MER Seafood and Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) 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, SWP has committed to support MER Seafood in various ways, including the provision of electrical stunning equipment, developed by the Norwegian company, Optimar (with whom SWP 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
