Abstract
The nursery shrimp production system is a critical stage in the shrimp production lifecycle, where post-larvae are intensively reared under controlled conditions until they reach a suitable weight to be stocked in grow-out ponds. Typically operated as a closed production system, this stage requires substantial material and energy inputs, which may result in significant environmental impacts. Hence, environmental impact assessment on the nursery production system is essential to identify opportunities for reducing impacts and improving resource efficiency and overall sustainability. This study analysed the environmental sustainability of a commercial nursery shrimp farm (base case) in India. It tested changes in feed composition and energy source as potential impact reduction strategies through scenario simulations. The cradle-to-gate attributional life cycle assessment was conducted with a functional unit of 1000 juvenile shrimps produced at the nursery farm gate. The results indicated that feed is the significant impact contributor across all impact categories, including mid and endpoint categories, followed by polyethylene roofing. Feed accounted for 98% of land use impacts and 99% of the water footprint. Challenging the common perception of fishmeal as an inherently less sustainable ingredient in aquafeed formulations, our case study showed that increasing fishmeal inclusion can reduce overall environmental impacts by up to 62%, compared to the base case. Moreover, and again counterintuitively, simulating partial replacement of grid energy with renewables offered limited benefits in the studied case, except in water use. This study is the first to comprehensively evaluate the environmental impacts of the shrimp nursery system, establishing a benchmark for driving sustainability improvements in the shrimp supply chain.