Big shrimp-farming potential from South Carolina research

The second definition of "shrimp" in Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary: "a very small or puny person of thing." But there's nothing small or puny about the Pacific white shrimp now being produced at Waddell Mariculture Center in Bluffton. And that could be delicious long-term economic news for South Carolina.

As Bo Petersen reported in Wednesday's Post and Courier, S.C. Department of Natural Resources biologists have now doubled the size of the shrimp being "farmed" year-round in a climate-controlled research project that began in 2000.

They've also managed a stunning, tenfold increase in the density of a typical commercial shrimp farm, thanks in part to maximizing the balance of the "microbial community." The researchers believe they're on the brink of a sustainable, cost-effective system that would "supplement the seasonal wild shrimp catch and help the state compete with cheaper farm-raised imports."

William Lacey, business solutions director for the state Commerce Department, told our reporter: "I think the work they've done here is pioneering, world-class."

Such a scientific breakthrough would produce not just bigger shrimp, but a bigger share of the shrimp market for our state, and even our nation, in a business increasingly dominated by imports as international competitors face charges of "dumping" (selling shrimp here at a loss to corner the market).

Al Stokes, manager of the Waddell Center, stressed that the farm-raised shrimp would not compete with the local wild crop, but with those imports.

DNR marine scientist Craig Browdy said the project is closing in on the goal of lowering production costs to less than $2 per pound.

The state should sufficiently fund this promising operation, which, over time, could pay for itself and then some.