Assessment of soil and source water characteristics of disused shrimp ponds in selected coastal states of India and their suitability for resuming aquaculture

Abstract

The key objective of this study was to assess the suitability of soil and source water quality of abandoned shrimp farms in selected coastal states of India, for resuming aquaculture activities. Soil samples along with associated source water were collected from 60 disused shrimp ponds in different districts of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Odisha and Kerala and analysed for basic physico-chemical parameters. Results of the analysis indicated that the reason for disuse might be reduction in price/repeated occurrences of diseases and that the sampled farms are suitable for aquaculture use. Most of the soil in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are suitable for aquaculture without any remediation. Few ponds in Jagatsingpur and Puri districts of Odisha and Kerala needs simple remediation measures like application of lime to increase the soil pH. Source water in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha (Harishpur Creek, Budhabalanga Creek and the coastal canal) fall under high saline areas and are suitable for culture of tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon, white shrimp Litopenaeus vannamei and finfishes like Asian seabass Lates calcarifer and mullets whereas, Kerala and northern parts of Chilka Lake of Odisha fall under low saline areas and are suitable for culture of white shrimp L. vannamei and pearlspot Etroplus suratensis.

Microbial diversity and composition in acidic sediments of freshwater finfish culture ponds fed with two types of feed: a metagenomic approach

“…S1b). The organic carbon levels in eight APS were similar to the findings of Saraswathy et al (2016) who reported organic carbon levels in sediment between 0Á81 and 1Á02% in traditional shrimp ponds of Kerala and Sahu et al (2007) showed sediment organic carbon levels of 1-1Á5% in polyculture farms with a combination of inputs including fertilizers, supplementary feed, periphytic substrate etc. In the present study, concentration of organic carbon in R-ponds was relatively higher (1Á4-2Á3%) than C-ponds, which might be due to the inappropriate supplementation of chicken slaughter waste as a feed to the cultured fishes.…”

“…Lowest pH was recorded in R9 (pH-3Á0) followed by R3 (pH-3Á1) and R7 (pH-3Á3). The acidic nature of shrimp culture ponds of Kerala, India was reported earlier by several authors (Krishnani et al 2011;Saraswathy et al 2016;Sahadevan and Sureshkumar 2020). Microbial activity is higher in aquaculture pond sediments with a pH range of 7Á5-8Á0 which favours the decomposition of organic matter and also hastens the nutrient recycling process (Boyd and Pippopinyo 1994).…”

“…Among the environmental attributes, pH of the soil is viewed as an essential driver in shifting the structure of the microbial populations (Rousk et al 2010) and contributed to the variations of diversity of archaeal population and structure of microbiota in tropical sediments (Tripathi et al 2013). The sediments of the traditional extensive shrimp farms of Kerala, India are highly acidic (pH 3Á7-5Á6) in nature resulting in very low productivity of the farms (Krishnani et al 2011;Saraswathy et al 2016). Using traditional microbiological methods, only 1% of all the microorganisms in natural habitats were culturable, but still 99% of the biological diversity needs to be investigated (Streit and Schmitz 2004).…”

Resources and Productivity of Indian Aquaculture – Status and Prospects

“…Countries like China, Egypt and Israel, are known to efficiently utilize this resource for increasing aquaculture productivity (FAO, 2018). Besides these resources, India holds about 40,000 hectares of abandoned shrimp ponds which can be used for culture of E. suratensis, seabass and mullet with the minor technological intervention (Ravisankar et al, 2014 andSaraswathy et al, 2016).…”

Impacts of culture-wise shrimp farming activities on hydrogeochemistry: a case study from Chidambaram taluk, Cuddalore district, Tamil Nadu, India

“…In the shrimp hatchery, unpolluted seawater is required for brood stock maintenance, spawning, larval rearing and culture of food organism. The grow-out farm ponds need sea/brackish water, free from agriculture, domestic and industrial pollution and also within the required salinities, pH and temperature ranges (Saraswathy et al 2016). The fact understood is that the effect of pollution from shrimp farm effluent is considerably less than that of domestic or industrial wastewater.…”