Changes

Well the New Year is almost ten days old and as I promised I am making several major changes that I think are going to benefit both our company and me personally.

I am very proud of the team that we have assembled in the GBT family. We have in virtually every position within our company some of the most qualified, dedicated, and enthusiastic people any company could hope to employ.

And as everyone who has ever tasted success knows, it always takes a team and a team comprised of individuals with complimentary talents, to achieve that success.

And from a personal standpoint I can honestly look in the mirror and for the first time since I embarked on this insane journey (over a decade and 1/2 ago) to try and show the world a better way to produce marine protein and indeed maybe even feed the world in a sustainable fashion, I can say that if I got hit by the proverbial bus tomorrow, this company would go forward.

So, as to changes, effective immediately Eduardo Figueras is now totally running all the production aspects of the farm here in Texas.

Steve Groe, one of our investors and part of the great Iowa team that is making GBT a reality, has taken on the position of Chairman of the Construction Committee and with Lee Barnes as Construction Project Manager and my son, Stephen, handling purchasing and contract negotiations, and with John Aquilino now full time here in Texas acting as he has for twenty plus years as my right arm, I am free to focus on what I think I do best which is figuring out how to expand GBT production overseas. 

GBT-Japan is underway, which Stephen and Lee will direct during the construction phase, I am now going to start seeking the next location for another GBT shrimp production facility outside of the USA.

Tim Aberson and Ross McDaniel and Kurt Solari are doing the final Reg D offering raising the final ten million dollars we need to finish phase 1 of the Texas production project. And they have already broken escrow and are well on their way to having that offering completed in the next few months. 

Tim is also now becoming involved in the international side of the company as well as the USA based operations. 

The truth be told, I need to find another site and project because frankly the team we have is so good, I am now virtually un-employed. They simply do not need me. 

I am also excited to start seriously working to secure the funding to begin the R&D phase of selecting several species of fin fish to see which species is best suited to be grown in the GBT system.

And if anyone thinks we are chasing a pipe dream, please read the article below.

(This article was printed in Bob Rosenberry's "Shrimp News" and I want to acknowledge that "Shrimp News" is the source for the article below.)

That said, the GBT system is the only commercially industrial scale system in the world of which we are aware, that addresses virtually every aspect of the problems that have plagued traditional aquaculture. 

After 15 years it look like our time has arrived. 

The world needs what we have and we are looking to go global. 

And with the world's oceans in peril, with traditional aquaculture practitioners refusing to evolve, and with a growing global population demanding healthy and sustainable protein, we may be coming on line just in time. 

January 6, 2015

The World No Quick Recovery in Global Shrimp Production Dr. Stephen Newman (sgnewm@aqua-in-tech.com) reports: Despite the fact that I’ve been saying it for many months, shrimp production is not likely to recover to the levels of a few years ago any time soon.  It seems that all too many people are still not getting the message.  Disease is a fact of life! This is a partly a result of production paradigms that ignore time-honored biosecurity measures and long-term sustainable production and instead concentrate on short-term gains. Shrimp farmers in Southeast Asia are wracked by several diseases.  Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) is the most visible right now.  Production continues to be affected by EMS as well as a microsporidian disease that is causing growth problems.  EMS has not gone away, although there are signs in some areas that paradigm shifts are successfully lessening its impact.  Meanwhile, it continues to spread into new regions.  As farmers adapt to the challenges of new diseases, there should be a gradual increase in production in the hardest hit areas; however, there will be no sudden increase in shrimp production and no return to the status quo. Although I am optimistic that shrimp farming will eventually recover, without substantial changes in the fundamental production paradigms, I see little reason to think this will be any time in the near future.  There are reports of companies selling tools that claim to solve specific problems, and companies are looking at a myriad of solutions, but the challenge is getting shrimp farmers to use the tools they already have. Many diseases are spread by the movement of shrimp around the world, legally and illegally.  Individuals and companies who think the grass is greener elsewhere ignore basic common sense biosecurity measures and ship shrimp to disease-free areas.  Globally, shrimp farmers pay a very high price for this.  Recovery will be slow, and the high price of farmed shrimp will stimulate production in areas that are not yet affected by EMS and several other pathogens that are widely problematic in Southeast Asia, including microsporidian diseases and the nodavirus that causes covert mortality disease. Until there is a substantial shift in awareness and increased concern among shrimp farmers, I don’t think global farmed shrimp production will reach the production levels that existed prior to the current crisis, which is only the latest in what seems to be a never-ending cycle of crises, any time in the next several years. Information: Dr. Stephen G. Newman, Ph.D., President and CEO, AquaInTech, Inc., Lynnwood, Washington 98037, USA (phone 1-425-787-5218, email sgnewm@aqua-in-tech.com, webpages www.bioremediationaquaculture.com and www.sustainablegreenaquaculture.com). Source: SeafoodSource.com.  Editor, Sean Murphy (smurphy@divcom.com).  Bullish Predictions for Farmed Shrimp Recovery Are Pipe Dreams.  Stephen Newman.  January 5, 2015.

Sunday Morning Dumbing Down

I just had a chance to read two articles from Bob Rosenberry's publication  "Shrimp News".

I seldom read these kinds of articles because 1) they raise my blood pressure and if I want to raise my blood pressure I prefer to drink a good bourbon, and 2) the only thing that drives me crazier (and driving me crazier is a very short trip in any event) than insanity is stupidity. 

As a wise man once said, "truth is much stranger than fiction". 

The following are two excellent examples of that adage. 

It is no secret I think open air shrimp farming is a dinosaur. And I suspect that those individuals invested in open air shrimp farming are just never going to accept or perhaps cannot afford to accept or perhaps do not want to accept that premise. Forget the environmental damage they wreak, just from a disease and pollution and food safety perspective they have outlived their usefulness, if they ever had any. 

(FYI - I think raising fish in net pens, using long lines, or drift nets, bottom trawling, and basically most forms of killing (euphemistically called "harvesting") sea life are dinosaurs, and are basically doomed to extinction either through financial failures or eventually legislation from a growing informed populace who sooner or later is going to wise up and realize we are killing the planet's oceans and our children along with it. (See second article below) 

In any case this is the first article from "Shrimp News" I read this morning. 

Thailand

CP Foods Shrimp Division Faces $30 Million Loss

Bualuang Securities, a financial services and brokerage company in Thailand, predicts that Charoen Pokphand Foods’ shrimp division will post a $30.8 million operating loss for the first quarter of 2014, a 95% greater loss than in the first quarter 2013, but a 12 percent improvement over the fourth quarter of 2013.  Charoen Pokphand Foods is one of the largest shrimp farming companies in Thailand.

But, the securities firm says CPF’s shrimp division will break even in the first half of 2014, as it shifts its business to Vietnam, Thailand and Malaysia.

(My comments: "And do they really think by shifting their production to Vietnam, Thailand, and Malaysia they are going to avoid EMS,white spot, runt deformity syndrome, pollution, use of carcinogenic preservatives, and so forth and so on? This is getting silly". ) 

I also just sent the following comments and article out to a lot of folks invested in GBT. 

The headline and commentary below are also mine, the article from "Shrimp News" is posted verbatim. This just scares the "hell" out of me.  

Would you feed this to your kids? 

(See article below) 

And people wonder why cancer rates continue to soar? And why our food tastes like crap? And why our bodies continue to develop strange ailments? 

This is just plain stupid but hey, this again demonstrates the power of lobbyists who can buy anything they want from "BIG GOVERNMENT".

Aside from common sense which should tell you radiating food is "NOT" a good idea there are a hundred or more studies that warn against ingesting any type of radiated product or substance. 

ANOTHER SIGN OF THE DUMBING DOWN AND FRANKLY "KILLING OF AMERICANS". 

But the FDA does not think "Avastin" can be should be approved for use for metastatic breast cancer patients like Lori. 

Mark Twain said it best, "we have the best government money can buy". 

April 16, 2014

United States Washington, DC—FDA Approves Radiation of Crustaceans In the first week of April 2014, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)approved the radiation of crustaceans—shrimp, crab and lobster—to control pathogens and extend shelf life.  As part of the approval, FDA says radiated crustaceans must carry the bright green radura symbol, the international symbol for radiation.  This is generally sufficient to frighten consumers out of their wits, so the symbol and radiation are not widely used in foods where they have been approved.  For example, radiation has been approved for oysters, clams, mussels and scallops, but the widespread use by the oyster industry of other purification techniques—including pressure treatment to control Vibrios—has meant radiation has not been widely adopted. The new rule covers raw, frozen, cooked, partially cooked, shelled, dried and ready-to-cook crustaceans processed with spices or small amounts of other food ingredients. FDA said: “At the maximum permitted dose this new use of ionizing radiation will reduce, but not entirely eliminate, the number of pathogenic microorganisms in or on crustaceans.  The maximum dosage of radiation approved is capable of reducing a number of pathogens that may be found in crustaceans, including Listeria, Vibrio, and E. coli.  Radiation is not a substitute for proper food-handling practices; therefore crustaceans treated with ionizing radiation must be stored, handled, and cooked in the same way as non-radiated foods.” “We require that radiated foods bear the international symbol for radiation (radura) and carry the statement “Treated with Radiation” or “Treated by Radiation” on the food label.” “For foods not in package form, the logo and phrase must be displayed to the purchaser with either the labeling of the bulk container plainly in view or a counter sign, car, or other appropriate device bearing the information that the product has been treated with radiation.  We do not require that multi-ingredient foods that contain ingredients that have been radiated (e.g., spices) be labeled if the food itself has not been radiated, nor do we require labeling of radiated food served in restaurants.” Because there is no requirement for labeling radiated food in restaurants, this represents a potential avenue for more usage of radiation.  However, anecdotally we have heard that some companies think radiation may compromise quality in crabmeat. Also the process can be costly.  A company that radiates ground beef was not able to stay in business due to the high costs—about 8 cents a pound—and consumer resistance. The petition to the FDA to approve irradiation of crustaceans was initiated by the National Fisheries Institute, which also got FDA to approve radiation of molluscan shellfish. There is a radiation facility in the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi, USA, airport that is used by Crystal Seas Oysters, which fishes, processes and markets oysters, to produce live, in-shell, radiated oysters.  Information: Crystal Seas Oysters, P.O. Box 717, 166 W. North Street, Pass Christian, Mississippi 39571, USA (phone 1-228-452-2722, fax 1-228-452-0801, webpagehttp://www.crystalseasoysters.com/#!/crystal-clear).

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DINOSAURS

The picture above is a bird’s eye view of a generic open water shrimp farm operation in South East Asia.

In 2007 I visited Saudi Arabia (near Jeddah) at the invitation of Al Fulk, an aquaculture company in Saudi Arabia.

While there I met with the principal owners and directors of Al Fulk Shrimp Farms. 

I also met some of the foreign advisors consulting with the Saudi investors, each of them being a “shrimp and aquaculture expert."

I spent hours with both groups and traveled to the farm site and north in Saudi to an agricultural feed production facility as well as looking at other phases of the farm’s infrastructure. (Water intake, drainage etc.)

They had just started construction on a 100 million USD expansion of their open-air ponds south of the desalination plant, which was just south of Jeddah.

I explained to them in detail all of the pitfalls with that undertaking.

The wrong species, (p.indicus), the bio-security risks, the problems with their brood stock and the inferior hatchery protocols, the water quality issues, etc.

I went through in agonizing fashion the known and “sure to occur” problems they would encounter if they proceeded as planned.

I also showed them the reasons our technology and system avoided those “guaranteed to arise” problems.

I was clearly unconvincing. Their American, German and Filipino advisers assured them the project would work, and that I was in their words, "passionate but inexperienced". 

You have to wonder how much money those advisors "took" from the Saudi investors. In any event, this is just one more testimony that underscores our assertion, "open air aquaculture is a dinosaur and our technology and system is the future, not just for shrimp but for all aquaculture."

          (Below is a recent article from "Shrimp News").

Saudi Arabia

Has Whitespot Ended Shrimp Farming in the Kingdom?

Job

In the March 2013 issue of World Aquaculture, the quarterly magazine of the World Aquaculture Society, M.R. Kitto, an assistant professor on the Faculty of Marine Science at King Abdulaziz University in Saudi Arabia, says:

“We are witnessing the rise and apparent fall of the blue revolution with shrimp in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”  

“Presently Indian shrimp (Fenneropenaeus indicus) farming is negotiating a crucial uncertainty in the Kingdom.  Low stocking density and stricter biomass thresholds could not prevent viral diseases from wiping out shrimp crops.  The storm cloud of cryptic infections in shrimp won the game.  Three decades of global investigation into the immunity of penaeid shrimps provided no help to keep culture going?”

“Most disease cases in the Kingdom have always followed a heavy downpour of winter rain—the ultimate environmental stressor.”

“Low temperatures weaken shrimp immune system defense responses and allow White Spot Syndrome Virus (WSSV) replication....”

The article continues with a discussion of possible disease carriers and geographical factors that have contributed to the disease problem. 

Job: Apparently, not everyone in Saudi Arabia has give up on shrimp farming, as this job announcement indicates: 

A 77-hectare farm in Saudi Arabia has a position open for a shrimp hatchery manager.  The hatchery currently works with the Indian white shrimp (Fenneropenaeus indicus).  When the hatchery is not operating, the manager will need to assume other roles.  Computer literacy essential.  The whitespot virus is present in the region and has affected every shrimp farm in the region over the last two or three years.