Learn about Vannamei shrimp fact to understand more about Pacific white shrimp,
one of the most popular shrimp species that sold worldwide. The vannamei shrimp which
is also called as whiteleg shrimp can grow up to 230 millimeters and their habitat
is in the depth of ocean up to 236 feet. As an important shrimp commodity, the
whiteleg shrimp is harvested in both wild ocean or taken from shrimp farms. The
major producers for such shrimp are mostly Asian developing countries like
Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippine, and so on. The shrimp is a major
financial income for their countries along with other marine commodities like
fish and seaweed.
About
vannamei shrimp fact
The first vannamei
shrimp fact is you can say it is a species that widely cultivated and
harvested in the world particularly as farmed shrimp. It is due to the high
grow of shrimp demand in international market while wild caught shrimp no
longer can fulfill such increased rate. Almost half of the shrimp that consumed
by people in the world is sourced from farmed shrimp with the majority comes
from Asian countries while the rest sold by Latin America.
Vannamei is a short lived shrimp and it is
also one of the largest shrimp in the world and one of the highly seafood
species wherever the shrimp is cultivated. The vannamei characterized with the
ten legs and they are covered with spiny exoskeleton to protect themselves from
larger predators. Unfortunately, vannamei is mature quickly and they live for
less than a year.
The adult whiteleg shrimp inhabit on soft
bottom right from near the shore to the depths about few hundred feet. White
shrimp reproduction is through internal fertilization unlike any other shrimp species. After the shrimp is mating, the female vannamei will launch hundreds
of thousands eggs that immediately hatch. If the plankton larvae swim in the
open ocean, the young shrimp live in estuaries and after they are matured, they
will be moved on an adult shrimp habitat.
Just like other decapods species, the shell
that wrapped around the white shrimp act as the skeleton outside of their body
and since the skeleton is not going to expand when the shrimp grow bigger, they
need to shed or molt it. And before they remove the exoskeleton, the new one with
larger size is already built inside the old skeleton. And when the skeleton
growing bigger, the old shell will split and crack so the outer skeleton
finally being removed. The new skeleton will get harder but during this process
the new shell is soft for few hours so the shrimp is really vulnerable to other
predators.
Another vannamei
shrimp fact which is important to understand is about the adult whiteleg
shrimp. The mature and adult white shrimp is an omnivorous that tends to feed
on wide variety of foods such as algae and plant materials, decaying or dead
organic matters, and other invertebrates. However, many invertebrates and soft
bottom fishes also like to feed on plankton, young shrimp or juveniles, as well
as the mature shrimp. As for the human, they widely catch or harvested the
shrimp to be sold worldwide.
Thankfully that the vannamei population is
well managed and thus they are not considered to be overfished. The most issue
is probably how they are cultivated and captured or harvested. It is important
for the customers who want to order vannamei shrimp know how the shrimp is
sourced from. Since more than 80 percents of shrimp sold in the market taken
from farm shrimps, it is easy to say that you may end up buying farmed
vannamei.
It is okay to buy farmed whiteleg shrimp or
vannamei as long as you know how the farmers managed the shrimp. You should
make sure that the farmed shrimp is free from diseases, unhygienic ponds or
tanks, bacterial, antibiotic, and other chemical contaminations that might
happen when the shrimp is not well managed and controlled. Moreover, if you
lucky to order wild caught shrimp, you also need to be sure that they are not
captured with unsustainable methods. A lot of gear used to catch the shrimp can
damage the environment around and this should be prevented. You can ask the
shrimp suppliers about such information. Okay, that’s several vannamei shrimp fact that helps you to
understand more about this species.
