Happy Thanksgiving

I woke up in the wee hours of  morning as dark thoughts and worry started to creep into my mind.


Unable to sleep I grabbed a book off the night stand and opened randomly to a page in the book that had this quote. 


"I told the doctor I was over tired, anxiety ridden, compulsively active, constantly depressed, with recurring fits of paranoia. Turns out I'm normal"  (Jules Feiffer).


I turned out the light and feel asleep like a baby and just woke up around 8:00 AM on this Thanksgiving morning.


The sun is shining and the breeze is blowing. Some times it is easy to forget we are all in the same leaky boat called "life".


Happy Thanksgiving. 

Back in Texas

After a few weeks of very traumatic time I got back to Texas and the project today.


It is looking good. 


The shrimp in ponds 1 - 4 are growing gang busters. 


The ones in pond 5 which is very over stocked are doing well despite the super intensive stocking density.


The facility is 95% complete and though there are about 20 things we will do different in the next iteration and in the commercial modules, over all it is performing beyond expectations.


It has been a long ride with this project and we are a testament to the fact that persistence beats genius all day long.


It is good having my son with me here.


I like our team


We are winning and that is a good thing.

In Production

OK, I have to admit it, I am proud.


We have made such progress the past 10 months with our shrimp project it is almost hard to fathom.


Ten days ago we put our first shrimp in the water and they were basically specks. One of the keys (of many) to our system is the conditions in the water, the suspended bio-floc and other natural media. 


Look at our shrimp today.

They are growing like gang busters. This is a significant confirmation that the water medium is optimum.


People do not understand the complexity of our system. Simply put we control the environment the animals exist in. We have the ability to micro-manage the multiplicity of conditions that optimize growth, survival and the quality of the product.


We are growing a sustainable product in America that creates decent jobs and that produces a commodity. Wow, do you think maybe this is what America needs?

I have given my sweat, my effort, and my soul to this project. I have always thought you could do things the right way and still be successful.


This system proves I am right. I am so proud.

Expanding Production

As our first shrimp are starting to grow I am beginning to look at how and where the next level of funding will come from to enable us to expand production capacity both in Texas and outside the USA especially in this hemisphere.

It is very clear to me that regardless of the expertise many financial types possess, few (if any) have any real understanding of the evolutionary aspects of our aquaculture system, what it will mean for any country to be amongst the first to have us develop a production farm in their country, and finally how shrimp and seafood is sold globally. (Even a superficial treatment of these subjects would require more space then this blog will accommodate).

In point of fact, large quality shrimp (and indeed all shrimp and high end fin fish products) sell themselves, as the demand is exponentially greater then the supply and that trend is only going to increase in the decades ahead.

I am continually surprised by the naivete of people who talk about investing in aquaculture projects. They raise questions such as "who will buy your shrimp?, how do we know demand will not decrease?, can you give us a written guarantee from your buyer?"

Where do they figure the more than 3.4 million metric tons (6,834,330,128 pounds) of shrimp that is harvested yearly goes?  

Do they not understand that the aforementioned product is consumed worldwide and consumption is growing? 

Do they not understand that without having an operational production facility (adhering to HACCP and ISO standards) that is producing a product, it is impossible to get someone to say “I want to buy your product" sight and quality unseen?

  

Well, consumers are buying, and many of those buyers, more than 20%,  would like to have the large shrimp (U’s through U-15) but cannot get them due to overfishing of wild stocks and there is no aquaculture system to date except for GBT that produces those sizes on a regular basis.  

The following are just a few observations and comments about why we (the GBT's system) are different and more successful:

1. We are a niche operation. The niche of bio secure compared to other forms of shrimp production, i.e., wild caught and traditional aquaculture methods, gives us a higher quality product, grown in a sustainable manner that has positive environmental impacts and zero exchange to prevent any type of pollution or contagion release into the environment.

2. Overfishing has led to reduction or decline in large size shrimp (where value is at its highest) and resulted in small to mid sizes in shrimp being caught.  Aquaculture has raised primarily small sizes with some mid sizes coming out of Asia.  Due to the cost of carrying animals to large sizes in grow out and issues with diseases and viruses from exposed ponds and greed to move product to market as soon as possible; the typical aquaculture farm will itself end up like the wild caught fishing industry….it will fade away.  Innovations that the GBT system brings to aquaculture is the future and GBT will continue to innovate and improve its system.

3. Our systems gives us the benefit of large size shrimp U10-U15 in shorter periods, not typical of sizes and growth in open pond systems.  GBT’s larger sizes fit a niche in the shrimp market for a size traditionally not abundant.

4. The large size shrimp also meets the lower end of the lobster market (an already declining  supply side product primarily wild caught with low aquaculture potential at this date and time).

5. Finally, the fuel costs of moving products from Asia to America via reefer and containerized shipments will continue to increase making the production of shrimp in this hemisphere a cost advantage to the largest market in the world……the U.S.A.

GBT has a sustainable, bio-secure, recirculating and environmentally friendly, aquaculture system commercially ready to yield a significant profit including a very sizable IRR.  

Let the search begin. 

Another milestone

In the midst of all of the personal issues it is easy to lose perspective and to forget that in many arenas things are going very well.


We stocked the first four ponds last week with larvae and are now growing shrimp in our recently completed facility in Texas.


The progress we have made in the past ten months is a testament to the expertise and capabilities our team.


We now have the only recirculating, closed, bio-secure aquaculture system in the world that is fully beyond the research stage and capable of actual commercial production. This is an enormous accomplishment.


In addition to growing a very large, very tasty shrimp, our system truly ushers in a new era in aquaculture production.


The future of our company is yet to be written. Where future investments will come from, and how we expand production capacity, are all part of the yet "to be figured out". 


That said, my grandmother said that it was important once in awhile to "stop and enjoy the fruits of your labor". 


The stocking of the initial ponds with our first shrimp larvae is one of those occasions. 

Cancer and Friends

I hate cancer. I can't write a lot about this as I am still too upset. Here is the bad news quickly. Two days ago an MRI showed that Lori's triple negative breast cancer has come back in three small lesions in her brain.


Not good. After twenty four hours of pure panic as she was told she had about two months to get her affairs in order, I got a flight home and now for the past 24 hours I have been frantically sending out SOS's to all of my friends trying to find 1) a more hopeful future prognosis and 2) develop a practical "go forward" treatment strategy that has a realistic chance of extending her life and maybe, giving her the time for the doctors to find some type of cure.


I have great friends. Randy and Diane Strauss, Dick and Lorene Monroe, Jim Salmon, John Aquilino and his friend, Mary, Dave Sollman, and more all of whom have been incredible in tackling this head on.


Right now the consensus from the doctors is that Lori has to take 13 treatments (1 a day for 13 business days) of full brain radiation. She can do that here in Maryland. After that she has four weeks to let the radiation try and do its thing before she can schedule another MRI. Once that MRI is read, and we see if the brain lesions are still there (and the odds are they will be) I think we are going to have to get her admitted into MD Anderson in Houston. They are the best and they are the best equipped to deal with alternative treatments in triple negative breast cancer.


Without my friends and their efforts I would not have been able to develop such a possible strategy so quickly. Without their help I may not be able to get her admitted. With their help and influence I think we will get her there and then I think we have a good chance at extending her life while doctors seek a real cure. I hate cancer but thank God (on my knees and seeking his mercy) for good, intelligent, and caring friends.