Category: Shrimp ablation

A wake-up call to the prawn certification industry serving western markets…get up to speed on aspirational market requirements…the onus is not on the farmer.

All well and good these initiatives.

The shrimp industry has always been pro-active about sustainability and other initiatives and is flexible enough to apply accordingly.

Those supplying western markets are well aware of requirements and have led on issues. The way to check though and satisfy downstream customers is via certifiable standards and lack of appropriate standards is where the issue is.

There are also markets where certification standards are less required. Take the example of eyestalk ablation – this has not been necessary for quite a while now in the industry – some companies though are slow on uptake because their markets do not care about this issue.

Certification bodies are the way to make sure conditions are adhered to but they also are following sentiment and aspirations – just not leading.

https://shrimpinsights.com/blog/wake-call-shrimp-industry

No to prawn ablation..

Simply not required in this day and age.

Shrimp eyes are some of the most complex in the animal kingdom.

Camera snap in micro of 10mm shrimp PL’s eyes – zoom in.

Prawn – a numbers game..

It has long been known that unilateral eyestalk ablation is not necessary and that natural insemination and fecundity can be obtained with diet and photoperiod control.

It’s not anecdotal but just that researchers are always playing catch up to industry knowledge and thus giving sustenance to existing practices.

Fertilization and spawning rates are initially lower but resultant generations adapt well.

To get comparable volume production a doubling of females is an obvious initial option in a maturation tank.

Other system (vannamei in SE Asia) keep males and females seperate – with ripe females put in to all male tanks to fertilise them – then removed to spawning tanks.

Lots of thing out there that have already been done – with many hatchery production teams not having the luxury, time or inclination to go academic. The ownership and development is in the industry production number.

Work already done that is now being validated and published by others.