hannah beane: Beginning of Coastal Development Unit / La Borbolla Shrimp Aquaculture Plant

Today was our introduction to the coastal development unit. This unit is composed of issues dealing with aquaculture, agriculture, commercial development, industrial development, residential use, and tourism. This field trip was mostly concerned with aquaculture. At the beginning of the day we visited the plant that grows the shrimp larvae.

Then we headed off to the shrimp aquaculture farm:

( These are the empty shrimp ponds)
At the shrimp farm/plant we were given a tour of the whole process of how they raise the shrimp by the manager of the plant, Cesar Patinlla. We were inundated with information about
- periods of harvest ( one harvest per year)
- how shrimp they grow per hectare ( 5 metric tons/hectare)
- 360 hectares at this farm divided into 55 ponds
- water input and output
- etc
I focused on environmental impact, my report is :

What are the environmental laws that need to be complied with?

Sanitary regulation laws for shrimp larvae
There is a good environmental practice certificate that the government agency SEGARPA is in charge of. Currently this certificate is optional and the La Borbolla Farm is only one of five to have this certificate.
SEMARNAT also has water output laws
In order to get the good practice certificate, CIAD, a independent lab, conducts water testing for heavy metals, cauliform, pH levels, antibiotics, and suspended particulates
CIAD tests at beginning, middle and end of every harvest. It costs 30,000 pesos per testing session
FDA requires that any antibiotics that have been applied must out of the shrimps bodies within 30 days before they are harvested
At the moment, the farm is in the process of complying with European laws which are much higher than the US standards in order to be able to sell the product to these markets.

What steps need to be taken to comply (how many employees )?

They have two hired biologists plus a manager oversees the testing operations.

What is done?

These biologists conduct tests once a week for bacterial levels of the water and of the shrimp. Due to this weekly testing, the farm might apply antibiotics for diseased ponds or either flush or aerate the ponds to change oxygen levels. They also check the shrimp for any types of diseases.

Once the harvesting has begun the biologists move to the processing plant to monitor shrimp quality once they have been packaged.

Environmental impacts of the operation:

i. Water quality and nutrient input to the ocean/estuary ecosystem

· Larvae plant needs federal permit to intake water for plant use

· The La Borbolla Farm is a semi-intensive system which refers to whether the plant aerates their ponds or not. This farm does not do aeration unless it is an emergency. This limits their overall production levels, yet saves them the costs of running aerators constantly.

· There are federal output nutrient laws that regulate how much excess nutrients can be put into the open ocean

ii. Additives and their impact (antibiotics, fertilizers)

· They use inorganic fertilizers to grow phytoplankton, which is fed upon by the shrimp larvae

· Antibiotics that are used to treat any diseases that the shrimp may have are supposedly only active for a couple of hours to a few days depending on the disease they are treating and environmental conditions.

iii. Habitat alteration

· This farm is unique in that it was developed not in conjunction with the presence of an estuary; it is completely on solid land and a mile or two inland from the ocean. It was the first of its kind in the world when it was created ten years ago.

· The input water, from the open ocean, comes to the plant from man made canals that are dredged often.

iv. Impacts on wildlife

· Many birds are attracted to the aquaculture farm especially seagulls, terns, pelicans, and other seabirds. The seagulls can only reach the dead or sick shrimp at the top of the pond to feed on. Thus the farm uses the seagulls as an indicator of a problem in the pond.

· The farm has also had a problem with larger birds that would eat the shrimp out of the pond, chiefly the brown pelican. They used to shoot these birds until they found it ineffective and against the law.

· Since this aquaculture plant is not in an estuarian environment it has allowed estuaries close by to continue to provide critical habitat for developing invertebrates and migrating birds.

· Output waters that may have higher levels of nutrients may cause algal blooms that can lead to fish die outs in the open ocean due to oxygen depletion

We then moved onto the processing plant so that we could see the full shrimp producing process. We had to dress up for this event :

Here at the plant we saw the shrimp being deheaded, froazen and packaged. The workers are paid 120 pesos ( 12 dollars) a day plus 2 pesos ( 20 cents) per 5 lb tray of shrimp that they dehead.

In order to show you the process of us seing this plant I will walk you through the plant by pictures:

- First we had to wash our hands and walk through this disinfactant

- We then walked into the deheading room

- I can not imagine having this job and being paid so little, it is important to note that most of these workers come from southern mexico due to the fact that the people from Kino and the surrounding area won't work for the wages offered.

- After they get deheaded they are sized by weight by a machine