Inland Farming –
The new face of US shrimp farming

By Tony Ostrowski, Director, USMSFP
The US shrimp farming industry is continually faced with new challenges that require innovative solutions to remain competitive. In 1990, the USMSFP, led by researchers at the University of Arizona, was the first to demonstrate the feasibility of low-salinity farming of L. vannamei at inland sites. Inland farms now account for about 25% of all the farmed shrimp in the US and are responsible for the geographic expansion of our industry from three to nine states since 1993. Inland farming represents an added dimension to the domestic industry that, in the future, will provide the ability for it to expand production beyond coastal zones and vertically integrate as it grows. Despite these successes, however, many problems still exist with inland farming. In this issue, we address some of the challenges associated with farming L. vannamei in low salinity waters and ways the USMSFP is working to
provide a competitive edge in this area for our domestic industry.