FISH FARMING TECHNOLOGY
Recirculation Where prawns are king: How plastic filter media helps an innovative seafood farming enterprise by Junaid Hassan, Warden Biomedia, UK If you think that prawns belong in a 1970s cocktail, think again. King prawns have moved up-market and demand is insatiable. Currently, the UK consumes around 40,000 tonnes-per-annum and Europe about ten times that. Unfortunately, most have travelled, frozen, 6,000 miles from the Far East and Central America, leaving a massive carbon footprint. But, in 2015, Dougie Allen and James McEuen set out to change that when they founded Great British Prawns. Both men have a background in the army and attended Cranfield University.
“We saw an opportunity in the expanding prawn market”, says Dougie, “and we wanted to find a better way of farming shellfish. Specifically, we wanted to increase production intelligently and responsibly with a focus on production efficiency gains while ruthlessly focusing on animal welfare.”
A stable economy
Appropriately, for farmer’s son Dougie, their first experiments in prawn breeding were undertaken in a converted stable on a farm in Fife, Scotland. Inspired by their success, they were joined by Technical Director Dr Andrew Whiston, a hands-on
44 | October 2020 - International Aquafeed