Seed supply for coastal brackishwater shrimp farming: environmental impacts and sustainability.

Globally, shrimp farming has been a significant agro-based economic activity since the early 1970s. Because it offered a huge immediate economic return, shrimp farming showed a booming expansion and soon became a multimillion dollar industry. However, it has been under extreme criticism because of its devastating ecological and socio-economic impacts. Because seed is the primary input, the impact from farming has started from the source of seed supply, so that not only are natural stocks of shrimp seeds now overexploited worldwide but seed collection activities also significantly reduce stocks of other living resources. Although hatcheries were developed as potential alternative and have replaced the natural seed source to a great extent, large-scale hatchery productions provide a potential source of coastal pollution. However, this area is still poorly studied. The present paper provides a review of the environmental impacts of the wild shrimp seed fishery as well as the possibility of environmental degradation from artificial shrimp seed production in hatcheries.