Investment from several companies, foreign and domestic, has transformed hundreds of miles of Thai coastline into a zone dedicated almost exclusively to shrimp farming. On the coastal highway north of Songkla, a major fishing port, Buddhist temples, dusty shacks, snack bars and lazy, palm-shaded beaches quickly give way to a gray patchwork of shrimp ponds stretching as far as the eye can see. Rectangular, with narrow strips of mud dividing them, either filled or emptied and awaiting another crop, the ponds are connected by rickety networks of blue plastic piping that carries fresh water in and waste water out. Spinning water wheels connected to electric generators keep the water circulating and oxygenated. Men and women in small paddle boats toss in feed pellets, provided by the companies, and chlorine and antibiotics to make sure the shrimp stay healthy.
Harvesting goes on year-round.
To collect the shrimp, workers open a drain pipe into channels that run between the ponds and let the water flow out. Then the workers pour the shrimp into plastic baskets, which are put on the back of a pickup truck for transport. Such management is possible, aquaculture specialists say, only if everything from water treatment to waste disposal is meticulously coordinated. Where there isn't a hut, there's a shrimp pond. The coastal region of souther thailand was once a green, verdant plain of rice paddies.