MoU with MER Seafood

Greetings and Happy New Year from Shrimp Welfare Project!

We are beginning this year with great news! 

First, we are excited to announce that we have signed a commitment with the Honduran producer MER Seafood to ensure shrimp welfare within their farms. This will affect on average 125 million shrimps per year! This MoU allows us to re-evaluate our current cost-effectiveness at around 625 shrimps potentially helped per dollar spent.

In India, all data from our low stocking density pre-pilot have been collected and is currently being analysed. Our report will be published soon and we look forward to sharing it with you.

Following our MoU with ThinkAqua, we travelled to Indonesia to meet with various stakeholders and present at the 17 Agustus 1945 Banyuwangi University (UNTAG).

We also recently welcomed two new members in our team: Kari Snorek, our new Operations Manager and Satvik Kalapala, our new India Field Coordinator. We are happy to see our team continue to grow.

Unfortunately, Lucas, our Research Lead, will be leaving the team at the end of April. We are sad to see him go and are thankful for all the great work he has done within Shrimp Welfare Project.

We are therefore looking for a new Research Lead to take over from April, before Lucas leaves, so that he can pass on all relevant information! If you are interested, you can find out more here. Applications can be submitted until February 17!

And last but not least, we are proud to announce that Open Philanthropy and the EA Animal Welfare Fund are supporting us and have granted us funding for general support! Find more information below.

Have a great week!

Léa | Communications Lead

MER Seafood and Shrimp Welfare Project have signed a commitment to collaborate to ensure the welfare of shrimps and the sustainability within MER Seafood’s farms.

Commitments include limits to stocking densities, maintaining water quality within certain parameters, not using eyestalk ablation and ensuring that slaughter methods are as humane as possible. To this end, Shrimp Welfare Project has committed to support MER Seafood in various ways, including the provision of electrical stunning equipment, developed by the Norwegian company, Optimar (with whom Shrimp Welfare Project has also entered into an agreement to support the adoption of electrical stunning technology).

We are excited to work together with MER Seafood to improve the welfare of shrimps. This will affect 1,500 - 2,300 tonnes of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps per year, i.e. on average 125 million shrimps per year.

“Since its beginning in 1995, MER Seafood has been an environmentally conscious shrimp farm. Its commitment to the environment drove its efforts for innovation and sustainability. MER Seafood and its team is proud to continue on its quest to find balance between animal welfare, environmental sustainability and producing quality farm raised shrimp. With this effort in mind we are excited to start our collaboration with Shrimp Welfare Project and hope to spread awareness towards humane shrimp harvesting. This is only a small step in our road towards complete shrimp farming sustainability. We hope that with these new partnerships we set standards that will change production practices, not only improving shrimp farming, but also putting in mind the welfare of the animal.” - Jessica Rivera Rodriguez, MER Seafood

Lien-Huong, our Vietnam Programme Coordinator, travelled to Banyuwangi, Indonesia. 

As part of our MoU with ThinkAqua, she attended the kick-off meeting of the Shrimp Improvement Project (SIP) Roadmap Delivery Phase. The project will address good farm practice, health control and environmental management. 

She also met with various stakeholders, such as international NGOs, local NGOs, farmers, local universities, corporates, to share the work of Shrimp Welfare Project and to explore ideas for Shrimp Welfare Project activities in East Java. 

Finally, she went to the 17 Agustus 1945 Banyuwangi University (UNTAG) to give a presentation on shrimp welfare and talk about Shrimp Welfare Project’s work.

Srirang, our India Programme Coordinator, attended EAGx India and the Charity Entrepreneurship India retreat. He gave a presentation on our work in India.

Satvik, our India field coordinator, attended 'The Voice of Animal group Meeting' organised by India Animal Fund. He gave a presentation to introduce Shrimp Welfare Project to animal welfare groups in India and spoke about our goals.

Satvik Kalapala has a master's degree in Fisheries Science from the Kerala University of Fisheries & Ocean Studies. Previously, he coordinated the state-level APILIP-II Project in Andhra Pradesh and has also worked at research institutes like the Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute (Barrackpore, India) on Fish behaviour, Breeding, Culture, Migration, Tagging, Ranching, etc. As his bonding with aquatic animals became more prominent, it motivated him to work for aquatic animals' welfare. His hobbies include mimicry, radio jockeying, and educating farmers with YouTube videos.

Kari Snorek has over 20 years of Operations experience. She has a BA in Sociology from the University of Toronto and is a technology lover. She has done professional development in Animal Advocacy and career coaching. She is passionate about making a positive impact on the lives of animals.

We are proud to announce that Open Philanthropy and the EA Animal Welfare Fund are supporting us! We were awarded $300,000 and $210,000 of funding for general support. Thanks to them, our current funding needs for 2023 have been covered!

Open Philanthropy works to identify and fund effective projects, track the results, and share its findings publicly to enable others to benefit and learn from them.

Visit their website to find out more about this grant!

The EA Animal Welfare Fund aims to effectively improve the well-being of nonhuman animals, by making grants that focus on one or more of the following:

• Relatively neglected geographic regions or groups of animals

• Promising research into animal advocacy or animal well-being

• Activities that could make it easier to help animals in the future

• Otherwise best-in-class opportunities

If you want to learn more about shrimp welfare and the shrimp farming industry:

• An sinh cho tôm và sự bền vững (Shrimp Welfare and Sustainability) - Shrimp Welfare Project for Nguoi Nuoi Tom “The Shrimp Farmer” magazine (in Vietnamese)

Job and volunteering opportunities in aquatic animals:

• Research Lead - Shrimp Welfare Project

• Global Campaigns Manager, Fish Welfare - Compassion in World Farming

• Manager of Fish Welfare - Equalia

• International Generalist - Fish Welfare Initiative

• General Application (Volunteers) - Shrimp Welfare Project