Texas Shrimp Researchers Lose Production Building to Fire

A La Coste, Texas, company developing a method to grow ocean-quality shrimp by means of aquaculture lost its main production building to fire Tuesday afternoon.

In a letter to stockholders, NaturalShrimp, Inc. CEO Gerald Easterling confirmed that a suspected gas leak near the boiler room ignited a fire that destroyed the company’s nursery, grow-out tanks and machinery.

“Luckily, the fire did not affect our offices, greenhouse, or maintenance buildings,” he said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation by the local fire marshal, Easterling said.

“Our shrimp, which numbered approximately 1.5M PL’s (post larvae), were growing on schedule and were extremely healthy,” Easterling said.

NaturalShrimp has developed the first commercially viable system for growing Pacific white shrimp in enclosed, salt-water systems, producing fresh shrimp without the use of antibiotics or probiotics.