{"id":701593,"date":"2026-06-13T11:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701593\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T11:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T11:08:26","slug":"kauai-shrimp-harvesting-pounds-from-ponds-to-help-feed-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/701593\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaua\u2018i Shrimp: Harvesting Pounds From Ponds To Help Feed Hawai\u2018i"},"content":{"rendered":"

The shrimp farm has been part of West Kaua\u2018i\u2019s agricultural landscape for decades.<\/p>\n

The shrimp farm has been part of West Kaua\u2018i\u2019s agricultural landscape for decades.<\/p>\n

\"Kaua\u02bbi(Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

All\u2019s quiet at 6 a.m. as a crew of five men trudge knee deep in a 1-acre pond, preparing to harvest 1,500 pounds of shrimp.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They\u2019re part of Kaua\u2018i Shrimp, a nearly 30-year-old farm on the M\u0101n\u0101 Plain. The farm currently has 12 employees who raise Pacific white leg shrimp in lined ponds that pull saltwater from deep wells.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PacificPacific white leg shrimp jump as Kaua\u02bbi Shrimp workers pull in a net. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

The pond\u2019s water level was lowered for the harvest. Four paddlewheels aerate the saltwater and create currents to help push the fish toward a large net. Hundreds of shrimp jump out as the crew, which has grown to seven men, pulls the net.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They use scoop nets to collect the shrimp and put them in plastic baskets. Each individual shrimp weighs roughly 1.4 ounces.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"PacificPacific white leg shrimp jump to avoid being netted during a Kaua\u02bbi Shrimp harvest. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Workers call out the weight of each basket before emptying them into a large plastic bin filled with salt brine and ice, which quickly kills the shrimp and keeps them fresh. \u201c91 pounds.\u201d \u201c95 pounds.\u201d \u201c96 pounds.\u201d An eighth crewmember stands next to the bin, keeping track of the amounts on his phone.<\/p>\n

\"Kaua\u02bbiKaua\u02bbi Shrimp workers dump live shrimp into ice-filled saltwater. The below-freezing temperature instantly incapacitates and euthanizes the harvest. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

By 6:33 a.m., the crew had harvested the required 1,500 pounds of shrimp. On Monday, they\u2019ll return to the pond to harvest 3,000 more pounds, said Robert Kanna, the farm\u2019s manager. Each 1-acre pond can hold 7,000 pounds.<\/p>\n

\"RobertRobert Kanna, Kaua\u2018i Shrimp\u2019s manager, stirs the icy water filled with harvested shrimp. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

From here, the harvested shrimp are taken to Kaua\u2018i Shrimp\u2019s Hanap\u0113p\u0113 processing facility, where a separate team will pack them up. The shrimp, which are sold with their heads on, are shipped to buyers fresh or frozen the same day. Norpac Fisheries Export, which supplies Costco, is the farm\u2019s main buyer, Kanna said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Prior to Aloun\u2019s purchase, the farm\u2019s goal was to harvest 800,000 pounds of shrimp a year. Kanna said it\u2019s hard to say exactly how much the farm harvested in recent years as shrimp breeding was its larger focus and revenue driver.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"FreshlyFreshly harvested Kaua\u02bbi Shrimp gets loaded into a truck within 15 minutes of being pulled from the water. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

The shrimp farm got its start just as the area\u2019s sugar plantation was winding down. The area was seen as a good location for aquaculture because it gets year-round sun and has warm water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaua\u2018i Shrimp\u2019s roots date back to Sunkiss Shrimp Co., which Kanna managed and had a small site a couple of minutes down the road. Four quarter-acre ponds were initially stocked with selectively bred, disease-free Pacific white leg shrimp developed by Oceanic Institute, another one of Kanna\u2019s former employers. The farm later added shrimp breeding to its operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kaua\u02bbiKaua\u02bbi Shrimp workers pull in their net to harvest shrimp. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Kaua\u2018i Shrimp is now on its fifth owner, Aloun Farms, and only consists of the meat operations. Breeding continues at Sunkiss\u2019s original site under Kaua\u2018i Shrimp\u2019s former owner, Sunrise Capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The farm continues to get young shrimp from there, around 21 days after hatching. At that age, the shrimp are about one inch long and as thin as a fingernail clipping, Kanna said. They are placed in the farm\u2019s eight half-acre nursery ponds for five to seven weeks. Once they reach two grams in weight, they are moved into the 40 1-acre grow-out ponds, where they\u2019ll stay for roughly 12 weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kaua\u2018iKaua\u2018i Shrimp paddle wheel aerators are hard at work in the shrimp ponds to increase dissolved oxygen levels and promote water circulation. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

In 2024, Hawai\u2018i shellfish sales totaled $27.5 million<\/a> \u2014 more than half of the state\u2019s total aquaculture sales \u2014 but it\u2019s hard to say how much shrimp contributed to that. Todd Low, aquaculture and livestock support services manager with the Hawai\u2018i Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity, said shrimp for food production in Hawai\u2018i has been limited in the nearly 20 years he\u2019s been with the department. Kaua\u2018i Shrimp is likely the largest commercial operation, though there are smaller entities raising shrimp for their food trucks or other businesses.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Kaua\u02bbiKaua\u02bbi Shrimp manager Robert Kanna holds a freshly harvested Pacific white leg shrimp. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a department, we\u2019re cognizant that we import too much food,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd, of course, with seafood it\u2019s the same, and the demand is always so high, so we\u2019re always trying to figure out how to get more production.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also a tough market to be in because local producers must compete against cheap imports, in addition to dealing with the high cost of doing business in Hawai\u2018i, Low said. Hawai\u2018i\u2019s shrimp industry is largely driven by breeding operations that globally supply broodstock selectively bred to be free of disease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cold-water shrimp and prawns are Hawai\u2018i\u2019s second-largest food export<\/a>, according to HDAB. In 2024, the state exported 1.15 million pounds of shrimp and prawns, totaling $10.9 million in sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA Pacific white leg shrimp jumps away from Kaua\u02bbi Shrimp workers as they prepare to roll out a net before their harvest. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Kaua\u2018i Shrimp is one of the original members of the 23-year-old Kekaha Agriculture Association. Mike Faye, who manages the agricultural cooperative, said Kaua\u2018i Shrimp has been a long-time pillar of the region and credits the farm with keeping the land \u2014 which was once part of a 12-parcel agricultural park under the former state Department of Agriculture \u2014 in production. Kanna said the farm got the land after only one other person was interested in farming there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope they hang in there and become more successful,\u201d Faye said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kaua\u2018i Shrimp has a state Department of Health permit to discharge up to 20 million gallons of wastewater each day, though for the last two years, the farm has discharged less than 5 million gallons a day, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Each pond has a central drain that carries wastewater to a canal that surrounds the property. The effluent then travels north and eventually joins the wastewater from the broader area\u2019s agricultural operations before being discharged into the ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"AA tilapia breaks the surface of a waste water canal on the shrimp farm. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Kanna said the farm has experienced periodic fish kills in its on-site canals, which are home to tilapia that graze on organic matter. Those kills are often caused by a lack of oxygen in the water. Phytoplankton produce oxygen during the day, and their deaths result in such low oxygen levels at night that the fish can\u2019t survive. He said that happens when the canals\u2019 carrying capacity is reached as the tilapia otherwise would continue to multiply.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The farm\u2019s wastewater discharge permit requires regular water quality monitoring on-site and where the wastewater discharges into the ocean to minimize impacts on fish, wildlife and recreational activities.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"'Auku'u\u2018Auku\u2019u (black-crowned night heron) fly over Kaua\u02bbi Shrimp\u2019s water outflow along Kaumuali\u02bbi Highway. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n

Its latest monitoring results<\/a> from this spring show that measured items were below permitted levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe limits we have is to make sure that we\u2019re not over doing it in our discharge to a point where it\u2019s going to create an algae bloom where then that can have a die-off in the ocean,\u201d Kanna said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Civil Beat\u2019s reporting on Kaua\u02bbi is supported in part by a grant from the G. N. Wilcox Trust. \u201cHawai\u2018i Grown<\/a>\u201d is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawai\u2018i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The shrimp farm has been part of West Kaua\u2018i\u2019s agricultural landscape for decades. The shrimp farm has been…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":701594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-701593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=701593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/701593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/701594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=701593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=701593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=701593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}