FYI.

This story is over 5 years old.

Food

Shrimp That Are Fed Uni Poop Grow Faster and Taste Better

Yep—scientists have discovered that one species can feed another from its waste. Maybe it’s time for us all to get our Human Centipede on.
Photo via Flickr user Scott Wang

Scientists have all the fun, don't they? Hey, don't disagree with us until you know all the messy facts. For instance, consider this: Researchers from the University of Alabama at Birmingham have found a way to make shrimp grow faster and cheaper. By using shit.

Yep—scientists have discovered that one species can feed another from its waste. This finding could "hold the key to unlocking future breakthroughs in environmental science, business and medicine."

Advertisement

We're talking excrement. Feces. Doo-doo. And it's growing some big, delicious shrimp.

Steve Watts, PhD, is the head scientist leading this research. He has been featured on The Travel Channel's Bizarre Foods America with Andrew Zimmern and is known for his work with sea urchins. Watts is a professor at, and works with a team from, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

RECIPE: Fried Shrimp Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Watts says his work with sea urchins revealed that animals could—in and of themselves— potentially support another species. Watching the behavior of two species when they were living together in a shared environment sparked his interest.

"In some cases, we had our shrimp together with our sea urchins, and they did very well, and we noticed that the shrimp had a tendency to congregate by the sea urchins and consume the waste pellets from the urchins," Watts said. "It looked like there might be some kind of synergy there."

Hmm. Animals that eat each other's poop? We know a "synergizing" dog Professor Watts should meet, but that's another story.

Anyway, Watts and his team decided to grow sea urchins and put them into a polyculture system—which just means a place in which one animal supports the other. In the environment they created, the sea urchins supported the shrimp by dropping their waste pellets; the shrimp that lived beneath the urchins consume the pellets. And guess what? The shrimp grew and grew—without the need for any extraneous food.

Advertisement

Yup. Turns out sea urchin pellets—i.e, sea crap—are full of nutrients and healthy bacteria. They actually helped the shrimp grow faster and larger than they did when consuming shrimp feed.

According to the researchers, this finding has the potential to "bear positive impacts in several fields."

Although we wouldn't suggest you try this at home, folks.

Watts and his research team brought their shrimp to Birmingham's Hot and Hot Fish Club where the kitchen is run by Chef Chris Hastings. "If you did a side-by-side with any shrimp grown in a pond in the world that's not done sustainably in a closed loop with organic food as its source in a clean environment, and you taste it next to this shrimp—the flavor, the texture, everything about your shrimp is world-class compared to that," Hastings said.

RECIPE: Shrimp and Mango Dumplings

So the next time you eat shrimp, just think. You may be eating a creature built on poop.

Watts points out this may be the way of the future: "With the number of individuals in this world increasing, and the need for protein, aquaculture is going to be the only mechanism by which we are going to be able to enhance fish protein production. It's all we have."

Maybe it's time for us all to get our Human Centipede on. Welcome to the new world.