The Beginning-Penaeus, Ltd.

I received a comment on an earlier blog from a very polite individual questioning my statement that myself and my team had indeed designed and constructed and tested the feasibility of growing shrimp in raceways 12 years ago in Ocean Springs, Mississippi on the campus of the University of Southern Mississippi's Gulf Coast Research Laboratory. 


Without going into all of the details, in late 1997 I was retained by the late Stephen Boynton, a prominent Washington, DC., attorney, and asked to review a decade worth of US Government funded research on shrimp farming and other forms of aquaculture, and to give an opinion of the feasibility of that research being developed into a sustainable USA based business model.


At that time having only a limited amount of experience with aquaculture systems and operating practices, other then all of the negative aspects that had been exposed in the global media, I was actually fortunate to be able to approach the corpus of research with a fresh, non-jaundiced eye. 


Over a three year period and using significant funds from a small company Mr. Boynton incorporated I put together a small team and we explored the biological feasibility of growing very large shrimp in much denser concentrations then had hitherto been attempted in open pond systems. Our efforts were encouraged by the company's directors and funding was provided to allow me to build and operate two basic greenhouse structures with two raceways in each to test the biological issues of that concept.


The aquaculture "experts" I tried to consult with where not supportive so I was left to depend on graduate student assistance, the knowledge of my team members, and my own meager knowledge and instincts. 


The results were so successful that they were featured in a local newspaper and the small company called Penaeus, Ltd., actually asked us to develop a franchise model for expansion.  For a multitude of reasons that company never found the funding to execute the business plan we developed. Upon its dissolution all intellectual property rights (if they existed) were ceded to me in a legal document executed by Mr. Boynton on behalf of the directors.


Obviously, if you have read earlier posts on this blog site you can see we have evolved significantly beyond that early application of this concept. But it was in the years between 1998-2002 that I did indeed learn you could grow larger shrimp, faster, and in denser amounts, then in any open pond technology that existed. 


To the left are a few pictures from our original admittedly rudimentary effort. In the research literature I reviewed I came across many earlier attempts to grow shrimp indoors in raceways many years before we even contemplated the same. 


Though I eventually abandoned the raceway design due to inherent limitations in production given where I wanted to go with our system, you can see why recent announcements of "breakthroughs" using recirculating raceway systems causes those of us who have been at this this past decade plus some amusement given our history. 

A Gift called Today

I have come to realize dealing with the injustices that life throws at you can be daunting but truthfully, that is just life. 

People think "surviving" is defined as "overcoming what life throws at you". 

It is not. 

Surviving is about "overcoming your own fears, frailties, and weaknesses so you can persevere through what life will surely throw at you". 

Life is fleeting and today is a gift, that is why (as I have said before) they call today "the present". The past is behind you and only provides memories, and the future is always uncertain, subject to multiple outcomes, so all you really have, all you can really enjoy and relish is the moment, which is today. 

Lori came to visit the project in Texas this past weekend. 

I watched Lori laugh and smile and enjoy her life for three days this weekend despite the fact she is facing the most difficult threat she could have ever imagined. Having triple negative breast cancer is a terrible burden to carry. While any breast cancer is terrifying for any woman, triple negative has its own special brand of hell.

I thought for a second what would I do if I lost her to cancer. That momentary fear almost made me pass out.  

Then I realized that today "she is here" and that by thinking the negative thoughts of "what if" or "what could be", I was losing the joy and beauty of the moment. 

For me, that is the secret to living and living well. Embracing the magic of the moment. 

Sadly most people never get it. It took me a long time, longer then I like to admit to realize that every trial and tribulation that comes along in life is just an affirmation you are alive. 

Relish the moment. Plan as best one can for the future, learn from the past, but never lose sight that life's beauty is seen today. 

It is a true gift, this moment they call "the present".

Operational at Last !!!!!

The past few months have seen several articles appear in various news outlets touting major breakthroughs in intensive shrimp production systems or in developing a recirculating system for shrimp aquaculture that has commercial merit. 


While I applaud the progress many within the research community appear to be making in improving aquaculture systems, I am some what bemused by the simple fact that upon examination of these recent "breakthroughs" none appear to achieved the objectives and performance metrics we achieved in our initial trials in Ocean Springs, Mississippi about 12 years ago.


In any event, our recently completed production facility in Texas is operational. 


Here is the announcement our CEO sent out to our investors yesterday. 

GREAT NEWS.  The facility in Port Isabel Texas passed inspection by Texas Park and Wildlife on the first review.  We were told that they were quite impressed with the facility and that the paperwork would be filed immediately to generate the permit giving us permission to bring in and stock the shrimp.  As soon as the permit number is generated (probably a few days) we can stock the shrimp.  The stocking water is being prepared and will be ready as soon as the permit number is received.

According to the local officials in Port Isabel, we pulled off a miracle in getting the site under contract, the facility constructed and the final permit for an "exotic species" issued in less than six months.  I think this is a testament to the team we have.  Everyone involved has done a fantastic job since day one.

We are on the verge of ushering a new era in aquaculture with our system.  We are working on the next level of expansion now that we have this initial piece done.

The photos attached show the greenhouse structure which is longer than a football field and almost as wide.  The "Action Photo" shows the inside of the greenhouse with the paddle wheels circulating the water.  This is about all the action you will see since everything takes place in the water.  Maybe we will see shrimp jumping closer to harvest time...

While the phrase "a new era in aquaculture" may be a bit overstated we are very excited that we are now operational with our system. If you have read my earlier blogs on the evolution of this project and the trials and tribulations of getting us to this point you are well aware that the system has always performed beyond our expectations, it was my choice of partners and business associates that has fallen short. 


So, as we head into the holidays we will be growing shrimp and hope to have our first partial harvest in February or March 2012. It may take a few production runs to reach our optimum performance levels but we will get there quickly. This single module should produce about 89,000 pounds of head on jumbo shrimp annually when operating at full capacity.


We have done all of this before on a much bigger scale with great success only to have ego and hubris (and greed) break apart the partnership. Our system grows shrimp to a larger size, in greater densities, with higher survival rates, faster then any current production system in the world for which we are aware. 


It is sustainable, environmentally friendly. It is a recirculating and bio-secure system. 


After the holidays I will be seeking the funding to build additional modules and expand our production facility. 


I will share a few pictures with you below.

Teddy

Lori called me this morning to tell me Teddy died peacefully last night. Lori sat with him the last hours of his life and he passed gently away in his sleep. That is fitting as he was the most gentle dog I have ever met.


I remember the night we got him 14 years ago, the late Stephen Boynton had invited us to a Ducks Unlimited dinner. We didn't want to go. We don't like hunting or things associated with killing animals for sport but politically it was one those things at the time you do. 


Who would have thought one of the best things to ever enter our lives would arrive via that dinner?


Teddy was a pure bred labrador retriever breed from champion hunting stock. Sitting in his cage that night his little puppy face open and welcoming and just happy to be noticed, he stole our hearts. Its amazing what love can do to your opinions. I had always told people not to buy a dog, go to the shelter and save a homeless pet. (And I still pretty much adhere to that philosophy) but there are always exceptions to any rule in life. When the bidding went to $900 and Lori had triumphed, we took that little black puppy into our arms and into our lives.


In a 14 year plus life span he experienced only three traumas. 


I mentioned he was from a famous hunting gene pool. He was a lab, a water dog, that bold companion who leaps into the water and brings back the downed quarry. 


Small problem, Teddy couldn't swim. Into our pool one day he went and if Lori had not gotten to him he would have drowned. He was so upset it took several cheeseburgers for him to recover and for the rest of his life he always walked around our various swimming pools several feet from he edge with pure suspicion on his face.


When we brought him home as a puppy Lori had a black lab she had rescued named Beatrice. I am positive that Teddy became the sweet and gentle soul he was because of Bea. She was patient, loving, and she literally raised him. He only got one serious disciplinary lesson from her. 


Once walking on the beach at Ocean City as a young adolescent he keep charging Bea's legs and nipping her and bouncing off of her until finally even sweet Bea could take it no longer. She gave him a growl and pounced on him. Enough had become enough. Trauma number 2. Lesson learned. 


Then there was the time we crossed White's Ferry in my old Defender. 


The labs loved to ride. Lulu, Elle, (our yellow lab) and Teddy were the three labs. (Bea had passed away). I used to take them and Mae (our doberman) to get hot dogs on Saturday morning in Darnestown. They would get in the back and wait even with the door open. You could not get them to jump out for they knew hot dogs awaited. 


(I also used to take them to Seneca Creek and do long walks with them along the creek, which they loved.).


Well this day we were going to Virginia and we drove on to White's Ferry. I don't know if it was the rocking of the water or the tremors from the engine chugging as the Ferry crossed the Potomac but Teddy nearly stroked out. Trauma # 3. 


In his 14 years of life he was kind, timid, simple, and loving. He never lost the "puppy face" we saw that first night. Lots of people who met Teddy remarked he seemed at times "not the brightest of dogs". I think he was was one of the "brightest" lights to ever enter into my life. 


There are no words to write and no longer enough tears to shed to close the kind of hole that losing Teddy puts in my heart. He is with Lulu and Bea now, his adopted Mom, and his good friend and side kick. "Dear God, please take care of him". He's still just a puppy.

                    Elle                     Teddy                   Lulu


                                 "Going for Hot Dogs"

Decision

It's been a hell of a week.


Tons of last minute difficulties with bringing our production module on line.


Nothing I am not used to but to quote Patrick Swayze in the movie Roadhouse "It is amazing what you can get used to".


Regardless of the last minute gnashing of teeth as we limp to the finish line on the construction phase of this first production module of our recirculating aquaculture system, we are there. 


We have accomplished what we set as our objective back in January and we now have a functioning example of what our system can do. This little module will produce 85,000 pounds of live jumbo shrimp annually and that is pretty cool.


Now I have to find the next level of investment capital to expand our production capability. It won't be easy given these very stressful economic times but hey, that is what I am supposed to be good at doing.


The good news is I am no longer tethered to living in Brownsville, Texas. I have been here for 9 months and with all due respect to the locals here, it isn't my cup of tea.


I have a great house in suburban Maryland but the thought of returning to living in the suburbs frankly, is very depressing. I think the suburbs anywhere in the USA are purgatory at best and well you can imagine what I think they are at worst.


Given my life of traveling and working all over the globe and considering that Hemingway was and is a sort of hero of mine, I  am thinking Key West as a possible destination and abode for 2012.


It is bohemian enough to appeal to my fantasies and while still in the USA has a certain exotic flavor. I may have just made a decision.


Go figure.

Reflections On A Sunday Morning

I have heard it all my life but only recently has the following expression really resonated with me.


"If life hands you some lemons, learn to make lemonade".


Driving back from the local Starbucks this morning I started thinking about the past year of my life and I have to say, for a second I was dangerously close to attending a self pity party.


Last year someone burned down the home my wife and I had lived in for 5 years and a house frankly I had always loved. Yes, we had insurance and no, we were not living there, but the emotional pain of losing a place that I had assumed was a safe haven that we could always return too, if needed, was intense.


Then in February we learned that Lori, (my wife), has triple negative breast cancer. There was nothing in my life that had prepared me for that shock. (She has gone through extensive treatment and for now, the cancer is gone, but we pray every day it will not return, and that fear that it may return can be "at times" crippling).


I have spent the last 9 months constructing our first closed recirculating aquaculture production module that will demonstrate the commercial viability of the system I have spent a decade plus developing.  This is the second time I have had to take on this task despite the enormous success we had in South Africa in the years of 2006-2008, where we built the initial prototype and produces thousands of pounds of high quality jumbo shrimp.  That venture was disrupted, as a consequence of hubris and greed, in my opinion at least.


And a few months ago one of my dearest friends and companion, my black Lab "Lulu" passed away.


I mean, even measured against the experiences of my life, it has been a very, difficult stretch.


So, for just an instance I almost gave into the moment and I could feel the depression and melancholia starting to creep in. And in that second I realized that while I could not do a thing to change what had gone before, I could stay focused on today and hopefully chart a course for a better future. 


I have often spent too much time reliving the past and worrying of what the future might bring.


There is a great line in movie Kung Fu Panda. 


(Yes, I like animated movies and I am man enough to not be ashamed of that fact). 


To paraphrase that line, it goes something like this: 


"The "past" is called the past because it is lost and cannot be changed and the "future" cannot be known, but the reason we call the "present", the present is because it is a "gift". It is what we have now".


So, as I reflected on my life today, I suddenly realized that today is a gift and my life today is filled with gifts. My wife is alive and cancer free and in the days and weeks ahead I have the opportunity to be a better husband and value her more then ever. I can also try and strengthen my faith in God and in Jesus Christ and I can pray everyday asking God to protect Lori and keep her cancer free and in doing that perhaps also find my way back to the faith I need.


We are virtually finished the construction phase of our project and we will begin to grow our shrimp again and we can begin to develop a strategy for expanding our production capacity immediately.


I can start to look for a place to live for the next year that is warm and laid back which will help Lori regain her strength (she cannot go through a freezing Maryland winter). A location that will give me the time I need to start to focus on where I want to have my home based in the coming years. Suburban Maryland while lovely, is not where I want to wake up each morning. 


And the most amazing thing that my reflections made me aware of this morning was, the fact that I have many options and opportunities ahead of me from which to make my choices. 


I still have the very real possibility of hope. 


And that is truly a "gift".