WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • JUNE 2023 33 Background Brine shrimp Artemia do not naturally occur in Southeast Asian countries with a monsoon climate as no high-salinity habitats are available during the rainy season. However, during the dry season, solar salt production is a common practice in many countries and some evaporation ponds might offer favorable conditions for seasonal Artemia production. Pond production of brine shrimp Artemia in a monsoon climate was pioneered in the Philippines (de los Santos et al. 1980) and Thailand was the first country to successfully integrate artisanal solar salt production with the farming of Artemia (Sahavacharin 1981, Fig. 1). Commercial quantities of Artemia cysts and biomass (juvenile and adult animals) were marketed for use in local hatcheries and nurseries of first giant river prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii and later black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon and Asian seabass Lates calcarifer. Although chicken manure was initially used as fertilizer for the algae/bacteria production as food for Artemia, soon a more useful organic waste became popular among Artemia farmers in Thailand: the by-product that remains after monosodium glutamate fermentation, locally called ami-ami. Once every few months a transport of this concentrated sludge is organized and stored in big pots installed on pond dikes (Fig. 2). On a daily basis a few liters of this highly concentrated liquid is spread over the ponds. In the 1990s interest in Artemia cyst production decreased and all commercial interest went to biomass production. Two types FIGURE 3. Different schemes of waste nutrient input to support Artemia production at Banchong farm. Year-round Pond Production of Brine Shrimp Artemia Biomass in Thailand: An Example of a Circular Economy Anand Tunsutapanich, Banchong Nissagavanich, Tanan Sanggontanagit, Montakan Tamtin, Kazi Ahmed Kabir and Patrick Sorgeloos (CONTINUED ON PAGE 34) FIGURE 2. Ami-ami storage tanks on pond dikes. FIGURE 1. Early integration (ca. 1980) of Artemia farming with solar salt production in Thailand.
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