Freshwater shrimp farming in Ohio

Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, is known for interesting and unusual courses of study thet, unlike the programs offered at many colleges, actually offer potential for graduates to make a living.

One of Hocking's programs is a fisheries school that in addition to the growing of fish for stocking ponds and lakes teaches students how to raise freshwater Malaysian prawns. Each autumn, the shrimp are harvested.

Wearing waders and warm clothing beneath, the students combed through algae, discarded Christmas trees – put there to provide hiding places for the cannibalistic crustaceans – and mud, lest any of the freshwater relatives of oceanic shrimp be missed.

“They’ll eat just about anything, including each other,” said Stacey Priest, lead fishery technician. “Every year the city of Athens brings out a load of discarded Christmas trees, which we dump in the pond.”

The trees provide structure in which the tiny-at-first prawns can make their homes, and are weighted down so they remain underwater.

The post-larval shrimp arrive in late spring from a hatchery in Texas, Priest explained. At that time they’re an inch long or so. During 120 days in the pond they grow to impressive size, and at that point they are harvested and sold as food.

The harvest involves draining the two shallow ponds. As the water level goes down, students dig through the mud for beached prawns, which they toss into a deeper area from which they’ll be taken out by net. During the course of it all, they encounter fish of several species, turtles and frogs, as well as a multitude of tadpoles.

The ponds must be drained, Priest explained, because otherwise fish there would still be around in the spring and would gobble up the tiny prawns before they had a chance to grow. They remain empty over the winter.

Following each week’s harvest, the prawns were taken to the Athens Farmers Market, where they quickly sell out at $12 per pound. Priest said that’s enough to let the project break even.

Hocking College in Nelsonville, Ohio, is known for interesting and unusual courses of study thet, unlike the programs offered at many colleges, actually offer potential for graduates to make a living. One of Hocking's programs is a fisheries school that in addition to the growing of fish for stocking ponds and lakes teaches students how to raise freshwater Malaysian prawns. Each autumn, the shrim…  (read more)

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