This was this party I attended some days back and among the really yummy food served was steamed shrimps – shells, heads, big eyes and all.  
“It’s vannamei,” a tablemate nonchalantly commented. I looked around for reactions.  None.  I continued eating, recalling a time — I think last October – when I brought some shrimps to a lunch meeting in Baguio City. A colleague in the writing profession thanked me for bringing several kilos of shrimps for the lunch. “Delicious,” she said across the table. “It’s vannamei,” I shot back. 
The colleague almost choked on the shrimp! And she almost choked me across the table!  “What?!!Why?!! When?!! Who?!! Where?!! This is illegal!”

Yup, she asked those 5Ws –with eyes ablaze - almost as one would ask a news source. She’s a news reporter anyway.
“Okay, okay! I really don’t know if its vannamei. I bought it in the market.”
That silenced her, and she quietly continued savoring the sweetish shrimp.
That time, vannamei or white shrimp (Penaeus vannamei) was not allowed entry in the Philippines. Legally, that is. There had been talks about the white shrimp being cultured in the country and that it was being served in many restaurants but nobody admitted and no farmer was caught with his hand in the pond of vannamei.
But vannamei is out in the open, at last, in the coutnry. At least in experimental culture stage. The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources launched in December the experimental culture of the controversial shrimp species in ponds.
White or black?
The culture of vannamei in the Philippines offers choices to the farmers on what to shrimp species to culture – the white shrimps or the black tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon). Come to think of it –even shrimps have races – white or black.
It was House Speaker Jose de Venecia who encouraged the BFAR to make the bold move to try and experiment the culture of vannamei in the country.
“Vannamei is the hope to revive the almost dead shrimp industry and make shrimps available to ordinary people,” said BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento, adding that while great progress have been made in the country in tilapia, seaweeds and bangus culture, the growth of the shrimp industry has remained stagnant.
He explained that vannamei is flexible as it can be raised in freshwater, brackishwater and seawater and can exist in ponds with tilapia and bangus.
Westly Rosario, BFAR Dagupan City research center chief, said the experimental culture, which is on commercial scale and which is focused on Luzon, will determine the growth performance of the white shrimp at different climatic conditions at different culture densities (intensive, semi-intensive and extensive).  
Some 12 farmer-cooperators from different provinces of Luzon and who have 10 hectares of fishponds each, have been accredited by the BFAR to culture white shrimp.
BFAR Dagupan, which has been producing vannamei seedlings from the 1,000 brood stock imported last October, will distribute the seedlings to the farmer-cooperators.  The brood stock was allowed to be brought to the Philippines when samples were found to be disease-free by the University of Arizona in the United States.
Rosario said the breeders which were imported from the Kona Bay Marine Resources in Hawaii, were certified by the Univesity of Arizona  as being free from nine pathogens (bacteria and viruses). The University of Arizona is the recognized reference disease diagnostic laboratory of the US shrimp consortium.
The breeders were imported by the Agrifisheries World Incorporated,  with which the BFAR entered into a memorandum of agreement that calls for the company to shoulder all expenses for the breeding program and the BFAR to extend technical assistance.
Nothing tried, nothing gained
If the pond culture experiments are successful and no problems are noted like diseases, the BFAR will recommend the lifting of the ban on importation of vannamei.
If the experiments fail, “we will find out why or if local virus cause the infections. It will have to be evaluated and we will try again. Nothing tried, nothing gained (but) we are following protocol so that we will not be worse off than where we were before,” Sarmiento explained.
The P9-billion shrimp industry had its heyday in the 1980s when tiger prawn was cultured by many farmers. But the tiger prawn culture was almost wiped out by a widespread disease caused by luminous virus and many farmers went bankrupt.
The entry of vannamei, which is a native of Ecuador, in the country is being questioned by some non-government organizations, saying it could cause havoc to the environment,
But Sarmiento said only the Philippines and Vietnam in Asia had not allowed the entry of vannamei and the countries which culture it are making big money out of its culture.  
The BFAR encouraged those who have been illegally culturing the white shrimp in the country to “come into the open” and share information to enable government scientists to learn from their experiences.  
“As of now, we do not know the total production and the problems they encountered in the culture of vannamei and the solutions they adopted. This (project) is a partnership now between the government and the private sector,” Rosario said.
Now, my friend in the writing field can now enjoy eating vannamei. Happy eating!