Shrimp Farms in Ecuador
- Topics for the
Essay - Introduction
- First Shrimp farms in
Ecuador - First kind of shrimp and methods
of cultivation - Generalities about shrimp farms
in Ecuador - Common affections and deceases
of shrimp - Shrimp
exportations - Conclusions
- Bibliography
1) Shrimp farms in Ecuador
A complete description of the shrimp farms in Ecuador, from
their history to ways of cultivation, principal kind of shrimps
cultivated in Ecuador, location
of the shrimp farms, deceases and ways of exporting
them
2) Asiatic Atypical Pneumonic
History and description of this new mortal decease,
contains information like symptoms, where was discovered, when
was discovered, and treatments
3) Electricity in Ecuador
History of the electrical systems in Ecuador, since the
beginning until the current days. Power generation, transmission
and distribution. Energy cost of generation and
comerzalization.
The Gulf of Guayaquil in Ecuador owns the biggest
estuary in the south pacific. This region compared with other
zones in the Ecuadorian coast is considered of high productivity
in biomass because of the particulars ambiental conditions.
Conditions obtained by the great volume of fresh water and
sediments which are provided by the Guayas river and the
difference between tides (3m). This estuarine process and
it’s effects can be felt 30 nautical miles into the
continent by the shrimp farmers.
The zone of the estuary characterized by the mixing
between the fresh water of the river Guayas and the contribution
of the oceanic flow, establish a salinity variety, which is
function of the tide.
Moreover of the mixing of the fresh and salt water, the
variation of the 2 seasons of the tropical regime is an important
factor. One is the rainy season and other is the summer. In the
rainy season the temperature and salinity of the water is lower
than the summer, also the oxygen level in the rainy season is
lower but the level of some minerals like phosphorus and nitrogen
is higher than in the summer.
The activity of breeding shrimp in Ecuador was started
in the southeast shore of the Guayaquil Gulf, in 1969 by
initiative of the farmers dedicated to this activity. At first
the seed or larva was captured at the adjacent estuaries of the
shrimp farm and transported in plastic recipients without any
control, so the
level of survivalship was very low, then the farmers created a
new system of seeding which consisted in a serie of low deep
canals, so because of the tides, great quantities of larva were
deposited there. In the first shrimp farms there wasn’t an
idea about how many seeds should be sowed by hectare, so first
shrimp farmers started sowing between 15000 and 120000 seeds by
hectare.
First kind of shrimp
and methods of cultivation
In the year 1969 there wasn’t too much knowledge
about the shrimp cultivation so farmers started with the
extensive method, which consist in capturing the seeds from the
estuaries and then transport them into the breeding pool where
they were maintained for periods of 4 and 8 months and when they
turned into adult age they are ready for being reaped and
commercialized. At the beginning the size of each pool was
between 20 and 100 hectare, but the optimum size is 10 to 25
hectare, generally the shape of each pool is rectangular, but
there are also trapezoidal pools depending on the farmer
convenience.
At first the fattening process was made with the natural
food along 4 o 8 months with a efficiency of 400 to 300
pounds/ha/year, Nowdays the average of that efficiency is 15000
pounds/ha/year because of the advantages of the intensive cultive
and new technologies introduced in the country. Then the farmers
started to renew the water more frequently for getting more food
and better ambiental conditions, like salinity and temperature of
the water, this process was a little difficult because of the
extension of the pools.
Location of shrimp farms
In Ecuador most of the shrimp farms are located near
estuaries or near the sea or any river which can provide of water
to the farm, but in the last years because of the deceases and
virus presence
in the sea and estuaries water, shrimp farmers decided to
construct shrimp farms in other zones where the contaminated
water with deceases won´t be a problem, these farms are
called in land farms
Salt water farms
Salt water farms are the most common in our country,
they are located near the estuaries or the sea or the river so
they gets the water from there, most of this farms are dedicated
to the extensive cultives and have the menace of lots of deceases
and virus like the
white spot and the Taurus virus
Fresh Water farms
These farms are a recently type of farms introduced in
our country, it was introduced here because of the different
virus and affections that sea and estuaries waters brings, most
of this farms are dedicated to the intensive cultivation, this
farms gets the water from wells, sometimes this water isn’t
enough salty so the shrimp can gets some problems and
deceases.
Principals kinds of shrimp
In our country there are several kinds of shrimp but the
most common of cultivation shrimps are the vannamei and the
steal
Vannamei
It`s common name is white shrimp, scientific name:
Penaeus Vannamei. The rostrum is armed with dorsal and usually,
2-4 (occasionally, 5-8) ventral teeth, which are moderately long,
and in young distinctly surpassing antennular peduncle. They are
shorter in adults, sometimes reaching only to the midlength of
second antennular segment. Carapace has pronounced antennal and
hepatic spines, and lacks orbital and pterygostomian spines. The
postocular sulcus is absent. The postrostral carina is of
variable length, sometimes almost reaching posterior margin of
carapace. Habitat: This marine shrimp likes muddy bottoms at
depths from the shoreline down to about 72 meters, it grows until
45 gr
Steel
It`s common name is blue shrimp, scientific name:
Penaeus Stylirostris. It is found in the coast of our country,
Panama and distributed in the eastern Pacific from Sonora, Mexico
to Tumbes in northern Peru. It is
smaller than the vannamei, it grows until 28gr, it can be
differenced of the vannamei by looking the genitals, the steel
genitals are more developed than the vannamei
Methods of shrimp cultivation
Extensive
The extensive cultivation is also called open
cultivation, it`s characterized for the big areas pool used ( 10
– 25ha), usually aerators are not required, neither
alimentation nor parameters monitoring aren`t so frequently,
usually the larva used in this type of cultivation are wild larva
captured in the sea, the density of the cultivation is 10 larva
for square meter so the production is a low production: 1000 to
2000 pounds for hectare.
Intensive
The intensive cultivation is the newest method of
cultivation, usually pools are covered with a plastic cape for
controlling the water temperature( 30º to 33º), the
pools are small pools( 1 to 3 ha), aerators are strongly
required( 6 to 8 for each hectare) and a constantly parameters
monitoring and feeding is required in periods of 6 hours but it
can turn to 1 hour periods in extreme situations, the density of
this cultivation is 100 larva for square meter, so the production
is very high: 10000 to 15000 pounds for hectare, the larva used
in this type of cultivation are laboratories larva, the period of
growing up of the shrimp In this period is 3 to 4 months, the
optimum weight is 12 to 15gr.
Policultive
The policultive can be intensive or extensive, it is
characterized because the shrimp is sown with another specie of
animal, usually fishes like the tilapia or the chame. It is a new
type of cultivation and allows the cultivation of two species of
animal in the same pools.
III)Common
affections and deceases of shrimp
The shrimp larva is exposed to several problems for
deceases and affections produced by inappropriate nutrition,
overpopulation, inadequate use of ambientals parameters, water
quality and introduction of infected species. Shrimps present the
following symptoms when they are infected: under nutrition
affects, lack of food in the digestive tube, wrong swimming,
misshape bodies and incomplete change of skin.
Shrimp deceases represents a big complex problem and
there are only a few specialist in our country for treating this
kind of shrimp deceases, depending the method of cultivation,
shrimps cultivated via the intensive cultivation are the most
propended to get any decease.
The White Spot
This is the last decease that affected the Ecuadorian
shrimp, at first it was discovered in Thailand in 1990, it is
caused by a virus called Baculovirus. This virus has an
incubation period of three to five days. Direct transmission is
thought to occur through several vectors including contaminated
water, decomposing fecal matter or tissue, cannibalism of dying
shrimp (in hatcheries), and from fluid from infected females. The
white spot decease is characterized by the lost of hungry of the
animal, wrong swimming, lethargy of the shrimp, and the
appearance of white spots along the body of the infected shrimp,
in a period of between 3 and 7 days the shrimp can die. This
virus caused lots of damage of the Ecuadorian shrimp production;
nowadays there are fewer repercussions than the days when this
decease appeared in our sea.
The Taurus syndrome
It was discovered in 1991 in Ecuador, then between 1994
and 1995 the virus was expanded along all the regions in America
disposed to the shrimp cultivation. This decease is caused by a
virus classified in the family of the Picornaviridae, this
virus affects to the vannamei and steel kind of shrimp, the virus
is located in the river Guayas, it can affect to the shrimp from
the larva state to the adult state, but most of the times it
affect in the young stage of the shrimp live. Direct transmission
is occurred via cannibalism of dying shrimp (in hatcheries),
contaminated water and between father and son. Common symptoms of
this virus are: lost of hungry of the shrimp, they swim along the
surface of the pools so they can be ate by any bird, sometimes
they turn into a red color, they get a
soft skin and an empty stomach
Ways of confronting deceases
Confronting shrimp deceases is very hard, there are some
process that can be followed for confronting this deceases: for
this virus there is not treatment for the affected shrimp, it can
only be prevented following a sanitary prophylaxis: clean and
disinfections to the reservoirs, pools and canals before
repopulate them including the elimination of any crustacean
including shrimps which can be already infected with the virus,
elimination of any organism in the rechangable waters and
avoiding the interchange between maintenance equipment( webs,
boats, buckets, etc) . In case of outbreak: total isolation of
the infected reservoir, strict control of any
movement of water or shrimps, even of human movements.
Destruction of the infected shrimps (incinerating them), minutely
disinfections and cleaning of the infected pools, this
disinfections can be done with formalina ( 20ppm), green
malaquita( 0.01ppm) aureanicina ( 0.01%) and the cleaning of the
pools and reservoirs with nitric acid ( 10% – 30%). Also is
strongly recommended to quarantine new species introduced in the
shrimp pools, for avoid any decease.
Shrimp exportations
Ecuador is the first country in exportations of captive
shrimp with a production of 120000 tons of shrimp, which have
produced earnings of lots of money only defeated by the
petroleum. Approximately 120000 hectare of shrimp pools and more
than 200 laboratories generates work sources for more than 500000
Ecuadorian people in direct and indirect way. World consume of
shrimp has been duplicated in the last 20 years and have grew up
hardly in the U.S.
The process of exporting our shrimp
After the whole process of seeding the shrimp into the
fatten pools, feeding them and taking care of them for 4 to 8
months the shrimp is ready to be commercialized. This process
starts with the crop, first the shrimp farmers start drying the
pools until the deepness of the water turn to 20 – 30cm,
them they start fishing the shrimp with nets depending on the
shape of the bottom of the pool there can be several types of
nets used for fishing the shrimp, the properly size of the shrimp
for exporting it is ( 26 –30 shrimps for pound) so 15 to 17
gr for each shrimp. When the crop Is already fished, it Is sent
to a packager company where the shrimp is cleaned and packaged in
boxes and frozen, ready to be sold or exported. The mayor
percentage of the shrimp exported is frozen with shell (shell on)
, it can be entire( with head) or only tails( pealed and
cleaned), also PUD shrimp ( pealed but not cleaned) and tail on (
shrimp with tail) and other presentations, the shrimp is packaged
in small boxes of 5 lbs each and usually the freight is made by
sea but sometimes by air. There are also innovating presentations
like cooked shrimp with and without shell usually sold in
supermarkets.
Principal buyers of Ecuadorian shrimp
The principal buyer of Ecuadorian shrimp Is The United
States with a 42%, also other important buyers are: Spain,
France, Italy, Netherlands, Belgium, etc.
Ways of getting a better shrimp
production
For getting a better and more convenient shrimp
production this tips should be followed:
- Improve physic system of the laboratories : filters,
water distribution, air, heating, reservoirs, cleanness,
disinfections and a properly stock of materials for an
efficiently maintenance and reparation - Efficiently operation of the maturity
departments - Great stock of seaweeds and NAUPLIOS of great
quality - Alimentation great in lipids and others nutritional
requirements, naturals as artificial - Constantly Studies and analysis bacteriologist and
pathogenic for preventing y controlling deceases and
virus - Constantly Analysis of water quality
- Constantly Analysis of larva qualities trough
biochemist studies - The shrimp farm biologist should be updated every day
with the last information about deceases and news about
shrimps
- Encyclopedia Encarta 2002 ( Microsoft
corporation) - Interview to an expert in the shrimp
cultivation. - almanaque mundial 2001 ( Editorial Televisa,
año 2001) - Manual del Camaron ( Edgar Arellano, Editado por la
facultad de Ciencias del
mar de la ESPOL, año 1987)
David Castro Pacheco