Shrimp: Big stuff at A&M lab
BY PHIL REYNOLDS SOUTH JETTY REPORTER

Shrimp in a big way Justin Corn works with shrimp mariculture tanks at the Texas A&M University Shrimp Mariculture Lab in Port Aransas. With 400 tanks, the lab has one of the largest operations in the world.

Chances are, you've never heard of this shrimp. It's the Pacific white shrimp, formally Pennaeus vannamei. But to Dr. Addison Lawrence and the crew at the Texas A&M University Shrimp Mariculture Project here, the bite-size critters could be the savior of the American shrimp lover.

That's right, Port Aransas has a contingent of Aggies, too. And they're working with one of the world's largest arrays of mariculture tanks on Port Street, trying to come up with a way to make shrimp farming profitable.

Lawrence compares the situation to that of the chicken.

"I can remember when chicken was more expensive than beef," he said. "Not any more. Why? Intensification. A chicken today never sees the sunlight. They are stacked side by side and fed very high quality feeds. We need to do the same thing with shrimp, and that's exactly what we (at TAMU) are doing."

Lawrence said that on Asian shrimp farms, corporations using the same

Pygmy promise The Pacific white shrimp, which the A&M lab is working with, grows to about the same size as the Texas native white shrimp and is amenable to what is called .super-intensive farming.'

"There will always be a market for those shrimp, and the shrimp farmer can't compete with it, no matter what we do," Lawrence said. He said research can inch (the size of farmed shrimp) up a little, but they won't be able to make any big jumps.

But he's also looking on a wider scale, the scale that sees most of the shrimp sold in U.S. stores coming from other nations.

"What we really want to do is decrease this tremendous balance of payments that we're suffering," he said, "and create an industry that will have a positive economic impact on our nation."

How well are they doing?

"It looks like a production level of 50,000 pounds per acre per crop, we can do," he said.

What's more, the lab's super-intensive growing system is done in greenhouses, which eliminates the competition's advantage of being able to grow shrimp year-round.

Shrimp on a big scale Dr. Addison Lawrence looks over some of the outdoor tanks at the lab.

"If you want to maximize your profit, you have to have a quality product on the market year-round," Lawrence pointed out.

Will we see shrimp farms in the Coastal Bend? Not unless things change, Lawrence believes.

"I can get all the permits I need for shrimp farming in Arizona in less than a week," he said. "If you're lucky, it'll take you two years in Texas - and hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"Texas has never been environmentally friendly toward shrimp farming."

Turns out that tourism and shrimp farming don't mix all that well anyway, though. There's the bright spot of the super-intensive system: It's all done indoors.

And that's one reason for Pennaeus vannamei, the Pacific white shrimp - it's the only shrimp that's legal to raise in Texas, Lawrence said.

However, it grows to about the same size as the native white shrimp and is nearly indistinguishable from it - especially on the table. technology that was available five years ago are producing up to 10,000 pounds per acre of shrimp.

Ghosts Outdoor tanks at the Texas A&M shrimp mariculture lab present an almost spectral appearance in bright sunlight.

"Five years ago, even in our research systems, it was difficult for us to produce 20,000 pounds per acre," he said. "Today, we can produce up to 70,000 pounds per acre (in the lab)."

Researchers, therefore, are pushing what they call "super-intensive production systems" that will simply produce more per acre for the American shrimp farmer.

But Lawrence emphasizes that the product of the shrimp mariculture lab isn't competing with shrimpers who leave Texas ports and seek shrimp in the Gulf of Mexico. The mariculture is only good for shrimp up to around 21-26 shrimp per pound, he said.

Above that, the market is wide open for the crew that brings back a boat full of shrimp from the Gulf.

Lawrence figures the lab will have the first commercial systems ready to go within three years, prepared to offer them to potential shrimp farmers who are compared to compete with Asian farm-raised shrimp for the American table.

"Can you imagine shrimp for 75 cents a pound?" Lawrence asked.

Wouldn't you like to?