NaturalShrimp will fund a second freshwater salmon trial at the Marineholmen RASLab, in Bergen, Norway. In September 2021, the company announced the initial trial results of its short-term validation study at the Marineholmen RASLab to evaluate the effects of using hydrogas technology to increase fish health in a Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS). The positive results from that trial led to the initiation of a second phase trial during the first quarter of 2022 that will include not only hydrogas technology but also the company’s patented electrocoagulation (EC) technology. If successful, the second phase trial would provide independent scientifically validated confirmation of the use of these technologies to improve salmon production.
Christine Huynh, DVM aquatic species consultant for NaturalShrimp, said that “in this study, we will investigate the effects of hydrogas on fish welfare and performance in freshwater salmon production. The study will include smoltification and transfer into saltwater. We are also including some additional analyses on the microbiome to understand if the negative ORP environment influences the consortium of bacteria in RAS.”
“Our initial validation study results demonstrated that fish grown using hydrogas technology had significantly improved welfare scores, fewer inflammatory gill lesions and reduced early maturation,” said Gerald Easterling, CEO of NaturalShrimp. “With these promising early results, we are now focused on proving that together hydrogas and our EC technology can reduce mortality and increase growth rates for our existing shrimp production. These platform technologies could be significant breakthroughs for NaturalShrimp because they will enable us to obtain a separate revenue stream through the licensing of these technologies to aquaculture producers of salmon, barramundi, and other freshwater fish. We look forward to sharing results later in the coming year as we continue to scale production of our land-based gourmet-grade shrimp.”
New projects and funding
The company plans to expand production at its existing Texas and Iowa shrimp production facilities, and with new planned facilities in Florida and Nevada. The facility in Las Vegas, Nevada aims to serve additional markets and increase geographic reach to the U.S. West Coast. A 480,000 square foot mega shrimp production facility is in the early planning stages and construction is expected to begin in the third calendar quarter of 2022.
NaturalShrimp also closed a $15 million Securities Purchase Agreement that it intends to use to expand production facilities in Texas and Iowa.
