Inland Farms: From coast-to-coast, inland marine shrimp farms are reviving rural areas!

Inland marine shrimp farms are established in California, Arizona, Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, North and South Carolina, and Florida. As we go to press, two new farms are beginning pilot projects in Georgia. Advances in technology allow farms to exist in areas previously out-of-bounds to marine shrimp farming. They provide a regional market for live shrimp to specialty markets, and furnish discerning consumers with a tasty, fresh, home-grown product.

Permian Sea Shrimp Company® farm is located just outside of Imperial in Pecos County, Texas on the northern edge of the Big Bend/Trans-Pecos area of West Texas and the northern end of the Chihuahua Desert. This unique area is well suited for growing marine shrimp.
The underground Permian Sea is an ancient saltwater sea. This is not some hard, freshwater aquifer, where the shrimp spend their whole lives trying to survive the marginal conditions. It is a real underground ocean ideally suited for shrimp. The natural flora of the area are salt tolerant so plants and grasses thrive around the ponds and the farm has created a wetland area with numerous estuarine birds. It is a healthy and diverse environment.
Shrimp are stocked in the ponds in the spring when the weather is warm. They are fed a specially made diet five times a day. The ponds are aerated with paddlewheel aerators to keep the oxygen content high. Chemicals and antibiotics are not used, and culture methods are 100% sustainable best management practices. Water is recirculated and conserved. Permian Sea Shrimp also cares for a population of threatened Pecos River Pupfish on the property under the supervision of the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Arizona Mariculture Associates (AMA) was formed for the specific purpose of cultivating disease-free shrimp, working exclusively with SPF L. vannamei. Located on 1,200 acres in the Sonoran Desert near Dateland, Arizona, the inland site was selected to isolate operations from viral disease and bacteria devastating seaside farms. The land has sufficient brackish water to develop the entire 1,200 acres.
Although brackish well water in this area of the Sonoran Desert is superficially similar to sea water, there are some significant chemical differences between the two. In order to successfully cultivate shrimp in Arizona, AMA personnel have compensated for critical differences by reformulating the shrimp feed used as well as by treating the water to make up for deficiencies of important seawater components.
Shrimp farms in temperate areas are generally restricted to seasonal harvests. Located in an area known as Agua Caliente (“hot water” in Spanish), AMA is equipped to extend its growing season outside of the normal range. Thus far, ponds have been stocked as early as mid-February, and some harvests have taken place as late as early January. The extended culture period is particularly advantageous since, in the past, AMA has specifically targeted its production for the live-shrimp Asian markets in nearby California.
Wood Brothers Farm (Desert Sweet Shrimp), less than an hour from downtown Phoenix, Arizona, has been cut from a swatch of parched desert land, with the Gila Bend mountains as a backdrop.
With the Wood Brothers product,no antibiotics,herbicides, pesticides, sodium tri-polyphosphates or sodium bisulfites are used. Shrimp thrive on a high protein feeding regime. When shrimp are ready to be harvested, they are exposed to ice slurry, which quickly lowers the body temperature and preserves the quality
of the meat.
For infrequent visitors to the farm, strict sanitation precautions are observed. Vehicles entering the property must travel through a dip filled with disinfectant. Once on the farm, guests don plastic booties over shoes to further protect
the shrimp from contaminants.
Farm personnel also constantly monitor water temperature, algae count, ammonia levels and dissolved oxygen. Scientists from the Texas A&M University and the University of Texas are aiding in the development of the farm shrimp
operation.
Inland shrimp farming in Alabama
Several years ago, a huge salt water aquifer (9 ppt salinity) was discovered under farmland in West/Central Alabama, about 160 miles from the Gulf Coast. Two enterprising men, Lee Jackson, Jr. and B.T. Durham constructed ponds and stocked them with Pacific white, pathogen-free, L. vannamei PLs.
The four month growout of the stock produced a high quality, saltwater, jumbo shrimp. These shrimp were grown in an intensively managed environment with regards to oxygenation, water quality, soil conservation, temperature, predation avoidance, and feeding. The feeding regimen involved specially prepared, all natural feed, administered twice daily by the aquafarm staff. Gulf Inland/BayBoy Farms is one of only a select few of inland aquaculture producers in Alabama licensed by the USDA/Cooperative Extension Service and the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources for
shrimp production.
Ocean Boy Farms (OBF) in Florida grows its marine shrimp inland, about 50 miles from the ocean, in artesian water from wells exceeding 1,000 ft. in depth. Ponds have high-density, polyurethylene liners to prevent seepage going into the ground and unwanted chemicals entering the ponds. In addition to the production ponds, the main farm site contains nursery greenhouses, a production office, a feed storage building, worksheds, production staff housing, and complete production laboratories. “OBF brings in indigenous flora like potted mangroves to place in our ponds as part of the water treatment process, later donating the plants to replenish valuable natural habitat throughout Florida,” explains Eddy Daniel, manufacturing vice president. OBF use high-protein feed to produce a flock of aerobic bacteria that the shrimp feed on. In turn the aerobic bacteria in the flock feed on the anaerobic bacteria produced as waste by the shrimp, thus removing the waste product from the water in the grow-out ponds. This water is pumped through the mangroves and then recirculated
to the ponds.