On February 25, 2015, Dr. Craig Nessler, Texas AgriLife Research Director in College Station, and Dr. Juan Landivar, Texas AgriLife Research Director in Corpus Christi, announced that AgriLife was closing its shrimp farming research programs in Flour Bluff and Port Aransas and that Dr. Tzachi Samocha and Dr. Addison Lawrence would be laid off effective April 24, 2015. This closing of the shrimp farming research programs in Texas after more than 40 years leaves a very large void in the USA shrimp farming industry.

Dr. Lawrence has retrieved his stacked-raceway patent from Maurice Kemp at Royal Caridea, LLC, who purchased it in July 2010, but did not develop any shrimp projects with it. Dr. Lawrence resold the patent to RALCO in Iowa and joined them on March 1, 2015.

With many letters of support from the industry, Dr. Samocha appealed to Texas AgriLife Research and received an employment extension to August 31, 2015, so that he could finish his grant requirements in a professional manner.

[Source: Shrimp News International. Read article]

See also: Dr. Addison Lawrence Joins Ralco Aquaculture (Aquafeed.com, March 15, 2015)