There are large tanks of water involved here too so sorry about that misleading headline, but there is some truth in it as a Scottish fish farm operated by Great British Prawns is about to unleash one million whiteleg shrimp on the UK market – and they’ve all been grown in tanks. On land. In a warehouse. Like The Matrix of prawns.
The batches of homegrown warm water king prawns hit the market this summer from the facility in Balfron, Stirlingshire, where they’ve been raised in tanks filled with 300 tonnes of water.
This sort of tank-based aquaculture is seen as an important part of the future of the shellfish industry, as it allows the farmers to maintain stricter control over the process. Sea-based fish farms are controversial because of their use of feeds and chemicals and whatnot to keep stocks healthy, plus large amounts of waste circulate back into the ocean nearby. GBP filters and recirculates water in-house, so no there’s prawn poo tidal wave hitting the sea.
The not massively glamourous selling point of “from tank to plate in 24 hours” will be used to illustrate the potential for enhanced freshness when selling these UK-produced shrimp to customers, although they may well try to somehow get around using the word “tank” on the label as it’s not quite as evocative as imagining your shellfish was hauled out of the ocean by a man with big arms and a lovely jumper.
GBP’s boss James McEuen said: “Most prawns have travelled 6,000 miles to reach a UK consumer, with worldwide demand continuing to grow. But we know that consumers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of seafood production and to be sustainable, the future of aquaculture really has to be land-based.”
[Sky News]
This post originally appeared on Gizmodo UK, which is gobbling up the news in a different timezone.