by the late 1960s fishermen just
couldn't keep up with a growing global
demand for shrimp this gave birth to
commercial shrimp farming most shrimp
farms are located near the sea for
access to saltwater the greatest
producer of farmed shrimp is Asia with
Thailand being the largest exporter
shrimp hatcheries raise the offspring of
their breeding stock through three
larval stages then sell them to shrimp
farms which grow them to market size as
this model demonstrates the shrimp farm
first purifies the seawater it uses
through a system of treatment ponds
containing fish that feed on
microorganisms then the farm pumps the
treated water to a culture pond in which
the juvenile shrimp grow to maturity
this is what the shrimp look like at
about two months old shrimp farms are
typically located on a coast for sea
water access workers spread organic
fertilizer before filling the culture
pond to restore the soil bottom to
optimum conditions between harvests they
pump seawater into the first treatment
pond or tilapia fish naturally purify
the water by consuming floating
microscopic organisms called plankton
plant matter in fish feces settle at the
bottom of the pond a pump moves water
from this first treatment pond to a
second one for another round of this
natural cleaning process
Venna pump transfers the water from the
second treatment pond to the culture
bond once the pond is full they release
the juvenile shrimp purchased from the
hatchery workers regularly monitored the
waters oxygen level and run aeration
propellers when it drops too low the
agitation also helps debris settle at
the bottom of the pond workers run a
weekly water quality test on samples
drawn from the treatment and culture
ponds regularly monitoring the culture
pond is particularly critical because
shrimp feces and urine break down into
ammonia which is toxic at high levels
the test solution reacts to the
concentration of ammonia in the water
sample turning a shade of yellow or
green they consult a color chart to
translate this into a milligrams of
ammonia for liter reading then they
consult a table showing safe dangers and
toxic levels if the reading is above the
safe range they dilute the ammonia by
pumping more treated water into the
culture pond once a week they also pull
a few shrimp from the culture pond to
extract their livers first they examine
the shape of the organ they examine it
under a microscope to see how fatty it
is a well shaped liver with sufficient
fat indicates the shrimp was in good
health and therefore the others back in
the pond are too
the growing shrimp are fed an
all-natural diet which includes
probiotics tamarind which is soaked in
water and garlic workers add these three
ingredients to the shrimp feed which is
a mixture of fish meal fish oil soy bean
pulp and rice flour tamarind maintains
the right level of acidity in the
shrimps cut garlic prevents bacterial
build-up in the colon and the probiotic
solution provides beneficial bacteria
which prevents infections and improves
how the shrimp digest nutrients after
blending and liquefying the three
ingredients they make sense six fluid
ounces per two pounds of shrimp feed
four times a day at 8:00 a.m. noon 4
p.m. and 8 p.m.
workers pour food onto an automatic
feeding machine which distributes it
evenly across the culture pond
the shrimp feed over the entire 12 hour
period eating the equivalent of about 4
to 5 percent of their body weight after
4 to 5 months in the culture pond the
shrimp mature to market size which is 20
to 30 grams once they're harvested the
farm drains the culture pond and starts
the process all over again
How It's Made season 27 Farmed Shrimp #HowItsMade episode 9