Environmental Impacts of Shrimp Farming and Benefit of Pond Intensification for Sustainable Aquaculture: A Review

Abstract

The goal of sustainable aquaculture is to provide a continued supply farmed aquatic nutrients beneficial for human sustenance without harming existing ecosystems or exceeding the ability of the planet to renew the natural resources required for aquaculture production (Nevin, 2020). Shrimp is the single most valuable seafood product that enters world trade today. Some of these farms are built in mangrove areas. To accommodate for this high demand farmers, intensify their production, thus effecting the environment by surpassing the areas carrying capacity. Factory farming, has the potential to deplete soils, reduces genetic stock, degrades coastal ecosystems and local water quality. These problems are mainly associated with pondconstruction and operation (Bolanos, 1999). Shrimp aquaculture can be environmentally sustainable with the proper design, operation, management, and monitoring. The use of a closed or recirculating system for growing shrimp is the best method for protecting the environment. Water quality needs to also be checked for both semi-intensive and intensive systems for managing the health of the shrimp and preventing disease and viral outbreaks. PAS offer a potential advantage over other culture systems because waste nutrients can recycle back into a crop, greatly increasing feed-use efficiency. Waste nutrients in ponds are assimilated by endogenous microflora, thereby transforming waste into a potential food source (biofloc). BFT is reliable for the cost effective, environment friendly fish production. BFT is a preferable technique for facing economic, ecological, and social issues relevant to current aquaculture. The system has advantage in intensive farming practices. An important feature of this technology is ammonia wastes are consumed by bacteria for their growth that increases the microbial biomass yield as well as improves the water quality. Previous studies indicated that the addition of probiotics in the water or feed increases growth, immunity, reduces animals to expose pathogenic bacteria and stops the growth of harmful pathogens. There is rapidly growing literature on the application of probiotics which indicates that it is one of the important methods developed to control disease at the farm; therefore, the addition of probiotics is common practice in fish farming (Daniel and Nageswari, 2017).