Aquaculture America 2021

August 11 - 14, 2021

San Antonio, Texas

RESOURCE USE IN ECUADORIAN SHRIMP FARMING

Claude E. Boyd*, Robert T. Davis, and others
 
 School of Fisheries, Aquaculture, and Aquatic Sciences
 Auburn University
 Auburn, AL 36849
 boydce1@auburn.edu
 

The survey included 101 shrimp farms for which the average production pond area was 141 ha per farm (range = 1 ha-1,579 ha), and average pond size was 6.59 ha. Mean stocking density was 22.5 postlarvae/m2, crop duration typically was 70-100 days, and an average of 3.6 crops were produced annually. Feeds were used at all farms, and various amendments were applied to ponds. The number of farms using different amounts follows: liming materials, 90; fertilizers, 88; molasses, 80; zeolite, 43; products for disease control, 38; hydrogen peroxide, 37; probiotics, 34; piscicides, 28; disinfectants, 8. Most farms (87) applied daily water exchange at an average rate of 8.5% of pond volume per day (range = 0.7%-30%). Mechanical aeration was applied at 47 farms. Average annual production for the five provinces ranged from 3.67 to 11.95 t/ha/yr (average = 7.03 t/ha/yr). Resource use was estimated to be: total land, 0.54 ha/t shrimp; total water, 76,817 m3/t shrimp; total energy, 61.2 GJ/t shrimp; wild fish included in feed, 0.65 t/t shrimp. Nearly 80% of water use was incurred through water exchange. The major direct energy use was for pumping water and aeration. About half of total energy use was embodied, and half of the embodied energy was in feed.  The farms exhibited a wide range in the use of these resources, and resource use declined in response to greater intensification - especially land and water use.