In the post ‚Is there animal welfare for shrimps?‘ of 05.08.2023 [1] I mentioned that there are a few ’shrimp farmers who really try hard to do the best, also for the animals‘. I have known the company SwissShrimp.ch since its beginnings; if farming shrimps at all, then like this, I have already been quoted as saying.

I invited the managing director Rafael Waber to comment on my critical post of SAiugust 2023. He passed the request on to his colleague Alberto Delgado, an experienced biologist, and sent me his reply together with a few words of his own:

„What I notice: Our biologists, who deal intensively with the animals and „accompany“ them, are very animal-friendly. This goes so far that they have tears in their eyes when some animals have died overnight (naturally). This fact is „good news“ for animal welfare in aquacultures and not comparable to the industrialised, anonymous open-air rearing overseas.‚

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‚We are on the right track‚

Biologist Lutgardo Alberto Delgado Alarcon, who comes from Ecuador and works for SwissShrimp, writes to us:

‚We have had a hard job with larvae and juveniles. But we are on the right track because we have a lot of shrimps and mortality is minimal — unlike before. As we said from the beginning, we had to clean the system and the salt mixture, disinfect it and change our method. So now we are happy with the first delivery of larvae. In the juvenile stage we are now harvesting, and at this stage we have some indicators of shrimp welfare. Other indicators for animal welfare we can control already before, that is the advantage of a recirculation aquaculture system (RAS).‘

Disease risk

Diseases found in the normal shrimp microflora can thrive at high stocking densities and lead to outbreaks. This is something we are working on. Since we do not have a quarantine, we count the bacteria when new larvae arrive to avoid too high a density in our tanks. We provide enough food for the shrimps to develop, and we disinfect the materials with lemon juice, a natural method that works.

Indiscriminate use of antibiotics promotes the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Part of the solution in this case is prevention through best animal welfare practices. To begin with, use probiotics from a well-known brand; in the future, perhaps our own probiotic cultures of non-pathogenic bacteria will populate our breeding tanks.

Water quality

Oxygen and ammonia levels, temperature, salinity and pH are critical to the well-being of all aquatic life, including shrimps. Improper water management can contaminate adjacent waters and lead to salinisation and acidification of the RAS. In addition, this impairs the immune system of the shrimps, which in extreme cases die through suffocation or poisoning. This is exactly what happened to us once; thanks to the work of our team, we were able to fix it, which shows in the quality of our shrimps.

Reproduction

Crushing or cutting off the eyestalk of females to achieve rapid maturation is still widespread. Since we have our hatchery in Ecuador, we promote maturation without this enormously stressful procedure. We find that the breeding animals live longer and that their offspring grow bigger and are more resistant to stress. Only the maturation of the females takes a little longer and requires a special diet. Reproduction without eyestalk removal is in the interest of good breeding and will continue to be used in our local breeding programme.

Slaughter

Stunning with water temperatures below zero degrees is very useful, quick and causes no stress or suffering to the shrimp.

Animal welfare protocol

In the future we will be able to develop an animal welfare protocol for our shrimps. In any case, we are always working on their welfare because we know from experience that they are the best shrimps and the standards we apply allow us to get good results. For example, we now find lipids in the midgut gland (hepatopancreas) of our shrimps, an important indicator of good health.

Stocking density

Today we know exactly how many shrimp we have per tank and can therefore calculate the nutrients, proteins, and vitamins our shrimp need to grow. And we can also control the speed of shrimp moulting. Thanks to a stronger cleaning of the tank bottom, the light intensity in the tanks is good; we don’t have to vacuum as often.

All this means that we don’t stress our shrimps and we can be sure that they are ‚happy, healthy shrimp’.“

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Why do we need shrimp?

Despite all efforts to make life in captivity as comfortable as possible for the animals: aquaculture cannot provide the natural habitat and its opportunities and challenges. So why should shrimps be farmed? Do we even need shrimps for our diet? Do we need so many shrimps for our enjoyment? Wouldn’t it be wiser for us to be content with those shrimp that a sustainable fishery can provide?

Or is it the other way round, that we have to accept that altogether too many shrimps are eaten, and that it is therefore better to farm them as gently as possible and as close to the consumers as possible? So is SwissShrimp an example to be emulated? Certainly not for the continuation of mass consumption of shrimp; because the overall very considerate production leads to prices that are contrary to high consumption.

➜ What do you think about these questions?

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Title picture:
Pacific whiteleg shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei (drawing by Kasia Jackowska)

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Reference:
[1] Is there animal welfare for shrimps?

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