The award will be accepted by Camanor director, Werner Jost, at GAA’s GOAL 2015 conference on Thursday 29 October. Mr Jost will give a presentation after being presented with a plaque and a US $1,000 cash prize.
Mr Jost calls AquaScience® a “new concept in sustainable shrimp production.” Camanor’s high-density, land-based facility in Natal, Brazil, recycles water for multiple production cycles while preventing environmental degradation and the use of chemicals or antibiotics. The controlled environment eliminates potential pathogens that disrupt and sometimes decimate harvests.
According to Mr Jost, the traditional shrimp farm uses 19,000 litres of water to produce 1 kilogram of shrimp, but AquaScience uses only 240 litres.
“Our technology is much more appreciated outside of Brazil. It’s very rewarding to see that an organisation like GAA looks at our technology as important,” Mr Jost said. “It’s our [company’s] biggest step, for sure. It’s a quantum leap in how you can influence a system. We can create the exact mineral profile the animals need to grow. In low-density, you can’t do that; there’s too much water volume for very little biomass”, he said.
This year, GAA received about 10 applications for the award. “The panel was impressed by the quality of the nominees but found the task of identifying the winner to be particularly tricky this year,” said Best Aquaculture Practices Standards Coordinator Dan Lee.
