4 JUNE 2015 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG In Memoriam Harry Cook, 80, passed away on 13 April 2015. He was a giant in aquaculture and can be considered to be the “Father of Shrimp Farming in the Americas.” He was the first in the Americas to replicate the shrimp larval rearing experiments first conducted in Japan in the 1930s by Motosaku Fujinaga. Harry struck a tall and imposing figure, but was a kind and caring man with an inquiring mind, a gentle giant of aquaculture. He was a visionary who dreamed of starting an industry. Beginning in 1959, Harry Cook and Alice Murphy, working with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in Galveston, Texas, were successful in rearing Xiphopenaeus kroyeri, Penaeus aztecus and Penaeus duorarum through the larval stages. Alice Murphy combined her skills as an algologist with Harry Cook’s natural talent as a biologist and culturist to achieve success. Their initial impetus was to be able to identify larval shrimp in plankton samples by rearing the larvae of the important commercial species of the Gulf of Mexico. An important early discovery by Harry Cook was the use of the metal chelator, EDTA, added to seawater for larval rearing. EDTA was beneficial for algae culture, so the idea was extended to larval rearing with considerable success. Harry Cook developed an intensive larval rearing system using conical bottom tanks with airlift pumps that kept larvae, feed and organic wastes in suspension, a technique that was later referred to as the “Galveston Method.” In 1969, after 10 years with the NMFS, Harry Cook saw an opportunity to take his dream to the next level by joining the Dow Chemical Company, in Freeport, Texas. At Dow, Harry established a shrimp hatchery, ponds, and a feed evaluation laboratory. I joined him there in 1970. At the time, there were no artificial diets available for shrimp. Harry recognized this as a major constraint to the development of shrimp farming. Harry established a feed testing laboratory where diets could be tested under controlled conditions. The first trials were with available feeds. Purina Cat Chow was tried because it was extruded and water stable. It outperformed other diets, so Ralston Purina was contacted to see if they were interested in developing diets for shrimp. Purina recognized this as a huge business opportunity and soon developed its own shrimp farming project in Florida. Water exchange rate was one of the first trials conducted. To our great surprise, the lowest water exchange rate gave the best results. The water was heavily fouled with suspended organic matter, which favored shrimp growth. We noted that shrimp intestines were full even before feed was offered. This amounted to the first observation of organic floc as related to shrimp nutrition. Low water exchange became the standard for further diet evaluation studies. The Dow shrimp farming project was located inside the chemical plant alongside a salt water canal, next to an experimental desalination plant. Dow wanted to know if copper was toxic to shrimp and at what levels. We discovered that copper was not toxic to juvenile shrimp at any of the levels tested. Oysters and fish were not so lucky. The fungus Lagenidium was first observed in the Dow hatchery and became a serious problem. We used copper to control the fungus with no ill effect on shrimp. From the Dow hatchery, PLs were supplied to the first shrimp farm in Latin America, the Armour-United Fruit project in Honduras. PLs were also sent to the Texas Parks and Wildlife facility in Palacios, Texas, managed by Bill More. The first shrimp farming project of Texas A&M University near Angleton, Texas, established by Hoyt Holcomb and Jack Parker, was also supplied with PLs. After a few years with Dow Chemical, Harry Cook was presented with an opportunity to take his vision of shrimp farming to a wider audience. He joined the United Nations — Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as a shrimp farming advisor. Harry Cook saw this emerging technology as having great potential value for application in tropical developing nations. Harry worked with local farmers and governments to develop shrimp hatcheries and farms, with the idea of stimulating economic development in depressed rural areas in tropical countries. He worked in the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. After more than 10 years with the FAO, Harry dreamed of starting his own shrimp farm in Texas. The farm was a success at first, but later fell victim to a heretofore unknown disease, namely NHP. By the late 1980s, the disease outbreak ended his dream of having his own shrimp farm. In 1981, Henry Clifford and I established Tropical Mariculture Technology, Inc. (TMT). In our effort to become established, we contacted Harry Cook, who offered a consulting assignment to me in Malaysia. We were successful in breeding in captivity the local species of shrimp at a facility in Penang, a first for Asia. In 1989, Harry Cook joined the TMT team, working on our projects in Cartagena and Tumaco, Colombia, and in Venezuela. His long and broad experience proved very valuable in developing a number of shrimp farming projects in those countries. I will be forever grateful to Harry Cook for giving me my first job in aquaculture. I deeply respect and recognize the Father of Shrimp Farming in the Americas, Harry Cook. I owe him a debt of gratitude for my start in the business and everyone in the industry around the world should as well. — Harvey Persyn Harry Cook (1934-2015) — Gentle Giant of Aquaculture
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