Talkin' Shit About A Pretty Sunset

Shrimp ponds smell like a cross betwen a mid-July salt marsh and a neglected fish tank --- one where the glass is covered in algae and you can't see what's inside or identify that fuzzy thing floating on top.

The only vegetation between the ponds is the kind of grass that grows through city sidewalks. I can't imagine anything else being able to grow in the crusty dirt that crunches under my shoes.

The paddle wheels churn greenish white water with an electric drone, and the void of plant life intensifies the sun's heat on my neck --- hardly bearable. The area around the sprawling pond complex is gorgeous green jungle and mangroves, but within the farm operation, it's 100% utilitarian with zero aesthetics. A few beat-up dogs limp around or sleep in the shade (maybe they're dead?). Empty bags of shrimp feed lie around the windless oven-like earth. Never seems to be any wind --- hardly a breeze. The shush of the paddle wheels never ceases.

But all this doesn't mean I'm not interested to explore it.




This little roof covers the industrial electric water pump. Shrimp ponds take water from the sea, and hold it in a resovoir until it's needed. That's it there in concrete in the bottom right:



These are the running paddle wheels that provide oxygen to the shrimp stocked at 150-per-square-meter below the surface of this water. That plastic blue perimeter is actually there so when the shrimp jump out onto the shore --- yes, they jump --- they'll fall back into the water:



More paddle wheels. There are the mangroves far in the background. This area was probably once all mangroves or rice paddies:



This is the shrimp farmer. He had a nine-speaker karaoke system in the small house on the pond premises. He had a huge collection which he played for us. We actually watched Led Zepplin live on karaoke DVD while we talked and later he sang Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton in a perfect accent. Otherwise, he didn't speak a word of English.



This pond is lying dormat. Again, they can't run 100% of the ponds all the time. They have to drain them, treat them with calcium carbonate and sometimes other chemicals and let them sit vacant to recover:



Another dormat pond there in the background:



Here's an empty bag of shrimp feed stuck onto a post:



Dormat ponds are ugly, really: