September 12, 2013 — A University of Missouri (MU) professor has invented a shrimp-farming system that not only grows shrimp quickly but also produces zero waste.
“No one in the U.S. has yet been able to demonstrate profitability with shrimp. Ninety percent of our shrimp [consumed in the U.S.] comes from Asia,” David Brune, professor of agricultural systems management at the University of Missouri, told SeafoodSource.
Over the long-term, Asian shrimp farming methods are unsustainable and harm the environment, according to Brune.
“Most shrimp are grown in China, Indonesia and Thailand, where producers feed wild-caught fish meal and are discharging waste from their ponds into Asian coastal waters. Eventually, these practices will stop and everyone is going to have to go to a limited discharge or zero discharge system,” he said.
Brune, who has researched aquaculture for around 30 years, developed a Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS) which partitions the fish culture from the water retreatment system. Using paddle wheels at the university pond holding one-twentieth an acre of water, a high rate of algae is produced.
“The algae treats the waste internally. We have zero [waste] discharge and internal protein generation,” Brune said.
Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com