Desert Shrimps Give Good Greenback Feeling

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). A joint venture between Seaphire International (Phoenix, Arizona), a subsidiary of Exeter Life Sciences (NASDAQ:EXLSX), and the ministry of fisheries in Eritrea on the Horn of Africa are producing a commercial sea shrimp crop. The project's hatchery is built on the site of former Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie's seaside beach palace tennis courts. Operations in the Red Sea coastal town of Massawa have been initiated with 2,000 post larvae shrimp sent from Mexico to Seawater Farms, Eritrea.

Set up by the American entrepreneurs as a model for turning the world's coastal deserts green and productive, the farm pumps seawater into six 10,000-liter maturation concrete tanks and 17 5,000-liter incubation tanks. The flow of incoming seawater from seawater wells is filtered twice, once through sand and then through charcoal. The 8,000 square foot hatchery can introduce 200,000 baby shrimp (post larvae) each night into the farm nursery population. Juvenile Shrimp are then moved to the intensive grow-out circles and monitored daily until harvest. They are then packed at local European Union (EU) certified facilities as a premium heads-on product and are flown by Lufhansa cargoliners to Europe and the U.S.A. from Asmara.

A central drain in the floor collects all the used seawater and after filtering sends it to the wetland mangrove area at the adjacent Seawater Technologies Center and research facility. Under roofing there is a 1,000 square foot micro algae laboratory utilizing algae fiber as insulation. The fiber uses indigenous technology and has a high R value. There is also a 'Solaria,' housing an outdoor visitor garden and a site for a future learning center.

The water, laden with shrimp excreta, is used as a nutrient for the rubbery salicornia halophyte type plants, which thrive in salty conditions and grow their spiky, dark green profiles against the desert background. Seaphire are planning to export the edible salicornia to Europe and the U.S.A. for use in gourmet salads and as constituent in exclusive cosmetics. The salicornia also produces seed, which is a valuable source of vegetable oil or high protein meal.

The positive direction of the shrimp farm contrasts with the current threat of famine, which Eritrea is experiencing. Burnt out tank hulks, remnants from Eritrea's thirty yearlong war of independence with Ethiopia, intersperse the growing area. Sound bite symbolism is superfluous here.

Shrimp output for export should reach an annual rate of over 300 tons by 2003 and at a price between $8 to $15 a kilogram will be a significant export earner for Eritrea. Locals gaining skills and experience working in the project call themselves "aquaculturalists" as a token of their new-found skills, economic viability and personal dignity.

The virtuous developmental and environmental circle of commercial outputs, combating of desertification and global warming by creating plant growth in deserts sits well with Exeter Life Science's mandate to invest in stocks of companies based on the life sciences and related industries which include: pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, medical products and supplies, health care services and environmental services.

The greenbacked gut feeling must be that there are some highly successful world marketable products in the offing lying alongside a positive conscience... no need to hug a tree... just do it in the desert.