What's the Sound of One Prawn Eating?

More to the point, why should anyone care what noises a prawn makes while chowing down?

Well, research scientists in Australia think capturing audio and video of feasting crustaceans could make prawn farming more sustainable. And since shrimp farming is one of the major aquaculture activities around the world today, that's a big deal indeed.

The researchers with CSIRO -- the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization -- in Australia want to learn three things: How much prawns are eating, how quickly they consume the food available to them, and how efficiently they convert food into more prawn.

That information could help prawn farmers adjust how much they feed prawns -- potentially reducing waste, which translates into less localized pollution and a smaller amount of wild fish caught and turned into prawn-feed. In the process, they'd also cut labor costs associated with shrimp farming.

Waste and food sources big issues -- key factors considered by our Seafood Watch fisheries researchers in assessing the sustainability of any aquaculture operation.

The Australian institute hopes to improve the sustainability of the nation's prawn aquaculture -- and of shrimp farming around the world -- by applying the results of its research. It's just one of several initiatives aimed at improving aquaculture practices, under CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans program.

Check it out, and listen to the sound of one prawn eating, on the Discovery News blog.