Researchers looking to develop shrimp as cash crop

MISSISSIPPI - Scientists at the Gulf Coast Research Lab are working to develop a cash crop for a new breed of farmer.

In the laboratories and pools on the lab's campus in Ocean Springs, and in the greenhouse-like buildings at the GCRL's Cedar Point facility, researchers are looking for ways to make farming shrimp an economically feasible enterprise that they hope will help put more domestic shrimp on the plates of consumers.

It's a process called marine aquaculture.

According to information from the GCRL, shrimp is the most consumed seafood in the United States. Americans consume about 1.5 billion pounds of shrimp a year, which amounts to 40 percent of the world's shrimp supply.

Source: Pascagoula Mississippi Press