World Aquaculture Magazine - March 2021

WWW.WA S .ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2021 15 I n each issue of World Aquaculture , we highlight a new and exciting research paper from the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society. This issue’s selected paper appeared in volume 52, issue 1, and is titled “Aerator energy use in shrimp farming and means for improvement” by Claude E. Boyd and Aaron McNevin. Shrimp farming is becoming more intensive in most producing nations. A significant cost of intensification is aeration and the associated energy use. Claude Boyd and Aaron McNevin apply their exceptional knowledge to review energy use and wastage in aeration for shrimp operations. They begin by reviewing current methods and the associated energy requirement and show a range of energy use on shrimp farms extending from 11.4 to 41.6 GJ/t of shrimp produced across a variety of industry operators. The review then identifies the huge potential for efficiency improvements, with the authors showing that energy use for aeration Recent Research Highlight from the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society can be less than 10-15 GJ/t of shrimp. Installed aeration capacity is often excessive in many farms and this is often combined with excess application of aeration at early production stages when shrimp biomass and corresponding oxygen demand are low. The use of older technologies like self-made long-arm aerators leads to excess energy use. Applying research data on improved aerator design could improve efficiency in Asia, while monitoring of dissolved oxygen is a simple and underutilized way to determine efficacy and improve efficiency. This review provides practical and valuable recommendations to save energy and costs in shrimp production worldwide. This paper can be found in the Journal of the World Aquaculture Society 52(1):6-29, available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/jwas.12753 or through the Publications tab on the WAS website (www.was.org ). —Matthew Slater, Executive Editor, JWAS