Second batch of 330,000 white shrimps larvae transferred to Coetivy |16 March 2023

Seychelles Nation

By Diane Larame

A second batch of 330,000 white shrimp larvae were transferred by the Islands Development Company (IDC) to its prawn farm on Coetivy island yesterday morning, following its arrival from Singapore, earlier the same day.

The transfer of the species, scientifically known as Litopenaeus vannamei, was done in the presence of all local media.

There were altogether 50 cargo boxes containing a total of 330,000 post-larvaes, which were released in the Coetivy island shrimp nursery where they will be monitored and acclimatised to the region’s climate.

The post-larvaes’ supervision was done by Dr Karine Rassool, the fisheries and aquaculture development manager, and Dr Girish Menon, the prawns farm manager.

Dr Rassool expressed how she was satisfied with the process of loading and unloading the prawns, which went much smoothly than the first transfer, as it took the workers less time, since they knew the exact process to follow.

Dr Rassool also informed the media that the procedures within the prawn farm is going fairly well, as the batch that arrived on December 7 last year has already reached an extensive size than their average body weight and surpassed the standard international growth curve weighing at about 40-50 grammes, which she said they are very happy and proud of.

“We are very satisfied with these results, and we are planning to do the harvest during the first week of April and it is expected that at the end of the month of April, prawns from Coetivy island will be on the market for the public,” she said.

It is estimated that between 2.5 to 2.8 tonnes of prawns will be harvested from the first batch.

For his part, Dr Girish shared that he has worked in Nigeria for eight years where he started the first farm, followed by Indonesia, Malaysia and Australia.

“It is the first time that we are bringing in the pacific white shrimp in this part of East Africa. However, it is very popular in South-East Asia. We are the first group to bring it in East Africa,” he said

Due to the prawn farm still being in the trial phase, only one out of six ground ponds is being used.  However, it is expected that by the end of the year, all six ground ponds will be operational to store prawn for production. Three of the ground ponds will be allocated to the white shrimps, while the remaining three will be allocated to tiger shrimps, (scientifically known as panaeus monodon), which will be reintroduced in Seychelles later this year. Tiger shrimp was also the species farmed by the former Seychelles Marketing Board (SMB) back in 1989.

Meanwhile, Dr Rassool has announced plans for IDC to commence its own hatchery. “Importing prawns is not an environmentally friendly act as we are receiving it through planes which travel a long distance, so other than its health parameters it’s not an environmentally sustainable practice, and so we are in the process of establishing our own hatchery,” she stated.

IDC started the pilot project in early December when the first batch of 150,000 white leg shrimp post-larvae imported from Singapore were flown to Coetivy.

The accompanying photos show some highlights of the transfer process yesterday on Coetivy.

Photos by Diane Larame