MELANIO BORRERO = VICE DIRECTOR FOR RESEARCH IN SHRIMP CULTURE.
MARIO FORMOSO = MANAGER BIOLOGIST IN SHRIMP CULTURE RESEARCH.
RAFAEL TIZOL = BIOLOGIST (CIP) closed system production.
ROLANDO GELABERT = MARINE BIOLOGIST (CIM).
JOSE LUIS MONTALVO = MIP TECHNICIAN IN MARINE BIOLOGY.
MARTA PEREZ = BIOLOGIST in charge of Artemia works in the salt flats. JULIO LORES, MATOS, … TECHNICIANS of the salts flats.
All the field works have been carried out at Frank Pais salinas: Frank Pais 1, Frank Pais 2 and Cerro Guayabo. They are located on the south coast of the Guantanamo province (east of the island of CU BA), on the edge of the Guantanamo Bay. The lodging and all the meals took place in the nearest town: Caimanera (15 MN by motorcycle).
The salt ponds of Frank Pais 1 are used to evaporate the water up to 80 to 100 gr./l. The Frank Pais 1 area does not have crystallization ponds. The water is then pumped:
1/ to Frank Pais 2 through a pipe line, “El Conductora”, with a 1500 m3h flow rate.
2/ to Cerro Guayabo out of the pond No 7.
Out of the pipe line, “El Conductora”, the water is evaporated from pond 29 to 38.
The water coming out of the pipe line is greenish and from the pond 34 its color turns reddish, with a milky aspect.
The pond 35 is fed by 2 pumps (1000 and 500 m3h, pumping station P4, see Picture # 5). In some parts the water is totally clear. The flow of the pumps is adjusted in function of the weather and the evaporation levels. During our stay, the 2 pumps were running together most of the time 8 to 16 hours a day, six days a week. The flow creates strong currents inside the pond and by calm day it is easy to see them due to the aspect of different salinity waters which do not mix easily, specially a large current going back to the east side.
The water reaches the pumping station (P5) by two ways:
by gravity through the ponds 36, 37, 38.
or by a channel.
Then it is pumped to fill the intermediate reserve ponds or directly to the crystallization ponds.
The pond 38 is one of the most important of the saline management, it dispatches the water in conjunction with the deep reserve ponds to the crystallization area depending of the conditions, seasons, technical reasons…
We saw live Brine shrimp at very low density in all the intermediate ponds (36, 37, 38) even up in the deep reserve ponds (1, 2, 3) where we spotted 1 dead papalote too. Few cysts were present in the pond 38 and in all the ditches reaching that pond.
By a windy day, we observed a floating macroscopic algae concentration, looking as 1 cm large yellow brown transparent air sacks. They are brought in by the pipe line from Frank Pais 1. We will find them in small quantities all along the edges of the ponds 35, 36, 37… As organic matter they are a pollution regarding Artemia and salt production.
From the pond 7 of Frank Pais 1 the water is pumped to Cerro Guayabo area. This area has been extended by 3 ponds of 60, 17, 15 ha, in order to speed up the flow of the water. Sometimes they experienced blooms of cyanophycees and the lost of the salt production due to the organic contamination.
Empresa de Salinera de Frank Pais built 3 experimental ponds of 3.6 ha, with a depth of 60 cm. The water supply is controlled by an independent intake through the exhaust of the main “Conductora” between Frank Pais 1 and 2. The salinity varies between 80 to 100 gr. per liter. A metallic screen maintained by a wooden frame is at post to stop the entrance of the papalote, but the screen mesh is not appropriate and lets pass through eggs and young papalotes; some papalotes live in these ponds of very low biomass productivity.
The drainages have absolutely to be re-injected in the water flow of the salt production. This restrains: 1/ the extensive use of fertilizer to set up correct blooms. 2/ the water flow through the ponds (per consequence the pond bottoms are heavily reduced).
Empresa Salinera de Frank Pays build 11 ponds for a total of 9 ha, 60 cm deep, with one water intake for each (see Map 4, see Pictures # 1 & 2),
The water comes from the Frank Pais 1 salt pond no 11 through a nylon screen (see Picture # 3), and a channel (see Picture # 4).
The screen mesh is too large and one saw numbers of papalotes in the 5 ponds which are in activity, (the others are finished but not yet in use).
In order to control the water movements, each pond is equipped with two water gates (monks), one exhaust to drain the pond and waste the water; the second to move the water from one pond to the next one.
Frank Pais salinas has a laboratory in which some analyses are routinely performed (Ca, Mg, Na…) here is the list of the apparatus actually in use:
One precision electric scale 50 mgr. to 200 gr. and precisions
weights.
One Sartorius electronic scale, Maximum range 250 gr., d = 0.05 gr.
One little Roberval mechanic scale.
Two Spectrophotometers, (filter, prisms), & cells of different
thickness.
Furnace, hood, drying oven.
Olympus Microscope (* 1000) and 2 binoculars. (* 60)
Laboratory for analyzing CA, Mg, Na…
Water Distiller.
Plus the current chemical reagents, and laboratory glassware.
The MIP has the following apparatus to survey the ponds:
O2 meter,
PH meter, (pH 7–4) to be changed.
Salinometer…refractometer, and densitometers.
The MIP has the following tools to work on cysts: (see further Lab
improvements, see Pictures # 10 to 14).
Nylon mesh to harvest and clean the eggs
Deep cylindric conical fiber glass tanks (4*250 L. approx.), 3 of
them without valves. (see Picture # 12–13).
Conical Plexiglass jars (2* 60 L. approx.), (see background Picture #
12).
Brine fiberglass tanks, outside the laboratory. (See Picture # 14).
Metallic screens to sieve the dry eggs. (See Picture # 11).
see report contract FAO No DP /CUB/86/ 004-2/ F10 mission of B. MENU
The lack of biological and chemical data prevails.
The brine shrimp production (eggs and biomass) seems totally under the goodwill of the still omnipresent predator, the papalote. We treat that specific subject separately (see here under chapter 5. Papalote control).
Out of the 11 ponds, only 5 are in operation; they started in September 90. Rapidly (December 1990) few cysts were harvested from the pond 7. Those cysts are of low density; the Cubans suspected a thin shell and/or a smaller size. The tests done by B. Menu will show that the eggs already hatched!
The Cubans asked fine analysis (P.U.F.A.) to be carried out in France on the eggs produced at F.P. 1 ponds.
In the Frank Pais 2 salt flats, from mid 87 to mid 1988 B. Menu reports a total harvest of 38,8 Kgr. In 1989 around 60 Kgr of cysts were harvested; in 1990, 20 Kgr.
In the 3 experimental ponds, some biomass has been harvested but no numbers are available, we surprised children from Caimanera catching some live Brine Shrimp in those ponds. They have been fertilized, but the bottom is totally reduced, and the production is not really effective. Despite (because its mesh is too large) the installation of the metallic screen net at the intake, some papalotes are living in these ponds.
Some (<1 Kgr) eggs have been harvested in the ponds.
