Oceanic Institute
nets new deal
to breed shrimp

The institute will develop
lines of breeding stock
for commercial use

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By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.com

Oahu's Oceanic Institute has signed a three-year contract with a Berkeley, Cal.-based biotechnology firm to develop lines of shrimp breeding stock for commercial use.

Sygen International, through its subsidiary SyAqua, hopes to become a major player in the worldwide shrimp market, which is worth an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion, said Shaun Moss, head of Oceanic's shrimp program who will oversee the program.

Moss said there is a $3.8 billion federal trade deficit in shrimp. Moreover, consumer demand for shrimp keeps rising.

"We eat a lot of shrimp but we don't produce a lot. More than half comes from overseas so the ultimate goal is to create a U.S. shrimp-farming industry to supply the demand in the U.S," he said.

Moss said the contract with SyAqua grew out of an existing federally funded research partnership the two firms participated in along with several other companies.

"We've not done this for other companies before. It was really spawned from our research partnership, so this is peripheral to the research, Moss said.

In 2001, the consortium of companies received a five-year U.S. Department of Commerce research grant worth $8.2 million to fund research which would eventually lead to commercialization.

While SyAqua is involved in the federal research program, it also has immediate interest in commercializing what it has now and getting it out into the market, Moss said.

"What makes this really unique is that it is the first large-scale effort by a U.S. company to get involved in shrimp breeding and genetics," Moss said.

For the first three years a number of genetically distinct shrimp families will be propagated in Hawaii through selective breeding.

While the average consumer may not see any immediate difference in selectively bred shrimp, from a commercial perspective, traits such as faster growth rates and enhanced resistance to shrimp disease are an important first step to developing a viable industry.

Ultimately, the consumer may see traits such as better taste or a bigger tail-to-body ratio in the shrimp. "Eventually we may even see low cholesterol shrimp," Moss said.

For the Institute, the contract means the ability to hire more people and enhance facilities.

"More importantly it gets Hawaii involved in commercial application of our research which is ultimately the litmus test of what we do," Moss said.

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Oceanic Institute
Sygen International