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Title: SHRIMP FARMING AND ESTUARINE WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAMS

Author
item Green, Bartholomew - Bart
item TOOKWINAS, SIRI - DEPT FISHERIES BANGKOK

Submitted to: Global Aquaculture Advocate
Publication Type: Trade Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2001
Publication Date: 8/1/2001
Citation: GREEN, B.W., TOOKWINAS, S. SHRIMP FARMING AND ESTUARINE WATER QUALITY MONITORING PROGRAMS. GLOBAL AQUACULTURE ADVOCATE. 2001. V4(4)P.67-68.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The number of shrimp farms and area under cultivation worldwide has expanded rapidly during the past twenty years. In many areas, shrimp farms have been developed in close proximity to one another along estuarine watercourses. These watercourses may have impaired exchange with the ocean, which limits dilution with oceanic waters. Awareness of estuarine water quality is important because the estuary serves not only as the source of water for ponds, but often as the destination for farm effluents, and continued development and longevity of shrimp aquaculture rely on good source water quality. Over-development of shrimp farms, either through management intensification or increased pond acreage, along a watercourse can deteriorate estuarine water quality to levels unacceptable for shrimp farming. It is important that receiving water quality be monitored continually to detect systematic degradation and to assist in the regulation, if necessary, of loading to the watercourse. Shrimp farmers an government resource authority personnel can obtain data on estuarine water quality through a systematically designed monitoring program. Active water quality monitoring programs worldwide were investigated through a questionnaire included in the Global Shrimp Op: 2001 survey. To date, 12 responses have been received: respondents are from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, India, Panama, Thailand, United States, and Venezuela. Responses revealed the existence of only a small number of estuarine water quality monitoring programs worldwide, all of which vary in scope, magnitude, and longevity. These programs provide participants with water quality information that can be used in shrimp farm siting, development,