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CCOASTALOASTAL HHERITAGEERITAGE VOLUME 16, NUMBER 1 SUMMER 2001

Shrimp Challenges and Potential

SUMMER 2001 • 1 CONTENTS

ces Waddell 3 AQUACULTURE: CHALLENGES AND POTENTIAL Booming global trade enables animal viruses to race around the world.

Now aquatic farmers and researchers are finding new strategies to contain them. SPEES PHOTO/WADE Coastal Heritage is a quarterly publication of the S.C. Grant Consortium, a university-

7 based network supporting research, , m ponds. AS FOOD FOR FISH and outreach to conserve coastal resources and Environmentalists and aquaculturists battle over issues regarding enhance economic opportunity for the people of South Carolina. Comments regarding this or cultured species fed high-protein diets. future issues of Coastal Heritage are welcomed. Subscriptions are free upon request by contacting: 14 ry pathogens into far S.C. Sea Grant Consortium EBBS AND FLOWS 287 Meeting Street Charleston, S.C. 29401 phone: (843) 727-2078 ON THE COVER e-mail: [email protected] Giant “specific-pathogen-free” shrimp are kept in contained systems at Executive Director Atlantic Farms on James Island. These shrimp have undergone rigorous testing for M. Richard DeVoe viruses and other pathogens, and their offspring are sold to farmers in Director of Communications South Carolina and around the world. PHOTO/WADE SPEES Linda Blackwell

Editor

greenhouse, says Jeff Bruce, greenhouse, wildlife biologist at the S.C. Dept. of Natural Resour

John H. Tibbetts ”

e Art Director Patty Snow

biosecur

“ Contributing Writer Susan Ferris  Board of Directors The Consortium’s Board of Directors is composed of the chief executive officers of its member institutions:

Dr. Leroy Davis, Sr., Chair

ming technology could be the

President, S.C. State University could keep out animals that can car farmers water, eenhouses with recirculating James F. Barker President, Clemson University Dr. Raymond Greenberg President, Medical University of South Carolina Major General John S. Grinalds President, The Citadel Dr. Ronald R. Ingle MAKING A SPLASH. To President, Coastal Carolina University increase production, shrimp

farmers use paddlewheels that Dr. John M. Palms The next major step in shrimp-far improve water quality by President, University of South Carolina mixing pond water and raising Judge Alex Sanders dissolved oxygen levels in President, University of Charleston, S.C. ponds. PHOTO/WADE SPEES Dr. Paul A. Sandifer Executive Director

HIGH SECURITY. S.C. Department of Natural Resources By raising shrimp in enclosed gr Center.

2 • COASTAL HERITAGE Shrimp Aquaculture Challenges and Potential Booming global trade enables animal viruses to race around the world. Now aquatic farmers and researchers are finding new strategies to contain them. By John H. Tibbetts

ntil a few decades ago, peasants cultivating When aquaculture suddenly modernized in the late family or communal ponds grew nearly all of the twentieth century, it faced similar challenges. Aquacul- U world’s farm-raised fish and . Farmers in ture is now the fastest growing food-production system in poor countries, particularly in Asia, used ancient tech- the world. And just three decades from now, aquatic niques to raise modest harvests of or shrimp, which farming could provide the largest source of fish and they consumed or sold to neighbors and nearby markets. shellfish for human consumption. Yet while aquaculture By contrast, farmers who raised beef, chicken, and has grown swiftly, it has also experienced growing pains, sheep have been an important cog in industrial economies including devastating infectious diseases. for a long time. In the mid-nineteenth century, American Aquaculture’s revolution began during the 1970s, investors built sophisticated networks of railways, stock- when the World Bank and international aid organizations yards, slaughterhouses, and processing plants to deliver became concerned about a deepening hunger problem in livestock from the Great Plains and the rural Midwest to poor countries. As human populations skyrocketed, urbanites hungry for . As animals were crowded into experts worried that hundreds of millions of people would tighter and tighter quarters for greater efficiency, livestock suffer malnutrition. So international agencies began diseases had more opportunity to spread rapidly. But by aggressively promoting aquaculture in developing then, scientists had made progress in identifying livestock countries as a way to provide a crucial source of animal pathogens and setting up quarantines to prevent and protein and nutrients for the poor and to promote eco- control epidemics. nomic development.

SUMMER 2001 • 3 During the last quarter of the Department of Aquaculture’s U.S. GLOBAL MARKETS twentieth century, worldwide Program population ballooned from four and the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium. Shrimp aquaculture for interna- billion to six billion, and most of this But in the mid-‘90s, the South tional export markets is only a few growth occurred in the developing Carolina became a victim decades old. During the late 1960s world. In the same period, wild fish of virus epidemics incubated in and early 1970s, researchers in harvests leveled off, reaching a poorly sited and managed ponds Taiwan, China, France, and the plateau in the 1990s. Now about overseas. Global trade allowed United States began exploring the three-quarters of the major marine virulent animal viruses to move potential of shrimp farming, all are harvested at least to from country to country, continent searching for better methods of their maximum limits, according to to continent, until they reached breeding and raising in The State of World and here. ponds, while struggling with issues Aquaculture 2000, a report by the In recent years, lowcountry of nutrition and disease. United Nations Food and Agriculture shrimp farming took a severe In the United States, the Organization (FAO). There is little or pounding. Seventeen local farms, National Sea Grant College Program no room for growth in international with a total of 262 acres, produced supported research on shrimp- wild harvests, experts say. more than a million pounds of aquaculture technologies at coastal So where can we find more fish universities. Investors learned about to feed the world? Aquaculture will these new technologies and traveled provide most of it, experts say. From to Latin America, setting up shrimp 1984 to 1999, aquaculture produc- So where can we find more farms, hatcheries, feed mills, and tion expanded from 7 million to 33 processing plants. In the late million metric tons. Today, aquacul- fish to feed the world? 1970s, Ecuador became the first turists provide one-third of the country in Latin America to build a Earth’s total food fish supply. major shrimp-farming industry, But along with this remarkable Aquaculture will provide most selling their product primarily to the worldwide growth has emerged United States. problems of success, particularly of it, experts say. Today, The first Asian boom arrived in catastrophic animal diseases. Since Taiwan, also during the late 1970s, its beginnings 25 years ago, for aquaculturists provide when farmers learned how to grow example, high-production shrimp large numbers of shrimp in small farming has been a boom-and-bust one-third of the Earth’s total ponds, and distributors sold the phenomenon. Nearly all of the product for a premium in the interna- farmed shrimp in the world is grown tional marketplace, particularly to in South American and Asian food fish supply. Japan. Suddenly dozens of Taiwanese countries, such as Taiwan, Thai- farmers became millionaires. land, Indonesia, and Ecuador. Yet Word quickly spread to other virtually every country with a major countries about fabulous profits shrimp-farming industry in the shrimp in 1994. Five years later, available in shrimp. In the 1980s, 1980s and early ‘90s suffered viral there were only 10 local farms, with a China, Thailand, Indonesia, and the epidemics, which do not affect total of 62 acres, producing 154,000 Philippines became leaders in human health, and production pounds. Partly due to virus problems, cultured production. In southern crashes. In Asia alone, shrimp the U.S. shrimp farming industry has Thailand during the 1980s, “shrimp viruses cost farmers about $1 billion remained tiny. A 1998 survey showed farming was a gift from the heavens,” a year since 1994. that only 20 U.S. farms were in even for landowners with only In the 1980s and early ‘90s, a operation, with an estimated 400 enough space to build a single pond, small band of South Carolina hectares (988 acres) in growout writes anthropologist Mike shrimp farmers started building a ponds, located in South Carolina and Polioudakis in World Shrimp Farming domestic industry. They were Texas. 2000, an industry overview. “Some encouraged by the pioneering work Recently, however, lowcountry went from subsistence farmers to car of the S.C. Department of Natural shrimp farming has made a modest ownership to private schools for their Resources (DNR) Waddell Maricul- comeback, with the largest farm in children in less than one year.” ture Center and shrimp-aquaculture South Carolina stocking shrimp Few people in Illinois or Ken- research funded by the U.S. again for the first time in two years. tucky or even upstate South Carolina

4 • COASTAL HERITAGE PICK OF THE LITTER. These juvenile shrimp at the Waddell Mariculture Center are part of an ongoing study of animals grown in greenhouses. The shrimp are routinely sampled and examined for health and growth. Some researchers believe that raising shrimp in enclosed environments with recirculating water could be an answer to future viral threats. Farmers could use greenhouses to grow shrimp anywhere in South Carolina. PHOTO/WADE SPEES

SUMMER 2001 • 5 regularly ate shrimp 25 years ago. It was Indonesia’s shrimp-aquaculture industry, for considered a luxury seafood, enjoyed on example, provides 150,000 jobs in produc- rare vacations to the coast. But dietary tion, processing, transportation, marketing, Seafood alliance patterns began changing when seafood and related service activities; Ecuador’s farms distributors marketed frozen shrimp around generate 160,000 direct and indirect jobs. South Carolina’s fish the nation. Grocery stores opened special farmers and commercial seafood displays and counters; chain SPREADING VIRUSES fishermen are teaming up with representatives of the food restaurants advertised shrimp dishes. Some and beverage industries to health-conscious Americans shifted from In the or estuary, shrimp carry market the state’s seafood. eating beef to fish and shellfish. The viruses that usually do not affect their health. Members of the new S.C. Seafood Alliance include international hit movie “Forrest Gump,” But when a farmer in Asia or South America “anybody who has anything to featuring a holy fool who became a trawl takes post-larval shrimp—generally a few do with seafood from the time shrimper, also boosted sales. The U.S. has a weeks old after hatching— from the wild and it’s harvested until it’s on the dinner plate,” says Darlene larger trade deficit in shrimp than in any grows them in a densely crowded pond, the Dopson, the group’s acting other product but one: petroleum. shrimp can become stressed and vulnerable executive director. New global markets for shrimp helped to latent viruses. Or when an overseas farm The alliance fills a need for cooperation among various “an economic revolution in all fish draws in untreated and unfiltered water sectors of the seafood trade,” a $53 billion industry, says Christo- laden with tiny wild shrimp infected by industry, she says. “We’re the pher Delgado, senior research fellow at the viruses, the pond shrimp can get infected only (coastal) state that doesn’t have a marketing International Food Policy Research too. As ill shrimp die, they are cannibalized program for its seafood Institute. In value terms, shrimp is the by healthy ones, spreading disease among the products.” primary fish commodity sold worldwide— pond’s population. It hasn’t been easy bringing all the disparate interests worth an amazing one-fifth of the total value Lured by high profits, overseas farmers together, says Dopson, whose of internationally traded . converted coastlines into shrimp operations husband and father are “Fifteen years ago,” says Delgado, “fish during the 1980s and early ‘90s. To reduce Beaufort County shrimpers. was a major product of the North, essen- stress on their aquaculture stocks, overseas The alliance includes crabbers, fishermen, tially shipped south.” Now it’s the other farmers would routinely release about 20 shrimpers, oystermen and way around. Poorer countries in the percent of each pond’s water into estuaries. others who harvest shellfish, Southern Hemisphere are the primary In some cases, viruses were allowed to restauranteurs, seafood packers, distributors, and producers, catching and farming seafood to escape. Then neighboring aquaculturists aquaculturists. send to richer nations in the Northern pumped in untreated water from the same “Uniting the seafood Hemisphere, Delgado points out. “The total source. Thus pond conditions deteriorated, industry is the biggest challenge,” Dopson says. “But value of net fish exports from developing and viruses spread swiftly from farm to farm. people in various industry countries to sectors are recognizing that developed they need a common vehicle to market South Carolina countries is seafood. They recognize they overwhelmingly have many of the same products like problems, and similar regulation, management, and shrimp and is resource issues.” more important International seafood in value than industry groups are trying to move in the same direction. coffee, tea, Consumers don’t differentiate cocoa, sugar, between farm-raised and wild- and bananas caught seafood, notes George combined.” Chamberlain in a recent issue of Global Aquaculture For certain Advocate, a trade magazine. developing The alliance is working to build countries, relationships with fisheries organizations worldwide. shrimp farming, “When one portion of the like interna- seafood industry is attacked, tional , the entire industry suffers, offers needed and when one is praised, we SIGN OF THE TIMES. This sign at the Waddell Mariculture Center in Beaufort all benefit.” foreign currency County reflects growing concern about shrimp viruses slipping into research facilities and and jobs. farms. PHOTO/WADE SPEES

6 • COASTAL HERITAGE Birds also ate infected shrimp in a pond and later defecated the virus into another pond miles away; the for fish disease leapfrogged along coast- lines. Suddenly, epidemics raced The growing demand for farm-raised shrimp, , , and other around the world in broodstock, species fed high-protein diets could harm wild fish stocks, according to an post-larval shrimp, and food article published in June 29, 2000 issue of scientific journal Nature. The rapid rise in aquaculture production “is a mixed blessing . . . for the shrimp. sustainability of ,” writes a team of scientists and econo- “When you increase the mists. Overall, aquaculture production adds to world fish supplies, the intensity of production, you authors say. But aquaculture operations that raise these species are generally increase the potential for indirectly threatening biologically important wild fish populations. catastrophic diseases,” says Jack To grow species quickly and to enhance their flavor, farmers use Whetstone, aquaculture specialist processed food—fishmeal and oil—made from small, pelagic species harvested from the ocean, including from the Gulf of Mexico, with the S.C. Sea Grant Extension Peruvian , Icelandic , Norwegian , and sand Program. from the . As international trade spreads It takes about three pounds of processed wild-caught fish to grow one into every corner of the world, pound of salmon or marine shrimp, according to the Nature authors, catastrophic livestock diseases have though other researchers argue that these numbers are outdated. In become headline news. In March 1999, it took 2.73 pounds of to grow one pound of salmon, and about 2.08 pounds of pelagic fish to grow one pound of shrimp, 2001, for example, U.S. officials according to Albert Tacon, aquaculture nutritionist based in Hawaii. In any banned imports of animals and case, harvesting huge amounts of small forage to feed cultured animal products from Europe after species disrupts marine food chains, according to the Nature article. learning that foot-and-mouth About one-third of the annual global wild fish harvest is used as food for disease had spread from Britain to various forms of livestock, including poultry and cultured fish and shell- France. This highly contagious fish. virus, which affects cattle, sheep, But the fish-feed controversy is overblown, say some aquaculture experts. Four countries produce most of the fish used in fishmeal and oil pigs, and other cloven-footed worldwide: Peru, Chile, , and . Forage-fish stocks rise and animals, has been reported in fall dramatically from year to year. There are severe fluctuations in Argentina and Uruguay. Although harvests during El Nino~ years, posing no threat to human health, which disrupt fish the virus could cost American populations offshore farmers billions of dollars if it from Peru and northern Chile. arrives here. But these Shrimp viruses are a similar nations have concern, says George Chamberlain, strict regulations to president of the Global Aquacul- ensure that fish populations are not over-harvested, according to Ronald ture Alliance, an industry group. Hardy, director of the Hagerman Fish Culture Experiment Station at the Shrimp farmers overseas paid scant University of Idaho. The world’s poultry growers use the largest proportion of fishmeal, attention to potential diseases until though they have scaled back due to its high cost over the past decade. the virus catastrophes of the early Aquaculture producers meanwhile have picked up the slack. If aquacultur- ‘90s, he points out. “It’s hard to ists didn’t buy fishmeal, then poultry producers would purchase more of it, imagine sending chicken or pigs Hardy says. around the world with no The vast majority of animals grown on fish farms—, , biosecurity measures” to control , and milkfish—live on diets consisting primarily of plant food and the spread of infectious diseases. minimal amounts of fishmeal. Filter feeders, such as clams, , , and some kinds of carp, do not directly consume fishmeal in their Biosecurity measures include diets. But carnivorous fish and shellfish require high-quality protein in their quarantine procedures for diet, which is supplied by top-grade fishmeal. broodstock, sanitary disposal of Both sides agree that it’s a good idea to reduce dependence on fish dead animals, and establishment of products to grow carnivorous animals. There are limited supplies of certification programs for disease- pelagic fish, so researchers are seeking substitutes for high-quality protein diagnosis laboratories. in vegetable and grain products. “If you want this (aquaculture) sector (of marine shrimp and salmonids) to keep growing, you have to base that “Diseases are part of the growth on ingredients that can keep pace,” such as vegetables and regular growth of a livestock grains, says Tacon. industry,” says Whetstone. “We

SUMMER 2001 • 7 Aquaculture systems

There are three basic systems used in shrimp aquaculture. In the first system, traditional farmers use a variety of techniques collectively called “extensive aquaculture.” On extensive shrimp farms, aquaculturists allow wild post-larval shrimp to flow with tides through open gates into low-lying manmade impoundments along bays or tidal rivers. Then farmers close gates, trapping young shrimp within the ponds before the tides go out. Although these farmers don’t directly feed their stock, some do add organic or inorganic fertilizers to stimulate growth of and other organisms, which the crustaceans feed on. Stocking densities are generally low. For shrimp, extensive farmers stock about 25,000 postlarve (or young shrimp) per hectare (a metric unit of area equal to 2.471 acres). The second type of aquaculture system is called “semi-intensive,” in which farmers add feed for captive should’ve better anticipated the virus farmers try to produce more on the animals. In semi-intensive shrimp farms, built above the problems in shrimp aquaculture,” though existing resource, one of the first major high-tide line, farmers crowd some U.S. farmers and researchers were problems to arise is fish disease,” says animals together in moderate aware of the catastrophic disease threat Meryl Williams, director general of the densities—100,000 to 300,000 postlarve per and were working to address it. International Center for Living Aquatic hectare. Disease outbreaks are a symptom of Resources Management (ICLARM), The third kind of system, larger issues, says Jason W. Clay, aquacul- headquartered in Malaysia. “We’ll “intensive,” provides all nutritional requirements for ture expert with the World Wildlife Fund. continue to see enormous problems with farmed shrimp. On intensive To cope with potential diseases, overseas fish disease in the future.” shrimp farms, the ponds are farmers used certain management tech- Most observers agree that shrimp small, constantly managed, with heavy feeding and high niques that harmed coastal water quality. farming causes few, if any, impacts when densities—more than That is, many overseas farmers attempted properly conducted. To improve their 300,000 postlarve per to reduce stress on their pond animals by environmental record, well-capitalized hectare. Farmers aerate ponds with paddlewheels or releasing large amounts of nutrient-rich overseas shrimp farms, especially in other tools to add oxygen to wastewater into estuaries, contributing to Asia, have already changed how they the water. Most U.S. shrimp algal blooms under certain conditions. grow crustaceans. “Large farmers have farms are intensive systems due to the high cost of Farmed salmon and other finfish better access to (technical experts) who coastal land. have also been plagued by disease. “As can teach them,” says Clay. “Many of aquaculture enterprises intensify, and the poorer farmers do the most damage

8 • COASTAL HERITAGE PLUSH ACCOMMODATIONS. South Carolina’s farmers have implemented a number of management improvements since the viral outbreaks of the 1990s, says Al Stokes, facility manager at the Waddell Mariculture Center in Beaufort County. Farmers have lessened animal crowding in ponds and decreased the amount of water pumped in and out of farms. They installed finer mesh screen in water pipes, reducing the chance of introducing pathogens, predators, and competitors. They also double-screened discharge pipes to prevent releases of farm shrimp to the wild. PHOTO/WADE SPEES

farming does not need further regulation, he says. Domestic shrimp farmers have worked hard to develop “green” businesses here. They run cleaner, more sophisticated operations than many overseas. Even so, U.S. aquacul- turists must still confront potential epidemics plaguing other parts of the world. To address the problem, U.S. farmers and researchers continue refining biosecurity systems and best management practices in shrimp aquaculture.

INDUSTRY REFORMS (to the environment) and have the president of both the S.C. Aquacul- least information available to ture Association and the S.C. Shrimp aquaculture grew too improve their practices.” Shrimp Growers Association, Eager quickly in some developing countries, Conservation groups have points out that aquaculture does most observers agree. In the boom sharply criticized Asian and Latin vastly more good than harm and years, governments were so eager to American operations, which that fish and shellfish farming in the encourage lucrative shrimp farms that produce nearly all of the farmed United States, by and large, is an they failed to establish or enforce shrimp worldwide. Recently, environmentally responsible coastal environmental protections. environmental groups also stepped industry. Certain sectors have been “driven up criticism of the domestic “It’s guilt by association,” says mainly by market forces, short-term industry, calling for tighter state Eager, who lost a crop to taura profits, and in many developing and federal regulations. syndrome virus in 1996 and now countries, export earnings,” says Meryl South Carolina farmers say grows native shrimp for local bait Williams. “We’ve tended to muddle they are unfairly tarred by overseas markets. “Some of the Third World through,” she adds. “Present aquacul- blunders. “U.S. aquaculture is countries have poor environmental ture practices are far from ideal. taking a bad rap,” says Rick Eager, records. But U.S.—and particularly Aquaculture is an industry that the his voice rising in frustration. South Carolina—aquaculture is world needs, but we’ve certainly got to Owner of Swimming Rock Fish & already tightly watched and get it right.” Shrimp Farm near Meggett and regulated.” American shrimp Despite urgent needs for reform,

SUMMER 2001 • 9 most nations still have not follow tougher rules for testing, established policies and regula- confinement, and destruction of Reading: tions that address how shrimp animals if a virus is found. And farms should be installed and local farmers must buy virus-free • Boyd, Claude E. et al. “Codes of operated, according to a 1999 young shrimp only from hatcher- Conduct for Marine Shrimp Aquacul- ture.” In The New Wave, Proceedings of report by the Global Aquacul- ies that undergo rigorous testing, the Special Session on Sustainable ture Alliance. The report points according to the standards Shrimp Culture, Aquaculture 2001. out that “it will be many years established by the U.S. Marine Baton Rouge, La.: World Aquaculture before most nations will be able Shrimp Farming Program. Society. to formulate and enforce State and federal grants • Boyd, Claude E. Codes of Practice for reasonable regulations for shrimp have helped support a hatchery Responsible Shrimp Farming. St. Louis: Global Aquaculture Alliance, 1999. farming.” at Atlantic Farms on James The situation is changing for Island, which produces virus-free • Chamberlain, George. “The Dream of a the better, however, as some young shrimp for area growers. United Seafood Industry.” Global Aquaculture Advocate, Feb., 2001. countries tighten environmental “If your broodstock is free of any laws in coastal areas. Recent diseases, and you have disease- • Goldburg, Rebecca and Tracy Triplett. Murky Waters: Environmental Effects of epidemics, moreover, have free offspring, then you have Aquaculture in the United States. prompted sophisticated farmers your best shot at resisting Washington, D.C.: Environmental to re-evaluate how they do diseases,” says Knox Grant, Defense Fund, 1997. business. Many farmers recognize manager of Atlantic Farms. • Lindbergh, Jon. “Salmon Farming in that they need better husbandry The tougher permit require- Chile: Do the Benefits Exceed the methods to reduce pathogen ments and the local hatchery Costs?” Aquaculture Magazine, March/ April, 1999. risks. Now the Global Aquacul- have been successful, so far. The ture Alliance is encouraging state’s farms were virus-free in • Moss, Shaun M. “Greening of the Blue voluntary reforms of shrimp 1999 and 2000. Now U.S. Revolution: Efforts toward Environmen- tally Responsible Shrimp Culture.” In farming practices through “codes shrimp farms are under the The New Wave, Proceedings of the of practice.” Aquaculture strictest regulatory structures in Special Session on Sustainable Shrimp associations in some major the world, says Eager. Culture, Aquaculture 2001. Baton shrimp farming nations, includ- But epidemics remain a Rouge, La.: World Aquaculture Society. ing Thailand and Eduador, are threat. “When some overseas • Naylor, Rosamond L. et al. “Effect of adopting environmentally shrimp farmers find a disease in Aquaculture on World Fish Supplies.” Nature, June 29, 2000. friendly codes of conduct. their ponds, they immediately South Carolina shrimp harvest their shrimp,” says Dale • The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2000. Rome: United aquaculturists have implemented Theiling, assistant director of the Nations Food and Agriculture Organiza- a number of management DNR Office of Fisheries Manage- tion. improvements since last decade’s ment. “That way they can get a • World Shrimp Farming 2000. Bob outbreaks to address diseases product out of their ponds, even if Rosenberry, Ed. San Diego: Shrimp coming from outside the farms. it’s a smaller size. These shrimp go News International. They lessened animal crowding on the market, and wherever the in ponds and decreased the shrimp go, the virus goes.” amount of water pumped in and Virtually all shrimp imported for humans or for bait),” says Theiling, out of farms. They also installed to the United States is funneled “and much of this shrimp is known to be finer mesh screen in water pipes, through giant distributing infected with a virus. But (DNR officials) reducing the chance of introduc- companies that handle both wild- have no control over imports of food ing pathogens, predators, and harvested and farm-raised shrimp. A lot of these smaller shrimp are competitors. They also double- crustaceans from around the sold at shrimp docks or other facilities, screened discharge pipes to world. Distributors freeze the where people may ‘head’ their shrimp, and prevent releases of farm shrimp animals and sell them to grocery the heads go into our native waters, to the wild. stores and restaurants and potentially introducing the disease (to local In South Carolina, DNR docks, where small shrimp are wild stocks).” has designed strict permitting used for bait. From wild stocks, a virus can slip into guidelines for non-native shrimp “We know there are thou- shrimp ponds, and then it can spread culture. Farmers must submit sands and thousands of pounds of rapidly to nearby farms, starting an epi- extensive operations plans and shrimp being imported (as food demic on the farms.

10 • COASTAL HERITAGE DRY. South Carolina shrimp farmers allow their ponds to dry out during the winter months. Sunlight oxidizes and removes organic material and fecal matter that build up on the pond bottom. The dark, cracked layer shown on this pond bottom is dried algae. PHOTO/WADE SPEES

SUMMER 2001 • 11 THE FUTURE the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, concerned about potential U.S. shrimp farmers face challenging nutrient pollution, is considering tougher years ahead. “This is a very difficult minimum standards on discharges by many period,” says Whetstone. The overseas industries, including aquaculture. disease threat is probably not going away. The agency is gathering information Aquaculturists have difficulty raising on discharges from various kinds of enough money to invest in new equip- aquaculture production systems and 13 ment because many lenders and investors cultured species, according to Marta Contacts: are wary of the industry’s potential risks. Jordan, EPA engineer and project manager. George Chamberlain, Standard federal crop does not If EPA decides to regulate certain produc- Global Aquaculture Alliance, cover most forms of aquaculture. And tion systems or species, the agency could (314) 293-5500. investors get scared away from marine require some farmers to upgrade their Darlene Dopson, aquaculture by coastal property’s high water-treatment facilities. This would be S.C. Seafood Alliance, cost. After farmers have spent money on cost-prohibitive for farmers, local aquacul- (843) 838-3281. coastal land to start a shrimp operation, turists say. Or EPA could demand more

Rick Eager, they’ve used up a lot of their capital. rigorous management practices, such as Swimming Rock Fish and Moreover, as property values rise on the requiring farmers to hold wastewater in Shrimp Farm, coast, so do taxes. Some farmers could be settling ponds before discharging it. U.S. (843) 889-2622. forced to choose between growing shrimp farmers might have to spend money to Betsy Hart, or selling off their land to developers. retrofit aquaculture ponds or build new National Aquaculture Assoc., Growing shrimp and other marine ones as waste-settling ponds. Another (803) 333-9991. foods in the United States is Jason Clay, costlier than in developing World Wildlife Fund, nations. Labor and waterfront (202) 778-9691. land are far more expensive Dale Theiling, SCDNR, here. Moreover, lowcountry (843) 762-5079. farmers compete with overseas aquaculturists who comply with Christopher Delgado, IFPRI, (202) 862-5617. less stringent permits and less costly regulations in their Jack Whetstone, S.C. Sea countries. Grant Extension Program, (843) 546-4481. Even so, U.S. regulations could get even tighter. Because of their small size, most South Carolina shrimp farms qualify for an exemption from Clean Water Act rules on wastewater dis- charges into waterways. South Carolina shrimp farmers say that their discharges have no envi- ronmental impacts. But under a consent order by a federal court,

LOCAL ANGLE. Always purchase South Carolina native shrimp—frozen or live—for fish bait. Food shrimp from grocery stores is likely imported and could be infected with viruses, which do not affect human health but could affect local wild shrimp. PHOTO/WADE SPEES

12 • COASTAL HERITAGE option for EPA is to make no new regulations on aquatic farming. The proposed rule is due in “Aquaculturists feel that they are June 2002, and the final rule two years later. environmental stewards,” says Farmers hope that EPA will choose the “no- Betsy Hart, National Aquaculture change” option. “Aquacul- Asian aquaculture turists feel that they are environmental stewards,” Association executive director. Aquaculture has flourished says Betsy Hart, National in China for three thousand years, but just during the past Aquaculture Association 20 years Chinese aquaculture executive director. “There has seen unprecedented is not a defined and success with production in inland ponds proven (water quality) problem from So far, however, local shrimp farmers and lakes. “China is big, and aquaculture, and therefore we question don’t use closed systems. It’s expensive it’s hungry,” says Albert why EPA is developing minimum and technologically difficult to sustain a Tacon, aquaculture nutrition- ist based in Hawaii. standards.” crowded but healthy shrimp population in China’s aquaculture Shrimp farmers say that their a closed system. “You have to prove a industry began to develop discharges consist mainly of live algae technology works over time,” says steadily from the 1950s through the 1970s, when that do not harm local waters. New Whetstone, “and then you have to prove researchers learned how to regulations, Eager says, are unnecessary it works economically before people are inject fish with massive and costly, potentially putting most going to jump into it.” amounts of hormones to South Carolina shrimp farmers out of But soon there could be new tools, make them spawn. Govern- ment hatcheries and business. If such rules were mandated, species, products, and markets to develop nurseries produced large locally grown virus-free shrimp would a significant U.S. shrimp aquaculture numbers of fingerlings, or likely be “replaced by foreign virus- industry. For example, aquaculturists are young fish, but there weren’t enough farmers to grow infected shrimp,” he says. growing shrimp in low-salinity aquifer-fed them. There is good news on the horizon inland ponds in West Texas, Arizona, and In the late 1970s, China for local shrimp farmers, though. Scien- Alabama. began to encourage entrepre- neurs, and soon families tists are constantly experimenting with Moreover, each terrestrial livestock started small fish farms in new technologies to make domestic industry—cattle, chicken, and sheep— back yard ponds. Since the shrimp aquaculture more feasible. has continued to face major disease early 1980s, China’s production has grown by Researchers continue efforts to improve challenges. But researchers at land-grant more than 16 percent per disease-free through the universities have gained greater under- year. Meanwhile, freshwater U.S. Marine Shrimp Farming Program. standing of various pathogens, and finfish farming has also boomed throughout South- They are experimenting with greenhouse agricultural extension specialists have east Asia. systems where crustaceans can be grown worked with farmers on better manage- Asian farmers have year-round, even in South Carolina’s ment techniques to control diseases. For improved fish nutrition through modern pelleted relatively cool climate. With support more than two decades, Sea Grant feeds rather than by digging from the S.C. Sea Grant Consortium and scientists and extension specialists have huge numbers of new ponds. the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, South followed this same path of research and In a traditional fishpond Carolina researchers have helped outreach on various cultured fish and enriched by manure and grass, a farmer could develop and refine techniques to keep shellfish species. annually harvest 300 to 500 water almost exclusively within farms, Now both domestic and international kilograms of fish per hectare, with no discharges and little water shrimp farming are poised for a period of according to Ronald Hardy, aquaculture nutritionist at the pumped in. This is called “closing” the vigorous growth, according to hatchery University of Idaho. But Asian system. Many Asian farmers have manager Knox Grant, who recently sold farmers have recently begun “learned to avoid losses from disease by post-larvae to farmers in South Carolina, feeding their carps with modern feeds, made up of greatly reducing water use,” says Cham- Israel, and Alabama. He hopes to sell to soybeans and small berlain. “It’s too much of a (disease) risk growers in Arizona, Italy, and Japan. “I percentages of , to exchange water” with outside re- get calls every two weeks,” he says, “from resulting in 10-fold harvest increases. sources. people who’ve got shrimp fever.”

SUMMER 2001 • 13 Estuarine Research Second International Phragmites australis: Federation Conference & Trade A Sheep in Wolf’s St. Pete Beach, Fla. Show on Marine Clothing? Nov. 4-8, 2001 Ornamentals Cumberland College, Orlando, Fla. Vineland, N.J. Join your colleagues in sunny St. Nov. 27-Dec. 1, 2001 Jan. 6-9, 2002 Pete Beach at the Tradewinds Conference Center for the Estuarine The aquarium hobby is second A relatively new marsh invader Research Federation’s 16th Biennial only to photography in popularity in Phragmites australis appears to be Conference. Themes for the confer- the United States. The vast majority degrading essential marsh functions ence include detecting estuarine of ornamental marine specimens are over much of its range. But is change, marine restoration/conserva- harvested from the wild. The long- Phragmites the “villain that many say tion, modeling estuarine processes, term goal is to develop culture it is? Or does it have redeeming and ecological impacts of invasive protocols that can be used by features worth an adaptive manage- species and disease. For more informa- industry to reduce harvest pressure ment approach?” Forum themes will tion, visit the Web site: www.erf.org. from worldwide reef ecosystems. This focus on new research and critical conference will address efforts toward reviews addressing Phragmites role as a accomplishing that goal. For more “noxious weed.” For more informa- information, visit the conference tion, contact Michael P. Weinstein at Web site: www.ifas.ufl.edu/ or ~conferweb/MO. (732) 872-1300 ext.24.

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14 • COASTAL HERITAGE