Industry Profile: Josh Wilkenfeld

Inland farming is the latest in a long professional life in the shrimp aquaculture industry for Josh Wilkenfeld. 1980 to 1984 saw Josh begin his career at Texas A&M University in the Shrimp Mariculture Project. From 1984 to 1994 Josh worked for Aquatic Farms Ltd. as Sr. Hatchery Biologist on P. monodon projects in Indonesia, India, and Burma, and then in the Philippines, where he worked with the Dole Food Company as Director of Hatchery Operations. In 1994 Josh became the Sr. Hatchery Manager at SuperShrimp and Maritech in Mexico, doing the prototype design for two new hatcheries constructed in Mazatlan, and increasing annual production at the El Golfo facility to over 730 million PLs per year by 1998.

However, Josh says his most challenging adventure so far in the shrimp industry has been his work with Arizona Mariculture Associates, LLC, where he has been the Operations and Farm Manager since 2000. Josh is shifting the farm strategy to bi-directional production efforts through dirt ponds as well as intensive lined ponds.
“ Inland farming brings a unique set of benefits and challenges to the industry,” says Josh. “Although brackish well water in this area of the Sonoran Desert is superficially similar to sea water, there are some significant chemical differences between the two. In order to successfully cultivate shrimp in Arizona, AMA personnel have compensated for critical differences by reformulating the shrimp feed used as well as by treating the water to make up for deficiencies of important seawater components.”