet.net).

Source: Email to Shrimp News International from Johnnie Montealegre.  Subject: Machala Acuícola 2010.  January 22, 2010.

Indonesia

Conference Postponed

The International Conference and Exhibition on Shrimp Aquaculture (ICE-SA 2010), scheduled for the Jakarta Convention Center from May 5 to 7, 2010, has been postponed.  New dates will be announced.

Information: Dony Edwin, PT. Bimatama Inka, Gondangdia Building, 3rd Floor, Jalan R.P. Soeroso No. 25, Menteng, Jakarta 10330, Indonesia (phone 62-21-392-7958, fax 62-21-392-7961, email donyedwin@bimatama-inka.co.id).

Source: Email to Shrimp News International from Dony Edwin on January 13, 2010.

Thailand

Farmers Want Income Guarantees

Kanchit Hemarak, chairman of the shrimp farmers associations in eight southern provinces, has called on the government to replace the current price-pledging program with an income guarantee scheme similar to the ones it has established for other agricultural products.

Source: Seafood.com (an online, subscription-based, fisheries news service).  Thai Shrimp Farmers Demand Income Guarantee Program.  Editor and Publisher, John Sackton (phone 1-781-861-1441, email jsackton@seafood.com).  January 14, 2010.

United States

California—Shrimp News International, the Shrimp Sessions in San Diego

Hi, I’ve posted the shrimp farming program for the World Aquaculture Society Meeting in San Diego, California (March 2-5, 2010) to the Free Reports Page on this site.  I also included the agenda for the freshwater prawn session and a session on lobsters and crabs, and at the end of the report, you’ll find a list of shrimp papers that appear elsewhere on the program.  Altogether, there are more than a hundred shrimp or shrimp related presentations on the program.  Click here to view the complete shrimp program.

Source: Bob Rosenberry, Shrimp News International, January 27, 2010.

United States

Mississippi—Country of Origin Labeling in Restaurants

The Mississippi State Legislature is preparing a bill that would require Mississippi restaurants to notify customers of the country of origin of their seafood.

Steve Bosarge of Pascagoula, a member of the Mississippi Commission on Marine Resources and a shrimp fisherman, said that restaurants now must say where their shrimp comes from only if a customer asks.  “We want it to where they have to actually put it on the menu the country of origin as to where that shrimp came from,” Bosarge said.  The menu-labeling requirement would help shrimpers expand the market for their catch, he said.

Bosarge said that people who have taste-tested domestic shrimp versus foreign pond-raised shrimp find “there is a vast difference in taste, there is a vast difference in texture, and there is a vast difference in quality.”

Mike Cashion, executive director of the Mississippi Hospitality and Restaurant Association, opposes the labeling bill.  The supply of domestic shrimp is not adequate to meet public demand, Cashion said, “so we are reliant on foreign shrimp.”  Shrimp imports come from six to eight countries, Cashion said.  “The bottom line is you may get domestic shrimp on Monday and Ecuadorian shrimp on Friday.  You would have to reprint your menu every time you get a shrimp order in.”

Source: ClarionLedger.com.  Seafood Labeling Bill Urged.  January 18, 2010.

United States

South Carolina—Thinning Bioflocs

From abstract: In minimal-exchange, super-intensive biofloc systems, the bioflocs provide many benefits (nutrition, improvement in water quality); however, excessive biofloc accumulation can hinder shrimp performance.

This study examined the use of simple, side-stream settling chambers as a means of controlling the abundance of particles in the water column.  The study also compared water quality and shrimp production parameters between a commercial, fish-based diet and a diet formulated almost entirely from vegetarian components, including expelled soybean meal as its principle protein source.  The fish-based diet and the plant-based diet contained 35.7% and 36.4% crude protein and 11.0% and 10.8% total lipid, respectively.  The experiment was conducted in 3.35-meter-diameter outdoor tanks.  Shrimp were stocked at 460 m³ and grown for 12 weeks.

By the end of the experiment, settling chambers had removed 59% of suspended solids, decreased turbidity by 57%, reduced nitrate–nitrogen concentration by 60%, reduced phosphate concentration by 61%, and caused a 33% increase in alkalinity.  Settling chambers also contributed to significantly improved shrimp feed conversion ratios, biomass, growth rate and final weight.  Final shrimp biomass was 41% greater in treatments with solids management than those without.  Shrimp survival was not statistically different with or without settling chambers.  Water quality parameters were not statistically different between the two diet types, except for phosphate concentration, which, by the end of the experiment, was 34% lower in the tanks receiving the plant-based diet.  Shrimp production parameters were not statistically different between the two diets.

The study shows that controlling the concentration of particles in super-intensive shrimp culture systems significantly improves water quality and shrimp production.  Also, an environmentally friendly and potentially economical plant-based diet can produce results comparable to a fish-based feed in super-intensive shrimp culture systems.

Source: Aquaculture.  Suspended Solids Removal to Improve Shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) Production and an Evaluation of a Plant-based Feed in Minimal-Exchange, Super-intensive Culture Systems.  Andrew J. Ray (andrewjray@gmail.com), Beth L. Lewis, Craig L. Browdy and John W. Leffler (Waddell Mariculture Center, South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, 211 Sawmill Creek Road, Bluffton, South Carolina 29910, USA).  Volume 299, Issues 1-4, Pages 89–98, February 2010.

United States

Texas—Permian Sea Organics, Closed

According to a report in the Dallas Morning News, Permian Sea Organics, a 64-acre organic farm in West Texas, run by Bart and Patsy Reid, has closed down after losing its 2009 shrimp crop.  A family illness also played a role in the closing of the farm.  Before it closed, however, an author of a book on organic farming in Texas included a chapter on Permian Sea (and six big color pictures of the farm) in her book.

Here’s an excerpt from her chapter on Permian Sea Organics:

The Reids initially had their doubts about living in west Texas.  Patsy had never been to this part of the state, and Bart had not been there often.  “I’d been out there when I was in college and in grad school.  I used to go out there with some mammalogy people, bat people, and catch bats and do crazy things in the mountains,” he says.  But about the time their first child was born, Texas A&M had begun a shrimp aquaculture research project in Imperial, West Texas.  Bart knew some of the people involved and had heard enough from them to be intrigued.  “I came out for a while to watch what they were doing, and it looked promising,” Bart says.  A man he had worked with in Florida became interested, too, and told Bart he would finance a shrimp farm if Bart would run it.  “So in 1992, we moved, and I built the first commercial shrimp farm out here for someone else,” Bart says, “and ran it till 93.”  Then Bart built another farm for another man and ran it until 1997, when he was ready to build his own farm and go into business for himself.  “I’d had enough experience to have a lot of ideas about how to improve pond design and ecology and shrimp production, and I also really wanted to pursue organics,” he explains, “because for one thing, I was pretty much doing organic already and not getting credit for it or the premium and, second, I could see there was a trend.”

Information: Bart Reid, Permian Sea Organics, 901 East FM 11, Imperial, Texas 79743, USA (phone 1-432-536-2216, email reid_bart@yahoo.com).

Sources: 1. DallasNews.com.  Author Profiles Texas’ Organic Farmers.  Kim Pierce.  December 29, 2009.  2. Growing Good Things to Eat in Texas.  Pamela Walker.  Texas A&M University Press.  Permian Sea Organics: Aquaculture in the Desert.  Pages 79-91.  2009.

United States

Texas—Taura Research

From abstract: A comprehensive investigation of the strain of Taura syndrome virus (TSV) that caused epizootics on shrimp farms in Texas in 2004 revealed, in laboratory bioassays, that it was more virulent than the TSV reference isolate from Hawaii.  Histopathology of moribund animals demonstrated epithelial necrosis within the stomach, appendages, general body cuticle and gills.  Surviving animals demonstrated moderate to numerous lymphoid organ spheroids.  Purified virons showed an icosahedral morphology with a diameter of 31 nm.  Comparative genome analysis showed that the Texas isolate was more closely related to TSV isolates from Thailand and China than to the Hawaii isolate.

Source: SpringerLink.com.  Characterization of a Taura Syndrome Virus Isolate Originating from the 2004 Texas Epizootic in Cultured Shrimp.  Arun K. Dhar (arun_dhar@hotmail.com, Viracine Therapeutics Corporation, 7155-H Columbia Gateway Drive, Columbia, Maryland 21046, USA), Dilip K. Lakshman, Keenan Amundsen, Refugio Robles-Sikisaka, Krista N. Kaizer, Sribash Roy, Kenneth W. Hasson and F. C. Thomas Allnutt.  Published online on January 5, 2010.

Vietnam

New Disease in Humans—“Live Prawn Throat”

While fishing for freshwater prawns (Macrobrachium rosenbergii), Le Minh Nhut, 21, caught one—and then held it in his mouth while he decided what to do with it.  The prawn, not knowing much about human mouths, tried to escape down his throat, and there it became lodged.  Nhut was rushed to Can Tho General Hospital, where doctors removed the prawn.  They said he would have died if the prawn had not been removed.  Nhut is recovering, but is still hospitalized for an infection related to the injury, doctors said.

Source: ThanhnienNews.com.  Thanh Dung.  Prawn Removed from Man’s Esophagus in Southern Vietnam.  January 22, 2010.