NORTH LAS VEGAS, Nev. - More than 200 miles from the nearest coastline and ten miles north of the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, what you find may surprise you. In the heart of the desert, you can catch a taste of the sea.
That's because home grown shrimp are being harvested on top of 30,000 square feet of sand.
"It's amazing. It doesn't even compute to me, how it happens or anything like that, but I love this stuff," said customer Travis Fogle.
"That was my first thought was here in the desert?" said customer Rick Servoss.
Blue Oasis Pure Shrimp runs the $5 million operation. The farm uses a state-of-the-art, bio-filtration system to raise salt water shrimp in a self-contained, indoor pond. The shrimp farm is located in North Las Vegas.
"You literally get that ocean mist type of smell," said Blue Oasis' Frank DeLuca. "You don't even need to cook the shrimp whatsoever - especially our shrimp - because it's 100 percent natural. No preservatives."
If you've ever gone to the supermarket to buy seafood or shrimp, you know there are plenty of options. Blue Oasis provides a local option of shrimp grown right here in the desert.
"Let's put it this way, last night when you were having dinner, so were the shrimp. And now, they're dinner. That's how fresh they are," DeLuca said.
After being sorted, sized, and placed on ice Thursday, the locally grown seafood became available to Albertsons shoppers, who can buy the shrimp by the pound.
"I just happened to come to the store today to come shopping and seen the display. I'm pleasantly surprised," Servoss said.
"It tasted fresher than ever buying them before. It didn't taste so much like water you know?" Fogle added.
The first batch of shrimp was harvested in November and distributed to high-end restaurants across the valley. Blue Oasis Pure Shrimp expects to produce more than 462,000 pounds annually.
