"I'm Salty"

Thailand is world’s largest producer of farmed black tiger shrimp which earned approximately 2 billion U.S. dollars in export revenues in 1999. Shrimp farming or aquaculture has become a very profitable business and it is more profitable than growing rice. Shrimp cultivation has typically been limited to a relatively narrow band of coastal land, however Thai farmers discovered that it is possible to grow tiger shrimp in inland areas by trucking in salt water and mixing it with freshwater that is easily obtained from these inland areas. This creates the brackish water that shrimp thrive in. This means that shrimp aquaculture is taking over land that was once used for rice cultivation, while bringing saltwater inland. There is now concern that shrimp aquaculture has the potential to seriously impact soil salinization and water quality. Much of the land converted to shrimp ponds were highly productive rice paddies, and the cost of returning this land to agricultural production if shrimp farming fails could be substantial. If not dealt with properly shrimp aquaculture may not be a properly functioning sustainable system that leaves areas with unusable land that is too salty for agriculture (thus my shirt's slogan "I'm Salty").
This issue is not only a big deal in Thailand. Shrimp farming has really taken off globally since the 1970’s and pond raised shrimp now account for 25 to 30% of world shrimp production. China, Chile, the U.S. and Belize are also very involved in shrimp farming. Other issues with shrimp farming include fertilizers used in the ponds, which when combined with the shrimp poop in the ponds makes a sludge which is a hard waste to get rid of. There is also serious concern that the development of shrimp farms have encroached heavily on areas of mangrove swamp. Mangrove swamp is a good environment in which to grow shrimp, but mangroves are also great breeding grounds for other species and are the basis of a whole ecosystem. Today the main cause of mangrove destruction is the expansion of the shrimp industry.
To learn more read:

-Inland Low-Salinity Shrimp Farming In The Central Plains Region of Thailand by Brian W. Szuster and Mark Flaherty:
http://std.cpc.ku.ac.th/delta/conf/Acrobat/Papers_Eng/Volume%201/szuster.pdf

-Another article on Shrimp Farming:
http://www.masgc.org/communications/pubs/masgp/96-004.pdf

-The World Rainforest Movement's website:
http://www.wrm.org.uy/deforestation/shrimp.html