UAPB researcher: Arkansas can grow shrimp in fresh water

A University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff researcher is studying how Arkansas freshwater aquaculture farms could grow white leg shrimp, a saltwater creature.

The product is currently imported into the United States. But Dr. Yathish Ramena, director of UAPB’s Department of Aquaculture and Fisheries Center of Excellence, is leading research aimed at raising the shrimp by acclimating them to indoor freshwater production in Arkansas.

Ramena said the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission permits growing litopenaeus vannamei, or white shrimp, as an approved conditional species. The raising must occur in an indoor, enclosed system without any water exchange or discharge to protect the native species.

The project is being funded by the Arkansas Research Alliance, a nonprofit organization founded in 2008 by chancellors from Arkansas research universities and private company chief executives.

Bryan Barnhouse, the Alliance’s president and CEO, said the ARA invests in job-creating opportunities in seven areas where the state’s private sector needs match university research competencies. Its ARA Academy includes roughly 35 active research leaders from the University of Arkansas, University of Arkansas at Little Rock, University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas State University, and the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

Ramena was recently inducted into the academy.

In an online webinar July 22, he said Arkansas is a “birthplace” of U.S. warm water aquaculture, with the first commercial goldfish farms established in the 1940s followed by baitfish, and catfish following in the 1950s.

The industry has a total value of $67.7 million. The state leads the nation in baitfish production and sport fish production and is number four in catfish production.

Ramena said the United States is the world’s largest shrimp importer.

“And so we have a big market, and we don’t have producers here,” he said. “So this would be a great opportunity to start as a supplemental income apart from our other native species.”

The main challenge in raising the shrimp is its need for a high-protein diet. Researchers are trying to replace fish meal with plant-based products, but these cause problems.

Ramena discussed how feeding the white shrimp with early stage artemia shrimp could improve the white shrimp’s gut microbiomes and protect them against disease. Worldwide, shrimp losses have reached almost $10 billion every year since 2010.

He also said the researchers are using artificial intelligence to assess the results of the study.