Simão Zacarias, our Postdoctoral Research Fellow on the Open Philanthropy funded “Improving Farmed Fish Welfare in Asia” project started his work in Vietnam by attending the Shrimp Summit, organised by the Centre for Responsible Seafood in Ho Chi Minh City.
Simão Zacarias discussing his eyestalk ablation work with Min Phu hatchery staff
This was followed by a visit to Minh Phu intensive shrimp farm and processing plant; Viet Uc shrimp hatchery; Quoc Viet shrimp processing plant; and the Vietnam Food Joint company which process shrimp heads to produce peptides, chitosan, food ingredients, astaxanthin, etc. He also visited Ca Mau Black Tiger mangroves-shrimp extensive farming systems and planted some mangroves in areas close to mangroves-shrimp farms.
During the visits he was able to explore progress on the phasing out of eyestalk ablation in both Pacific white shrimp and black tiger shrimp. Whilst the former is progressing rapidly, the latter is expected to take more time.
There was also considerable discussion around the welfare of shrimp in more intensive production systems. A need for more information on how higher stocking densities affects shrimp welfare was particularly identified.
Visiting Quoc Viet processing plant
Simão Zacarias (middle) and mangroves-shrimp system farmers in Ca Mau Province - Vietnam
Following these initial visits he is meeting with partners to discuss forthcoming research work on aquatic animal welfare.
For further details and photos see this blog article.