Jorge Kayser Nickels was the inventor of shrimp pools

When I was 11 or 12 years old, Jorge Kayser Nickels (1928-2003) took advantage of one day of his school vacations in an entertaining excursion on foot together with two friends from his home in Machala to the shores of Puerto Bolívar, where he observed that small pools of rainwater and salt water had formed due to the carnival water. The coastal landscape looked unique with those spontaneous pools that, as he observed as he got closer, had become the makeshift habitat of small fish and shrimp larvae that had been trapped when the water dropped.

Four or five months later he returned to be surprised to see that this tiny marine fauna had managed to develop in that confinement. Therefore, there were people who were trying to catch it. “At that age he realized that shrimp survived in confinement”, Alejandro Kayser points out about that anecdote that occurred in his father’s childhood.

Those were years when shrimp were caught exclusively in the sea and the mouths of rivers. And it was precisely to this business that Jorge dedicated himself during his youth, in the company of his brother Alejandro, with a boat that they used to travel the entire coast of Ecuador, looking for the areas where the largest shrimp, called prawns, which they sold to packers, were reproduced. .

However, his life took another turn when learned that on the banks of the Mississippi River the United States Government promoted the cultivation of catfish in artificial pools, which was an innovative strategy in the aquaculture industry.

Jorge Kayser Nickels, who was about 36 years old, read that news and remembered that childhood anecdote on the shores of Puerto Bolívar and set out to create the necessary conditions to cultivate shrimp in captivity, which was something unprecedented.

He obtained financing to build artificial pools in a humid area at the entrance to Puerto Jelí. The project called La Chiquita had two hectares of extension, where it would take advantage of the carnival water to fill in a natural way those small lagoons that, in the first two years (1965 and 1966), failed in their attempt to catch the larvae.

But in the third year (1967) he used as a strategy the installation of high reflectors that kept the water illuminated, since he had realized that the shrimp are attracted by light, in a phenomenon known as positive phototaxis. It was then that La Chiquita came to life and achieved its first successes, obtaining some 700 pounds of shrimp in that harvest, An achievement that he repeated in each of the three annual aguajes that the Ecuadorian coast lives (the second is at Easter and the third between September and October). In addition, his vision was eminently protective of the mangroves, since he had realized that they generated the phytoplankton on which the larvae feed.

Investors began to multiply, as did businessmen who joined Jorge’s desire to redirect shrimp production towards artificial pools. Thus was born the shrimp industry in the country, with processes that were replicated in Peru and then in other countries abroad, continues Alejandro, who clarifies that his father was, above all, a visionary and curious researcher who later set out to develop organic food for the larvae.

Those were his interests. Jorge Kayser did not seek to amass wealth, but rather to focus on discovering new processes that protect the sustainability of this industry and thus keep it organic without damaging nature. For this, he wanted the pools to be concentrated in arid areas to avoid deforestation, something that he regretted that it was not fulfilled when this activity spread.

Now, Alejandro’s personal project is to build a tourist-gastronomic center at the entrance to Puerto Jelí to show the world where the dream of this visionary who opened an industry that has fed millions was born. (MP)

The life of Jorge Kayser Nickels inspired the children’s book La Chiquita, una piscina con vida. Price: $ 6. For sale at the two Quickly locations: Plaza del Portal (La Joya) and Plaza Batán (location 21), Samborondón. Orders on Instagram: @ jorge.chiquita, quickly_ec.