An analysis of the growth of Penaeus vannamei shrimp at the Aquafuture Corporation

he aquaculture industry is growing to meet increased demands for fishery products, demands which cannot be met by the commercial fishing industry. However, there are many social and environmental costs from the various systems within aquaculture. While recirculating systems may be a partial solution to these problems, they may have more internalized costs than pond or flow-through systems. The Aquafuture Corporation (TAC) is one company whose goal is to aid the production of Penaeus vannamei grown in a freshwater, indoor, recirculating system. However, in order for TAC to reach their goal of lessening the impact on natural fisheries, there are several obstacles that they need to overcome. One of these is in achieving the growth of Penaeus vannamei that is acceptable in the industry. For my capstone I looked at what the current growth rates were from a batch of Penaeus vannamei shrimp at the facility. Average weekly growth for the six tanks was 0.23g and ranged from 0.13g to 0.38g. The average growth was not found to be comparable to the average growth rates in other publications, which ranges from 0.50-2.0g/week. With these growth rates, TAC will not be able to achieve their stated financial goals. Thus, TAC will need to increase their growth rates in order for them to be comparable and competitive with pond and flow through systems.