November, December 2017

Trending now: Aquaponics

Key players discuss trends and forecast for this growing industry

BY MATT JONES

hile aquaponics is not necessarily a new technology, the industry is relatively young compared to more established food production methods. The industry is growing at rapid pace, however, with new businesses springing up regularly.

Wisconsin-based Nelson & Pade Inc has been one of the most prominent names in the industry for decades. Originally focused on hydroponics, the company shifted to aquaponics in the early 1990s. The business now centers on optimizing systems and providing tools and education to help individuals and companies get started in aquaponics.

“I would say in the last five or 10 years, there’s been a growing awareness of aquaponics,” says co-founder Rebecca Nelson. “I think a lot of what is spurring that is the focus on two things – the quest for sustainability as well as the local food movement. Just from our experience and perspective, the size of the farms and the number of farms that are opening up are growing really, really quickly.”

FOCUSON AQUAPONICS Seepages8-15

The quest for sustainability and the growth of the local food movement is driving the growth of aquaponics as a food production system

Dr Chris Hartleb, professor of Fisheries and Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP), was focused on aquaculture when Nelson & Pade reached out to him six years ago. Together, they launched the nation’s first college aquaponics course, which eventually led to the establishment of the Aquaponics Innovation

Cooke: We know we’ll have to rebuild trust

Nearly 200,000 Atlantic salmon have been accounted for, salvage operations at farm site complete

BY ERICH LUENING

he failed steel pens used at Cooke Aquaculture’s Atlantic salmon farm on Cypress Island in Washington State have been completely removed, but the black mark against the company in particular and on salmon aquaculture at large could linger long after the farm has been rehabilitated.

“Yes it was a serious event not just for us but for the industry,” Cooke Aquaculture’s vice president of communications Nell Halse told Aquaculture North America (ANA). “The last escape in Washington was in the 1990s. So it is a bad situation and we know we’ll have to rebuild trust.”

continued on page 7

Fish recovery Update

Robust outlook for BC’s farmed salmon industry

‘Key indicators of the business are pointing in the right direction,’ says BCSFA

BY LIZA MAYER C Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA)

BExecutive Director Jeremy Dunn painted a bright picture of British Columbia’s farmed salmon industry, saying 2017 overall has been a “fantastic year” and conditions will likely remain favorable in 2018.

“Our members have no problem selling every fish that they raise and it’s been that way for a few years now. Seafood has always been a volatile market but the global trend seems to point to demand remaining strong for the foreseeable future,” Dunn tells Aquaculture North America (ANA)

worker prepares farmed salmon for shipping. BC’s farmed salmon industry contributed $1.5 billion towards the province’s economy between 2013 and 2016 and created 1,600 jobs

continued on page 8 continued on page 20

As of October 4 Cooke has accounted for 200,927 fish, including 145,851 fish recovered from the damaged structure, and 49,892 fish recovered through the company’s fish buy-back program, with significant help from several Coast Salish tribal communities. Cooke has made financial offers to Coast Salish tribes in excess of $1.5 million for their recovery assistance efforts.

British Columbia’s farmed salmon industry contributed $1.5 billion towards the BC economy between 2013 and 2016 and created 1,600 jobs, according to an independent economic analysis of the province’s salmon aquaculture industry.

The increase of 37 percent over the past three years in its value to the province shows the industry is reaping the benefits from unprecedented investment in technology and practices that increase the overall performance of BC salmon farms.

SALMON ESCAPE

Credit: Chris Hartleb/UWSP

Students at UWSP learning proper seeding techniques in an aquaponics system.

BC

Credit: Liza Mayer

Swiss Alpine Fish, Switzerland

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Another industry first for first offshore mussel farm

he first offshore shellfish farm permitted in United States federal waters bagged roughly $450,000 in funding from the US Department of Energy to start kelp farming for human and animal consumption and feedstock.

Catalina Sea Ranch’s seaweed farm project is one of 18 beneficiary projects aimed at helping the US improve its energy security and economic competitiveness.

Why kelp? The Advanced Research Projects AgencyEnergy (ARPA-E), which provided the funding, said macroalgae could be used as a feedstock for domestic transportation fuels, chemicals and other commercial products without competing with food crops for land and water.

“The United States has offshore resources capable of producing enough seaweed to handle as much as 10 percent of our demand for transportation fuel,” said ARPA-E Acting Director Eric Rohlfing.

The projects will focus on the technological challenges to growing and harvesting macroalgae efficiently and cost-effectively. Catalina Sea Ranch’s project aims to make monitoring of the offshore farm more energy efficient. One way is by developing an inexpensive prototype sensor — $150 apiece compared to a $3,000-device to measure phytoplankton levels — that will remotely measure the water’s salinity, currents and nutrients, among others.

“This couldn’t have been done four years ago,” ranch founder Phil Cruver told the Daily Breeze. “Because of cellphones, prices of microprocessors and storage have just plummeted.”

The 100-acre Catalina Sea Ranch is located about six miles off the coast of Huntington Beach, California. Its bread-and-butter is mussel farming; it was expected to initially produce 2 million lbs of mussels this year. Its goal is expand the ranch to 1,000 acres and its production 20 million lbs of mussels per year.

NOAA:

Offshore fish farming

‘an important part of strategy’

ffshore farming is an important part of NOAA’s strategy for building economic and environmental resiliency in coastal communities and in supporting healthy oceans, said the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA’s assistant administrator for fisheries, Chris Oliver, said NOAA is “working with renewed vigor on a number of internal initiatives to facilitate economic development of marine aquaculture, including streamlining permitting processes.”

“Positive momentum for marine aquaculture is growing and it’s showing,” he said, citing production figures in US aquaculture in 2015 — 41 million pounds of salmon, 33 million pounds of oysters, and 10 million pounds of clams along the nation’s coast.

Around the nation in many fishing and coastal communities, aquaculture is creating important economic opportunities and yearround employment, he added in a message celebrating Aquaculture month in October.

Marine Harvest eyes e-commerce

almon producer Marine Harvest wants a bigger slice of the market for kitchen-ready seafood and has restructured its North American sales division to achieve this goal.

Among the sales channels the company is eyeing is e-commerce, where seafood has the potential for consistent double-digit growth year over year, it says. The company expects the highest e-commerce sales from internet-savvy millennials and doubleincome households that seek convenience in food preparation.

“The consumer wants a high-quality product at a reasonable price and in the most convenient way, and Marine Harvest is able to give them exactly what they want,” says Joe Fidalgo, Managing Director of Marine Harvest’s Consumer Products (USA).

One challenge, however, is educating consumers to trust buying seafood online, but Fidalgo says the company is ready. “We’ll look forward to working with e-commerce partners to make sure our customers are confident in ordering healthy and top-quality seafood for delivery to their kitchen.”

Marine Harvest says online seafood sales have the potential for consistent double-digit growth annually

Global Leader in Fish Health Solutions

Credit: Catalina Sea Ranch

Catalina Sea Ranch is developing a nursery and planting program to evaluate the potential and practicality of giant kelp as a new sustainable marine crop

Credit: Catalina Sea Ranch

Positive momentum for marine aquaculture is growing and it’s showing, says Chris Oliver of NOAA

Credit: Getty

Netting Protection

Fish feed ingredient gets nod from BBC

AgriProtein of Cape Town, South Africa has won BBC’s “Food Chain Global Champion” award for its efforts in finding new source of protein to feed the world’s growing population.

The waste-to-nutrient pioneer was honored by the British broadcaster for its flagship product — MagMeal — an animal feed ingredient made from fly larvae fed with food waste.

The company leads the insectprotein market, which has grown steadily over the past 10 years as producers continue to seek more sustainable feed ingredients other than fishmeal.

The Food Chain Global Champion is a new category for this year in the BBC Food & Farming Awards 2017.

Staff transports sacks of MagMeal at AgroProtein’s black-soldier-fly-larvae facility in Cape Town, South Africa. BBC recognized the company for its efforts in finding new sources of protein

Project could lead to additional salmon farm sites

Aresearch project that could potentially help salmon farmers increase production in existing farm sites and develop new ones is underway in Orkney, Scotland.

The three-year project in which Cooke Aquaculture Scotland is a partner aims to improve understanding of the impacts of waste matter from salmon farming on more-exposed sites such as along Scotland’s west coast and the Northern Isles. The effects of fish waste or uneaten feed on the seabed are already being monitored, but not on the seabed in “dispersive sites” or those with “highenergy waters.”

“With better data about the benthic footprint at these sites, salmon producers like Cooke can improve environmental

monitoring and compliance, and potentially increase production – both in terms of farming existing sites and developing new sites,” said Cooke Aquaculture.

The Scottish Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) pitched in roughly 40 percent of the $305,000 (£231,907) project cost.

“One of SAIC’s priorities is to unlock additional capacity for aquaculture development, and this project could do exactly that,” said Heather Jones, CEO, SAIC.

Researchers from the Scottish Association for Marine Science and Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada are part of the project.

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Lots of space suitable for marine aquaculture

he world’s oceans are rife with aquaculture “hot spots” that provide enough space to produce 15 billion metric tons — or over 100 times the current global seafood consumption — of finfish annually, according to a new study.

The study, Mapping the global potential for marine aquaculture, says that if aquaculture were developed in only the most productive areas, the oceans could theoretically produce the same amount of seafood that the world’s wild-caught fisheries currently produce globally, but in less than 1 percent of the total ocean surface — a combined area the size of Lake Michigan — said UC Santa Barbara, whose scientists led the study.

But while there is lots of suitable space for marine aquaculture, what could limit its development are issues such as regulatory challenges, difficulty in securing investment, and the public’s negative perception of the industry, says the study.

MARINE VERSUS LAND-BASED

The majority of existing aquaculture takes place on land, in freshwater and in nearshore marine waters, said lead author Rebecca Gentry, a PhD at the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at UC Santa Barbara.

However, problems, such as high resource use, pollution and habitat destruction have created a generally negative reputation for aquaculture in several countries and pose challenges for continued expansion, Gentry’s team revealed.

“Open-ocean aquaculture appears to have several advantages over the more traditional culturing methods, including fewer spatial conflicts and a higher nutrient assimilation capacity highlighting the opportunities for sustainable marine development,” they wrote. “However, large-scale open-ocean farms are not yet

But economics and governance could limit development, says study

common, making adaptive management and careful research an essential element of sustainable marine aquaculture expansion.”

Despite the perception that marine aquaculture has high growth potential, little is known about the extent, location and productivity of potential growing areas across the globe. The authors of the study found the majority of the research on marine aquaculture potential has mainly focused on specific species and/or specific regions and that there remains an important need to assess the more general growing potential across locations.

To rectify this shortfall, they drew on physiology and growth theory coupled with environmental data to quantify and map the global potential for fish and bivalve aquaculture. These categories represent two major types of culture: fed aquaculture, where food is provided from an external source, and unfed aquaculture, where nutrition comes from the environment.

Gentry and her colleagues focused on quantifying a “realistic” biological baseline given the diversity of existing ocean uses, providing new insight into the potential global aquaculture production and the role it might play in addressing future food security.

“I think that the major take away is that there is a vast amount of ocean space that could be developed for aquaculture,” Gentry explained. “This allows for considerable flexibility in locating farms in a way that minimizes environmental impact and conflict with other uses of the ocean.”

Nearly every coastal country has vast areas suitable for aquaculture, says study

Credit: Getty

Growth speed linked to deafness in farmed salmon

Study’s findings ‘raise serious questions about the welfare of farmed fish’

Credit: University of Melbourne

cientists at the University of Melbourne (UM) have discovered that farmed salmon have an innerear deformity not found in their wild counterparts, due to accelerated growth rates in fish farms.

The study found that farmed salmon have deformed otoliths — tiny crystals in a fish's inner ear, which detect sound, similar to humans’ ear bones. Normal otoliths are made of the mineral “aragonite,” but deformed otoliths are partly made of “vaterite,” which is lighter, larger, and less stable, according to the University of Melbourne.

Vaterite was “seemingly caused by a combination of genetics, diet, and exposure to extended daylight, all of which differ between farmed and wild fish,” said the study. But one factor — growth rate — stood out as a cause. In fish farms, the conditions are such that the fish grow faster than their wild counterparts by being exposed to varying light and temperature or being fed high-nutrient feed, for instance.

“We evaluated the prevalence of vateritic otoliths from two captive rearing studies which suggested that fast growth, due to environmental rather than genetic control, led to vaterite development. We then tested this by varying light and temperature to create

phenotypes with different growth rates, which resulted in fast growers (five times larger) having three times more vaterite than slow growers,” wrote the authors, led by Tormey Reimer of the University of Melbourne’s School of Biosciences.

While the deformation was first recorded in the 1960s, Reimer’s team was the first to show that it affects more than 95 percent of fully-grown hatchery-produced fish globally.

The latest study also shows that fish afflicted with vaterite could lose up to 50 percent of their hearing.

Hatchery managers can play a role in controlling the prevalence of the deformity, suggest researchers

While the scientists said they still don’t know how hearing loss affects production, having hearing-impaired fish as a result of farming methods “raise serious questions about the welfare of farmed fish,” says study co-author, Dr Tim Dempster from the University of Melbourne.

“In many countries, farming practices must allow for the 'Five Freedoms,'

which are freedom from hunger or thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury or disease; freedom to express (most) normal behaviour; and freedom from fear and distress," said Dempster. The scientists hope for further research on how to reduce the risk of vaterites while keeping growth rates intact.

— Liza Mayer

Flaws found in Cooke Aquaculture’s other WA farm

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) says it found flaws in Cooke Aquaculture’s Clam Bay farm in Rich Passage on Bainbridge Island, Washington and it is giving the company 60 days to fix them.

In a letter of default dated October 9, DNR informed Cooke Aquaculture that it could lose its lease on the stateowned site if repairs are not done within the deadline.

Cooke received permit a to stock its Clam Bay farm with one million juvenile Atlantic salmon after a DNR inspection concluded that the site was secure. The rest of the repairs will be accomplished within the 60-day window, says the company

A week prior to the issuance of the letter of default, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a permit to Cooke that allows the company to transport about 1 million juvenile Atlantic salmon to the Clam Bay farm from a hatchery near Rochester.

But Cooke Aquaculture says that prior to receiving the permit, DNR’s engineers inspected the site.

“The inspection concluded that the site was secure and was approved for stocking. There were no structural flaws at the Clam Bay facility.  There were some repairs that were required, including a hole in the predator net.  Repairs were made and our divers inspected the farm and confirmed that all repairs were made by Monday, October 9 – before any fish stocking,” Nell Halse, Cooke Aquaculture’s vice president of communications, told Aquaculture North America (ANA)

“The rest of the repairs will be accomplished within the 60-day window,” she said.

Hawser Pipe Style

Sagittal otoliths from a juvenile Atlantic salmon. Left otolith is entirely aragonite; right is deformed otolith, which is approximately 90-percent vaterite

Credit: Getty

The collapsed steel pens were known by the company to be in poor shape a year before they collapsed, causing thousands of fish to escape from the facility, according to state official documents and company spokespeople.

In August, over 150,000, or around half of the 300,000 farmed salmon on-site, escaped from their collapsed pen platform. Fishermen, tribal members, and state officials in the region, including across the border in British Columbia, have criticized Cooke Aquaculture for negligence and failure to heed the company’s own concerns and recommendations from earlier this year to replace the pens.

State officials were quick to take action.

“I have directed the Department of Ecology to put a hold on any new permits for net pens until a thorough investigation of this incident is completed,” Governor Jay Inslee said in statement immediately following the collapse of the fish farm. “Tribes and others who fish Washington waters deserve a comprehensive response to this incident, including answers to what happened and assurances that it won’t happen again.”

The governor called on the company to do everything it can to stop any additional escapes and to recover as many fish as possible, including adequate compensation for those working to remove Atlantic salmon from Washington State waters.

Halse told ANA she had no comment on the investigation specifically but she explained the company’s current status as far as the farmed salmon recovered and the removal of the equipment that failed.

Still maintaining that strong tides brought on by the solar eclipse in late August played a factor in the collapse of the steel pens, she said the recapture of fish by tribal and commercial fishermen has been a success.

“All has been removed, stored and tagged ready for investigation,” Halse said in a telephone interview. “Sometime soon we’ll have the investigation completed.”

When Cooke Aquaculture purchased in June 2016 the salmon farm facilities from Icicle Seafoods, Cooke assessed all the assets and made a list of what they needed, she said.

“The fish were already there,” Halse explained. “We were set to upgrade once the harvest was done. But that’s not what happened. It’s a question of whether the technology reached end-of-life. That will come out in the investigation.”

The escapes have brought a lot of heat on not only Cooke Aquaculture but the whole salmon farming industry in North America as critics of the industry have more ammo to use against open marine aquaculture and environmentalists who are already threatening to sue the company.

Halse said150,000 of the escaped salmon have been recaptured by commercial and tribal fishermen. “We’ve purchased 50,000 from the tribes. And we are prepared to purchase more. Nearly 200,000 have been accounted for,” she claimed.

Despite the failure at Cypress Island, the state has allowed Cooke’s other salmon farms in the area to remain open.

“We were set to upgrade once the harvest was done. But that’s not what happened.”

~ Nell

Halse,

Vice-President of Communications, Cooke Aquaculture

“The only Atlantic salmon net pen site under a lease with Cooke that is not operating is the net pen at Cypress that failed. Other sites are still operating,” Kristin Swenddal DNR deputy supervisor of aquatics, told ANA Halse refused to say whether any of the other former Icicle farms were in the same condition as the Cypress Island Farm 2 pen platform. She added that Cooke Aquaculture is always upgrading its fish farms with the latest aquaculture technology. But in early October, following this interview, Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced it has found flaws with the company’s other farm in Washington State (see box 1).

SALVAGE OPERATIONS

At the end of September, Swenddal’s agency released an update on their efforts to remove the damaged pens and other technology from the beleaguered farm site.

Salvage operations at the collapsed Cypress Island farm site were ongoing, said the update, with Cooke Aquaculture and a salvage contractor scanning the area for small pieces of gear. They worked towards removing all equipment from the farm site by the end of September.

“The salvage operations have been successful and the sea bed appears clean and clear of farm equipment, howev-

er, the company will continue to monitor the area to ensure no equipment has been left behind. Thorough inspections of the sea bottom will continue,” the agency stated.

Wild salmon fishermen were called upon to report any farmed salmon they caught and were guided by an online map updated by the state showing where and when fishermen were catching the farmed salmon. An online database was set up specifically for fishermen to document Atlantic salmon caught.

STEEL PEN FAILURE

According to state documents provided by Swenddal’s office, Cooke Aquaculture discovered the poor condition of the facility during an assessment prior to acquiring the farm from Icicle Seafoods.

In June 2016, Cooke Aquaculture acquired Icicle Seafoods’ facilities and took over the Cypress Island farm knowing the steel pens holding the hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon were in horrible condition.

In February of this year, Cooke submitted to state authorities an application for “replacement and reorientation” of the 1.8-acre facility, according to DNR officials. The document stated that the 16-year-old pen system was “nearing the end of serviceable life,” that the metal hinge joints were “showing excess signs of wear,” and that “corrosion on the metal walkway grating and substructures [was] beginning to accelerate.” Cooke planned to make repairs in September, after processing the existing stock of adults.

Swenddal wouldn’t say the collapse was a failure of technology and management of old technology by Cooke Aquaculture.

“We are still investigating the cause of the failure, and expect to know more about the cause of the failure later this fall.”

Contractors at the farm cleanup operations. Cooke Aquaculture said all equipment from the farm site has been removed

A bird’s eye view of the collapsed Cypress Island farm site. Cooke had planned to make repairs in September, after processing the existing stock of adults.

Credit: Department of Natural Resources

Cooke Aquaculture continued from cover

AQUAPONICS

Center at UWSP. Hartleb says the rise of largerscale commercial aquaponics operations speaks volumes about the industry’s evolution.

“Prior to that, aquaponics was limited to people who were doing small- or medium-scale to feed their family and friends, almost like a second job so they could sell their produce and fish on the weekend,” says Hartleb. “We’re just seeing in the past two years, real commercial businesses that employ dozens of people and are producing thousands of heads of greens per day and hundreds of thousands of fish per year.”

Ken Armstrong is deeply involved in the industry in his role as treasurer of the Aquaponics Association, and as owner and founder of California’s Ouroboros Farms. Ouroboros Farms has grown steadily alongside the industry, evolving into an operation with three 20,000-gallon tanks growing greens and fish. Its clients include local consumers and a Michelin three-star restaurant in San Francisco.

“Part of what’s driving that growth is that, with any new industry or paradigm, there are those who jump in head first,” says Armstrong. “Particularly here in California as the drought got worse, it drove people to question the farming methodologies that are being used.”

California has always been a center of food movements; the drive for organic foods started in Santa Cruz, says Armstrong. In the years since, consumers across North America have begun to show the same desire for locally grown organic food.

tour group visiting the aquaponics facility of Lucky Clays Farm in North Carolina. There is a need to educate the public about aquaponics, including correcting misconceptions about it, say sources

“Consumers are demanding transparency in their food supply,” says Armstrong. “Aquaponics fits that niche perfectly because of its ability to provide really high quality nutritious, fresh food, closer to urban centers where these highly perishable items get to market quicker.”

The growing industry still faces its share of challenges, however. Brad Todd, greenhouse manager for Lucky Clay’s Farm in North Carolina, says the amount of technical knowledge needed to operate the systems effectively is daunting. Finding qualified employees for existing operations is also a challenge, he says.

The knowledge required “goes from how to diagnose streptococcus in fish, all the way to

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Walleye: a good candidate for aquaponics

There is significant opportunity in using aquaponics to raise fish that so far have not been grown through aquaculture, one of them, walleye, says Dr Chris Hartleb, professor of Fisheries and Biology at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (UWSP).

“Almost all of the walleye sold in the US is imported wild catch from Canada,” says Hartleb. “We’re starting to hear producers ask, ‘why can’t we produce them at home’?”

“Aquaponics producers need to raise a more valuable fish than tilapia and we’ve shown that walleye can be profitably grown in aquaponics systems,” he says.

Walleye after 12 months in an aquaponics system. “We’ve shown that walleye can be profitably grown in aquaponics systems,” says Dr Chris Hartleb

But so far, traditional aquaculture producers in the US have not embraced walleye production one challenge being the lack of fry supply.

“There are no nursery providers for walleye fry,” says Hartleb. “UWStevens Point Northern Aquaculture Demonstration Facility has developed manuals and videos on how to produce them. We are waiting for producers in the region to learn the methods so they can provide the fry. Also, we’ve found that saugeye (hybrid walleye) shows faster growth in aquaponics than purebred walleye. So nursery providers should consider producing the hybrid. We are still investigating walleye-plant compatibility in aquaponics systems and preliminary results show that most plants will do just fine,” he says.

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We’re just seeing in the past two years, real commercial businesses that employ dozens of people and are producing thousands of heads of greens per day and hundreds of thousands of fish per year.”

— Dr Chris Hartleb, University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

plant nutrient analysis, and everything in between,” says Todd. “It takes a large knowledge base to do an efficient productive system.”

Edenworks CEO and co-founder Jason Green echoes those concerns. “There is not a huge talent pool globally for technologists and operators in aquaponics; it is a very specialized field. Having both the technology and engineering side and also having operational expertise is a barrier to entry, he says.

Another challenge is the need to educate the public about aquaponics, including correcting misconceptions about it and distinguishing it from hydroponics. “I’ve had people tell me that it was unethical to sell fish that were swimming around in water with algae in it,” Todd says. He hopes the industry’s growth will lead to a greater knowledge about aquaponics as a sustainable food production system.

Record low for fish-in/fish-out ratio

The salmonid sector has been criticized for its use of fishmeal and fish oil but in 2015 the sector produced more fish protein than it consumed, according to the IFFO.

“For every 1kg of wild fish consumed by the aquaculture industry as feed, a total of 4.55kg of farmed fish was produced in 2015,” said the organization. It expects the 2017 the figure to be even higher “as aquafeed volume has continued to increase against a background of finite fishmeal and fish oil supply.”

IFFO is the international trade organization that represents and promotes the marine ingredients industry.

The seed-to-harvest time for lettuce is 38 days year-round, making it a profitable crop

Lucy Jones, an intern at the Aquaponics Innovation Center at UWSP, harvests saugeyes after a year reared in various aquaponics systems. The center says that the species shows faster growth in aquaponics than purebred walleye

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Above: Romaine lettuce growing in an integrated system with tilapia at Nelson and Pade, Inc in Montello, WI.

Credit: Nelson and Pade

The talent pool for aquaponics technologists and operators is limited globally, says Edenworks CEO and co-founder Jason Green

Credit: Paul Brissman

Credit: UWSP

Left:

Credit: Paul Brissman

Micro-radish growing in Edenworks’ aquaponics site

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its kind in the province

Aquaponics for remote communities

Canadian projects underway to enhance food security

wo projects focused on increasing food security in remote communities in Canada are gaining traction. One of them is a collaborative project between the Moose Cree First Nation and Canadian Aquaculture Systems Inc.

In the two-and-a-half years since the Moose Cree First Nation in Northern Ontario received funding for a feasibility study in 2015, they have determined that an aquaponics operation would be the most effective option.

Moose Cree First Nation Director of Economic Development, Stan Kapashesit. He says the aquaponics project will be up and running in 2018

“We’re now at the detail and design phase – educating the community about aquaculture and aquaponics, laying out the plan for the building, having drawings done, and basically moving the project forward,” says Moose Cree Director of Economic Development, Stan Kapashesit. “If all goes well, we’re hoping to put a shovel in the ground next building season.”

Collaboration with Canadian Aquaculture Systems has boosted the project. Company president Daniel Stechey says the project will not only benefit the local community through increased food security, but will provide opportunities by incorporating educational elements to engage the youth.

“It’s not just First Nations or remote communities,” says Stechey. “There are communities all over the world where food security is an issue and they’d like to have more control over what they produce.”

The next key challenge, he says, is to get it right so that the project can be replicated in other communities.

In Quebec, a similar effort is underway. A company called Écosystèmes Alimentaires Urbains (ÉAU) developed the first vertical aquaponics farm in Montreal. When that urban farm began

attracting the attention of local communities, the company shifted its focus from urban farming to working with communities to build projects around their needs.

“For a project to have a clear impact on food security, on socio-political issues and empowerment, it has to be tailored to a community,” says ÉAU co-founder and CEO Olivier Demers-Dubé. ÉAU is currently working on 10 projects in the province in partnership with various aboriginal communities, food cooperatives, non-profits and businesses. Demers-Dubé believes aquaponics will become a key food production method and that the projects ÉAU helps establish will inspire the development of similar ones.

“At the rate the world’s population is growing, 1.3 billion people will need food by 2050 and the livestock that we produce right now will not be enough, for obvious reasons,” says Demers-Dubé. “Aquaponics is not necessarily the only answer, but it will make a difference.”

— Matt Jones

September

A section of ÉAU’s vertical aquaponics farm in Montreal, the first of

The Moose Cree First Nation held a public information session on the project in

Starting from humble beginnings in 2010, Lucky Clays Fresh is founded on a philosophy that places priority on a sustainable, symbiotic environment that is capable of naturally producing fresh food year round. Using the freshest, greenest, and most resourceful technology in agriculture known as Aquaponics, our team is committed to refining our system designs, improving the quality of our fish and produce, and shrinking our footprint on Earth.

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Aquaponics as an interactive learning tool

Texas Autism Center engages through aquaponics system

he Bright Mosaic Autism Center in Denton, Texas uses an aquaponics farm as an interactive learning tool to help engage the children they work with.

Founder Christopher Brown says that he developed the idea after a traditional garden failed to hold the children’s attention. Now the center has a large “aquaponics tower” and several smaller aquaponics systems on site, which is more engaging because it is more visually interesting and the children can see the results more quickly.

“We grow microgreens in that tower mostly, which only take about nine days from when you plant the seeds to harvesting,” says Brown. “The kids are getting to see the fruits of their labor almost immediately. Their attention span is a week or two, anything beyond that they’re going to lose interest.”

Most of the food produced by the system is used to feed the behavioural therapists who work with the center and the surplus is given to parents. Brown says he hopes over time the system might also help expand the palates of some of the pickier eaters who attend the center.

Aquaponics transformative for Denver community

Struggling American families in an historic Denver neighborhood have found a haven in the Dahlia Campus Greenhouse, a 5,400-sq-ft aquaponics facility.

Located in what used to be the United States’ largest African-Americanowned mall that went bankrupt, the farm has been credited by beneficiaries for transforming the neighbourhood from a food desert to a food oasis.

The farm features two state-of-the-art raceway fish tanks at 2,800 gallons each, holding catfish and tilapia. Expected output of fish is 5,000 lbs annually.

The fish tanks have their own integrated filtration system with automatic filter backwashing. The tanks also circulate water via air pumps, which simultaneously provide oxygen, thus reducing the overall energy and equipment footprint.

The greens being grown include several varieties of kale, salad and leaf lettuces, cooking greens, collards, basil and chard, culinary herbs and microgreens. Annual output for greens is expected to be about 25,000 lbs.

“There was a great deal of community input regarding the types of fish and plants they wanted to grow,” said the Dahlia Campus for Well-Being, which runs the facility. Members of the community, from children to adults, help with tasks such as planting seedlings that

The community had an input on what type of plants and fish they wanted to grow

will later be replanted in the aquaponics farm and sorting lettuce for food boxes they take home.

Farm manager Jenna Smith runs the farm in collaboration with Veterans to Farmers, which provides farm support and training to veterans. The farm was recently featured on PBS Newshour as an innovative community-based model for healthy food, wellness and support programs.

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One of the children who attend the Bright Mosaic Autism Center in Denton, Texas poses with Spike the Tilapia.

Founder Christopher Brown says the chance to interact with Spike motivates the children

Credit: Bright Mosaic Autism Center

HEAT EXCHANGER HEALTH

Fouling

•

AQUAPONICS

Dairy farmer sees future in aquaponics

Tilapia and lettuce produce supply the local market

BY TOM WALKER

hen Mary and Nate Calkins were looking to further diversify their Lake Orchard Farm in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, they chose to invest in aquaponics.

“We have always run a progressive and diversified farm,” Nate Calkins says of their sixth-generation Wisconsin dairy operation, located about 60 miles north of Milwaukee along the shores of Lake Michigan. “I read a quick article about aquaponics and was just riveted by the possibilities.”

Calkins in their Lake Orchard Farm. The system produces eighttimes the amount of food using 1/6th of the water needed in traditional agriculture, says the manufacturer

Aquaponics ticked a number of boxes for the Calkins. Fish and vegetables made a good business case to balance the more volatile dairy market. He could convert a building housing a milking parlor to house the fish. They would be producing local food, which would contribute to food security and sustainability, and the working environment was very positive. “There is something about walking into an 80°F greenhouse in February (when Wisconsin temperatures are well below freezing) and seeing all the lush plants,” says Calkins. “Our employees sure like it.”

Calkins is a structural engineer by training and was able to construct the 4,000-sq-foot greenhouse by himself. “It came on a truck and I was able to follow the instructions,” he quips. But the couple went with a custom fish and plant rearing system from Nelson and Pade Inc in Wisconsin.

“I wanted a ‘Cadillac’ system,” says Calkins. “I know someone who has a make-shift aquaponics system in their garage that they have cobbled together with tubs and I bet they actually grow more vegetables outside during the summer.”

Nelson and Pade installed a 6-500 Clear Flow Aquaponic System for commercial operations. It comes complete with six 500-gallon fish rearing tanks, a biological filter system, plant raft tanks, filter, media beds and all the required pumps and hardware. “We just had to supply the plant rafts,” says Calkins.

The on-farm well taps into a limestone aquifer with a pH of around 7.8. “When we put the fish in, they bring the water down to around 7.1, which is ideal for growing tilapia,” Calkins explains.

The operation has 3,000 gallons of fishrearing water and a total of 15,000 gallons of recirculating water.

SPECIES OF CHOICE

Tilapia was the species of choice. “We were looking at the quality of fish to grow the greens,” Calkins explains. “Perch is a

popular native species here in Wisconsin that we could grow for the local market, but they are a slower growing fish that don’t provide the same level of nutrients to support the greens.”

“We actually harvest based on nutrient load that will be available for the plants. Some weeks I may harvest as few as four fish, or none at all,” says Calkins. He looks for the nitrate level to be between 150 and 160 ppm. “Right now it’s at 120 ppm, so I will need to build it back up.”

“Our biggest expense is fish feed, but it’s still cheaper than plant fertilizer,” he adds.

The 5/8-inch fingerlings are four weeks old when they arrive from Americulture, a supplier of Nile tilapia fry and fingerlings based in New Mexico. They take 12 to 16 months to reach market weight. “We are really happy with the quality of the fry that we get from Americulture, we only lose about one-half a percent,” says Calkins. An average weekly harvest is 50 to 60 fish weighing around 2 to 2.5 lbs.

Rangen is the feed of choice. Calkins is happy with the insect and fishmeal protein base. “I have used other feed in the past but I don’t like corn-based products,” Calkins comments. “I’ve never seen a fish jump out of the water and take a bite of corn.”

“With our weekly catch of 60 fish and the tilapia dress-out of 1/3 meat ratio, that’s only 30 to 40 lbs of meat,” Calkins points out. “We sell most of it to retail stores, or through our on-farm shop. We might hold back a few fish until the following week if one of our restaurants wants to run a special.”

EDUCATING THE PUBLIC

The aquaponics greens and tilapia were not an easy sell when Lake Orchard started production three years ago. “We opened our doors and had people in for tours to show them our operation. Even though aquaponics is an ancient system, people didn’t know about it and were scared of

A commercial 6-500 Clear Flow Aquaponic System from Nelson and Pade, the same system installed by the

The greenhouse at Lake Orchard Farms in Sheboygan, WI is teeming with greens. “There is something about walking into an 80°F greenhouse in February and seeing all the lush plants,” says Nate Calkins

it,” Calkins says. “We talked about how our farm environment is different from Asia. Tilapia can have a bad reputation in America, but it’s not the fish’s fault, it’s how they were raised.”

The greenhouse can produce 60,000 heads of lettuce greens a year. The majority is sold in bulk with some retail packs. Calkins estimates about 60 percent of the production goes to wholesale and 40 percent goes to retail. Seedlings are transferred to 1 1/4-inch spacing in the floating polystyrene rafts that measure 8’ x 80’. At 12 weeks they are moved to 4-inch spacing, and after another 12 weeks to 8-inch spacing. “Moving them twice is a bit more labor-intensive, but it allows us to use the space much more efficiently than if we had them in 8-inch space all the time,” he says.

The media beds hold recycled glass that nurtures rooted plants like tomatoes, beans and kohlrabi. Calkins says he can get 500 to 600 lbs of tomatoes in addition to the lettuce.

The entire production is heated with propane from December though to March. “When it’s sunny the heaters don’t run, when it’s cloudy they run constantly,” he says. At night, heat from the metal halide lights helps moderate the air temperature.

He estimates that on average, propane costs $1,000 per month. “It’s very expensive,” says Calkins, so he is investigating using solar power. “I’m hoping to take the operations completely off-thegrid by next summer,” he says.

Urban Organics aquaponics farm was praised for its water- and energysaving features

Credit: Urban Organics

‘Agriculture Project of the Year’ awardee breaks the mold

The WateReuse Association, a trade organization advocating water reuse, has awarded an aquaponics farm backed by Pentair and Urban Organics the “2017 Agriculture Project of the Year” for its water- and energy-saving features.

The aquaponics farm, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is different from most aquaponics systems in that it is designed to be a decoupled system, meaning the fish production system can be operated separately from the plant production system.

This allows Urban Organics to raise fish species in cold water with low nutrient levels, alongside plant species in warm water with high nutrient levels

by capturing, treating, concentrating and reusing the waste nutrients from the fish using Pentair’s advanced water filtration technology. By reusing the water repeatedly, the system utilizes less than 10 percent of the water that would be required for conventional farming. Energy use, meanwhile, is minimized by up to 40 percent using energy-efficient pumps and LED lighting.

The 87,000-square-foot indoor aquaponics farm is expected to be at full capacity in early 2018. It is expected to produce 275,000 pounds of fish and 475,000 pounds of organic produce annually.

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FLOATERS & SINKERS

BY JOHN G. NICKUM

Non-native does not equal invasive

Credit: Department of Natural Resources

Based on the nearly hysterical, national angst generated by fish escaping from broken cages on an Atlantic salmon farm in the San Juan Islands, an impartial observer might have concluded that there had been a jailbreak and dangerous criminals were “on the loose.” In the minds of some environmental activists, Atlantic salmon escaping into the natural habitat of Pacific salmon is the ecological-environmental equivalent of a jailbreak by hardened criminals. Many of these activists believe that any species that did not evolve naturally in a given ecosystem simply does not belong there. Further, they believe that any fish escaping from a hatchery or farm are certainly invasive, will reproduce in vast numbers, and establish new colonies of the invaders that will destroy the “balance of nature.” Really? Is an escape of farm-reared fish always a catastrophe; important enough to draw media attention coast-to-coast?

Fish pens at Cooke Aquaculture’s farm near Cypress Island in Washington State collapsed in August. If the escaped fish will have serious negative effects on the Salish SeaPuget Sound ecosystems is unlikely, says columnist

The only absolutely certain catastrophe when thousands of Atlantic salmon escaped from broken cages in waters near the San Juan Islands is the effect on the owner’s finances. Estimates of the numbers of escaped fish varied from 160,000 to nearly 300,000. The lower number is probably more accurate, inasmuch as, the owners recovered more than 140,000 fish that were still in the cages. Nevertheless, the loss is devastating to the owners of the farm. Whether or not the escaped fish will have serious negative effects on the Salish Sea-Puget Sound ecosystems, and potentially other adjacent systems, remains to be determined. However, based on past experiences with other, smaller escapes in similar areas, it is highly unlikely that there will be serious, long-term damage. What are the possibilities? More importantly, what are the probabilities?

Long before the term “alien invasive species” became popular with environmental activists, ecologists and other scientists used the term “colonizing species” when referring to species who found their way into new ecosystems and established self-sustaining populations in locations where they were not found previously. Much of the intense, emotional arguments about whether or not a species “belongs” in a specific location depend on each individual’s beliefs about the “balance of nature,” including, how each species came to be a part of a specific ecosystem, and whether or not the ecosystem will cease to function efficiently if species are added to it, or displaced from it.

The basic components of an ecosystem always include “producers”(plants), “consumers” (animals), and “decomposers” (microbes). Does it matter if specific parts of an ecosystem are changed, as

long as energy and nutrients flow through the system? Perhaps it’s a question of “creation” versus “chance origins” followed by evolution. I prefer the latter and consider ecosystems to be functional systems in which parts can be added and/or subtracted as long as the system continues to function. Many others, including competent scientists, consider ecosystems as structural systems and believe the system will implode if the structure is altered. The conditions and species present in northwest North America at the end of the last Ice Age favored salmonid fishes and they remained dominant over the next 10,000 to 15,000 years. The idea that a different set of species would be present today if other species had been present initially is regarded as ecological heresy by many present-day environmental activists. These activists contend that the ecosystems that existed prior to European “invasive” humans gaining dominance were perfect in structure and function. I disagree with ecological creationism, which I define as the belief that inherent forces of nature caused the present species structure and must not, indeed cannot, be changed. I argue further that changes do not necessarily degrade ecosystem functions and should not be predicted as always producing catastrophes.

Taking ecosystem flexibility and resilience a step further, I suggest that the continued existence of a functional system is more important than maintaining a specific species composition. The belief that species structure is all-important was certainly dominant in the media coverage of the San Juan cage break. Pundits and would-be “experts” agreed that invasive aliens had escaped and the native fauna was in serious jeopardy. The role of Atlantic salmon in marine/aquatic ecosystems is very similar to that of the four major species of Pacific salmon in the Pacific Northwest. IF the escaped Atlantic salmon survive in open waters, avoid capture, avoid being eaten, find a river/stream in which to spawn, successfully migrate to suitable

Canadian province to double production of salmon, mussels

Also aims to double year-round aquaculture jobs

he province of Newfoundland and Labrador has big plans for its aquaculture industry, including doubling its Atlantic salmon production to 50,000 metric tonnes annually and mussel production to 10,750 metric tonnes annually by 2020.

• Predation Nets

“The targets were calculated based on maximum utilization of current water leases,” NAIA executive director Mark Lane tells Aquaculture North America (ANA). “Industry will determine actual growth, sustainably and environmentally responsibly in the future.”

• Seines

Lane is confident, however, that the province will achieve the targets.

• Net Pens

• Pursing Tank Seines

• Research Nets

• Dip Nets

“Working with the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Government of Canada we are confident that we will achieve these targets. Having a government that is supportive of the growth and is actively working with industry to increase production is a rarity in many jurisdictions,” Lane says.

Atlantic salmon is the major commercial salmonid species farmed in the province and last year it set a record, with 25,411 tonnes of farmed salmon production.

But the aquaculture industry has been under pressure from environmentalists who question the aquaculture industry’s impact on the environment.

“As farmers of the sea, we farm our oceans with care,” says Lane. “We embrace stringent regulations and governance based on science that will promote the opportunity for responsible growth of the industry while at the same time protecting our environment for all users of the sea, including First Nations

spawning grounds, hatch and survive to migrate back to saltwaters and mature to finally return to their natal streams, they would be in head-on competition with Pacific salmon inhabiting the same waters. Inasmuch as the Atlantic salmon were reared in the same waters as native Pacific salmon, they certainly do not carry any pathogens and parasites that are new to these waters. The probability of accomplishing all the life cycle actions successfully is extremely small. Previous escapes of Atlantic salmon in western waters of Canada and the United States have not led to self-sustaining populations of Atlantic salmon, nor diminished populations of Pacific salmon. Indeed, in the early part of the last century federal fisheries agencies attempted to intentionally stock western waters with Atlantic salmon over a number of years and all attempts failed. It’s hard to imagine that escapes of highly domesticated salmon would fare any better in modern times. Although it seems that the extensive publicity given to this fish escape is largely environmental hyperbole, questions remain as to whether or not the broken cages could have been prevented. The

Credit: NAIA

Juan Roberts of NL-based Badger Bay Mussel Farms Ltd serves blue mussels to NL Premier Dwight Ball (middle) and Fisheries Minister Steve Crocker (at left) at Seafood Expo North America 2017 in Boston. Ball unveiled the province’s Aquaculture Sector Work Plan in September

and the traditional wild harvest sector, wildlife and the ecosystem.”

The province also aims to more than double the number of year-round aquaculture jobs in the province to 2,100. Like the production targets, the jobs target is part of the Aquaculture Sector Work Plan unveiled by the province’s Premier Dwight Ball in September.

“Aquaculture generated a record $276 million for the provincial economy last year. While this is good news, the real excitement comes from knowing there is potential for even more economic success, not only from direct aquaculture activity, but also spin off employment in processing, transportation, service and supply,” he says. “The positive environment for our industry has attracted international attention of investors and businesses worldwide. We are growing,” says Lane.

farm owners acknowledge the cages and anchoring systems were in somewhat degraded condition and not capable of withstanding abnormally high currents.

The cost of repairing them would have been considerably greater than their value. Plans to replace the entire system had been developed, but not initiated. Whether or not the owners should have acted more quickly is not an appropriate aspect of the present discussion.

The basic question of whether or not any species of fish should be reared in waters outside its native range is a valid question that should be addressed before beginning a new aquaculture operation. In the case of Atlantic salmon in British Columbia and Washington State waters, marine scientists with extensive research experience with this question have concluded that there are very small, if any, risks. Atlantic salmon and Pacific salmon do not interbreed; Atlantic salmon carried no disease agents other than those already established in the Salish Sea; and it is highly unlikely that the Atlantic salmon will reproduce successfully. The ecosystems will continue to function normally.

• Predation Nets

• Seines

• Net Pens

• Pursing Tank Seines

• Research Nets

• Dip Nets

Floaters & Sinkers from page 18

“Overall, 2017 has been a fantastic year for our members. They ran profitable businesses. The fish on farms are very healthy and the environmental performance is sound and strong. The investment in the sector has been unprecedented, $200 million over the last two years, and that’s really helped the services supply sector because those are the companies that are helping to build the industry here in BC. Overall for everyone it was a good year,” says Dunn.

The rise in value of BC’s farmed fish also reflects the record high salmon prices, driven by the imbalance in global supply and demand. Efforts to curtail the biological footprint of salmon farming have led producers to limit production, but there are no plans as of yet to increase production volumes, says Dunn.

“Since 2015 the provincial government has not been reviewing new site applications in BC because they are waiting for recommendations from the Minister of Agriculture’s Advisory Council on Finfish Aquaculture as to whether the industry in BC should grow or not,” says Dunn, who adds that the council’s report is expected by the end of the year.

ACHIEVEMENTS

BC’s farmed salmon production in 2016 totalled 92,800 metric tonnes. BCSFA’s eight fish-farmer/members account for 90 percent of the total.

“We have 52 members, most of them in the service and supply sectors. Only eight grow fish of them; they grow Atlantic, coho, chinook and sablefish as well as steelhead salmon,” says Dunn.

He clearly is proud of the industry’s accomplishments, which includes achieving a “yellow” — or “good alternative” — ranking from Seafood Watch.

“This is important for the reputation of our sector and it is a signal that our members are on the right track in terms of how they have improved their environmental performance over the last number of years. So this is by no means the end of the destination, this is a signal from an important organization that we are on the right track to having the highest performing farms from an environmental perspective in the world,” he says.

They ran profitable businesses,’ says Jeremy Dunn, Executive

He also noted that BC salmon farmers are meeting the Aquaculture Stewardship Council’s (ASC) certification standards “at a rate as fast or faster than anywhere in the world.”

“Over 15 percent of our production is certified to that standard,” Dunn says.

CONTROVERSIES

The industry has had its share of controversies, however.

One of them was SeaChoice’s claim that salmon farmers in BC are evaluated by ASC under more relaxed eco-certification standards in order “to accommodate current industry practices.” (See box for ASC’s response.)

Dunn says: “The ASC is an independent organization with an independent audited certification of individual farms. How ASC assesses its certification of the farms is up to the ASC. Our members have invested significantly in human resources, practices and infrastructure in an effort to meet that certification and, from what I am told and what it looks like to me, is that they are meeting it and they are meeting it as fast as or faster than anyone in the world and that’s something that we’re quite proud of.”

The escape of thousands of Atlantic salmon from Cooke Aquaculture’s ocean-based farm in Washington State in August has emboldened critics of salmon farming and amplified calls for a switch to land-based aquaculture.

But Dunn says BC’s salmon farmers currently do not have plans to change their production processes.

“Our members operate 20 land-based salmon farms, 19 of those raise fish for half of their life and then the fish is transferred to the ocean for the other half of their lives. They have no plans at this point to change their production processes of raising fish in the first half of their life in a

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land-based system and half of their life in the ocean farm,” he says, circling back to the recognition the industry has received from independent bodies such as the Monetrey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch program.

“Our members are going to continue along the same path. It might sound boring but it’s a long journey working towards environmental performance and fish health is something that our members take as top priority every year. They will continue in that vein to achieve that,” he says.

ASC responds to SeaChoice

The Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) has issued a statement regarding its standards and processes after SeaChoice accused it of lowering its standards when it comes to assessing salmon farms in British Columbia to accommodate current industry practices.

“While we disagree with the characterisation of ASC advanced by SeaChoice, we believe that collaboration is key to the work we do. We take the concerns of stakeholders, and our dedication to maintain an evolving standard seriously,” Contessa Kellogg-Winters, ASC Communications Director, told Aquaculture North America (ANA).

SeaChoice wants ASC to incorporate expert and stakeholder input into the variance request (VR) approval process and to make sure upcoming and already approved variances follow ISEAL Code of Good Practice, which helps entities like ASC to vet the effectiveness of their programs.

ASC said many of the recommendations from SeaChoice align with actions the ASC is already taking or has plans to address in the near term.

The certification programme is still in its early stages, with the first farm having been certified less than five years ago and the first salmon farm having achieved recognition only in 2013, said ASC, but it nonetheless has “the net effect of pushing producers to perform to comprehensive, transparent criteria that is unmatched in any other single jurisdiction.”

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BC farm-raised Atlantic salmon undergo regular health and weight checks

Credit: BCSFA

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‘Overall, 2017 has been a fantastic year for our members.

Director, BCSFA

New era in Hawaii aquaculture

BY RUBY GONZALEZ

awaii’s tilapia aquaculture industry is expected to get a boost from the Hawaii Board of Agriculture’s decision to allow importation of Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) for commercial production.

For years, Nile tilapia was on the Restricted List A, which limits importation for institutional research. Stakeholders have been advocating for over 20 years for the rule change. On September 26, the Hawaii Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association (HAAA) voted to change the rule.

“With the positive vote regarding Nile tilapia, there is hope for further increase in the local tilapia industry,” association president Ron Weidenbach, told Aquaculture North America (ANA).

PREFERRED SPECIES

“Nile tilapia is the preferred tilapia species for freshwater aquaculture worldwide due to its fast growth and lowercost, plant-based diet, with multiple improved strains readily available,” Weidenbach said in a statement from the Center for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture. “Allowing their importation for commercial farming will help to improve our local production efforts, which, in turn, can help increase Hawaii’s food security.”

There were opposing groups that consider Nile tilapia an invasive species and are concerned about containment. Testimonies during the hearing disputed their claims.

In terms of growth, O. niloticus from Florida reaches 2 lbs in 10 to 12 months. It takes two years for Hawaii’s stock to reach this size.

Prior to the rule change, importation to Hawaii of live tilapia for commercial aquaculture was limited to the O. mossambicus, O. aureus and O. spilurus, whose growth and yield performance have been found to be sub-standard compared with O. niloticus

“The primary implication [of the rule change] is that Hawaii’s aquaculture operators can become more competitive because of O niloticus’ rate of growth and yield,” Todd Low, manager at Aquaculture & Livestock Support Services at the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, told ANA.

Other recent developments that could boost the state’s tilapia industry include the implementation of system technologies and integration with aquaponics systems, the study said.

HIGH COST OF FEED

With importation of Nile tilapia now an option, the industry’s focus has shifted to addressing the high cost of feeds

“The primary focus at this point will be to get the cost of feed down to a competitive level. In the long term we hope for a local commercial feed manufacturer to be able

to produce high-quality and affordable feed for aquaculture and livestock, made as much as possible with locally available ingredients,” Weidenbach said.

A paper presented at the World Aquaculture 2017 held in June in South Africa cites the high-cost of feed as among the three major hurdles for Hawaii’s tilapia industry. The other two are the restrictive regulation on the importation of new species/strains (which has now been addressed) and competition with imports, said the paper, Tilapia industry in Hawaii: An Update, by Dr Andre Seale et al of the Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Hawaii tilapia commands premium price. “Imported whole tilapia retails anywhere from $1 to $3 per lb; skinless fillets from $6.99 to 7.99 per lb,” Weidenbach said. “The local live market wholesale price varies by size, quality, quantity, and consistency of supply. But, typically, it is $6 per lb for a 1lb fish, $7 per lb for a 2lb fish and $8 per lb for a fish 3lb and larger. Chilled fish on ice are perhaps one-half of this pricing.

“Quality, pristine growing conditions, no antibiotics, and traceability” are factors that make Hawaii-produced tilapia competitive,” Low said.

He stressed the importance of branding. “Positioning tilapia in a favorable light is the key to increased sales. With good branding efforts, the local tilapia industry could reach sales of approximately tens of millions of dollars per year.”

Hawaii is projected to produce 3 million lbs of tilapia by end of 2017, Low added.

Per 2015 figures cited in Seale’s study, Hawaii’s tilapia consumption was 780,000 lbs. Of this, locally produced tilapia accounted for only 10.2 percent and was primarily supplied to the live fish market. Frozen tilapia was mainly imported from China and fresh fish on ice, from Taiwan and US mainland.

Aquaponics potential

Sources interviewed by Aquaculture North America (ANA) see a place for aquaponics in tilapia aquaculture in Hawaii.

Ron Weidenbach, president of the Hawaii Aquaculture and Aquaponics Association (HAAA) noted that “mostly new farmers” in the state are drawn to aquaponics.

Aquaponics “adds a second potential profit center and recaptures the valuable nutrients from the expensive fish feed that are not utilized by the fish,” he said.

However, he acknowledged that this type of food production system “adds to the complexity of the aquaculture operations and to the marketing efforts required.”

Todd Low, manager at Aquaculture & Livestock Support Services at the Hawaii Department of Agriculture, estimates that it costs about $310,000 per acre to set up an aquaponics farm locally, with 20 percent of the area dedicated to fish production and 80 percent for crop production.

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Aquaponics has a place in tilapia aquaculture in Hawaii

Nile tilapia grows twice as fast as the species currently being grown in Hawaii

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AQUAVENTURES

New owner for Massachusetts’ oldest aquaculture grant

Massachusetts’ oldest aquaculture grant –measuring 23 acres and established in 1877 –has changed hands.

Cape Cod Oyster Company bought the grant from Atlantic Oyster LLC, which was placed in receivership in 2016.

Cape Cod Oyster Company is based in Barnstable, Massachusetts and manages more than 40 acres of shellfish grants on Cape Cod. It claims to be the largest singlesource oyster producer in Massachusetts.

Shellfish harvested from the newly acquired grant will carry the brand “Washburn Island Oysters,” which was a division of Atlantic Oysters.

Turkish fish farmer eyes

North American market

Kılıç Deniz, Turkey’s biggest and one the Mediterranean’s leading aquaculture companies, is targeting the North and South American markets for its bream and bass production.

Kılıç Deniz started their first production in the aquafarm that they bought in the Dominican Republic. The company transferred from Turkey to the Dominican Republic, the fish juveniles, which it plans to sell upon maturity in North and South America in 2018.

Aquaculture Tanks

Biotech firm addresses taurine deficiency in farmed fish

Massachusetts-based biotech company KnipBio says it has succeeded in developing a microorganism capable of providing taurine missing from many commercial fish feeds.

The company is known for its efforts to develop fish feed derived from microbes instead of less-sustainable sources such as wild-caught fish or agricultural crops.

KnipBio said it was able to develop a microbial strain capable of producing taurine in meaningful amounts.

KnipBio uses biotechnology to advance the development of fishfeed alternatives

The reduced availability in aquaculture diets of taurine-rich ingredients like fishmeal may create a taurine deficiency. This deficiency can lead to reduced growth and survival for many commercially relevant finfish species, increasing their susceptibility to diseases and impairing larval development, said the company.

Shellfish

farmer’s permit extended

Coast Seafoods has been granted permit to continue its shellfish farming operations in Humboldt Bay through 2025 after the California Coastal Commission approved the company’s revised development plan.

The company nixed its original expansion plans and proposed to shrink by 21.7 acres its existing oyster and clam farming operations. It also plans to monitor the effect of its farming techniques on the said eelgrass beds.

Milestone for game-changing offshore fish farm

The world's first semi-submersible offshore fish farm was scheduled to enter pilot operational phase in September with the planned arrival of the first batch of fish for rearing in the ocean farm.

Norway’s Ocean Farming, a subsidiary of salmon farming company SalMar, will operate the offshore fish farm, Ocean Farm 1.

The Ocean Farm 1 is a 360-foot-wide structure designed to accommodate water for farming 1.5 million fish while maintaining a death rate of less than 2 percent. It has a 25-year lifespan, can resist powerful typhoons, and requires only three to seven employees to operate. It is positioned in Frohavet, off the coast of Trøndelag, Norway. SalMar has reportedly ordered another five similar vessels.

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Kılıç Deniz says the Dominican Republic is suitable for growing Mediterranean fish

Dispute steals spotlight from winner of F3 Fish-Free Challenge

IFFO questions competition’s credibility

Guangdong Evergreen Feed Industry Co Ltd won the top prize of $200,000 in the F3 Fish-Free Challenge, but the spotlight has turned to a heated exchange between the IFFO and the contest organizer.

The IFFO — the international trade organization that represents and promotes the marine ingredients industry — is questioning the credibility of the competition.

IFFO said in a statement the competition’s credibility has been damaged by the organizers’ use of “negative messaging, exaggeration and misinformation in relation to marine ingredients.”

University of Arizona professor, Kevin Fitzsimmons. IFFO is doing a fine job and is not being accused of anything, he says

IFFO says it agrees with the organizers’ view that there is a need for alternative feed ingredients because the supply of marine ingredients would not be able to meet the growing demand from the aquaculture industry.

of

IFFO said there are limited examples of human rights abuses in fisheries in Southeast Asia and to accuse the fishmeal industry as “responsible” for the abuses on board fishing vessels is not right.

Fitzsimmons, who was in Dublin attending GOAL, told Aquaculture North America (ANA) that “that’s what has been written out in a number of magazines and news reports, Christian Science Monitor, BBC.” He said he also saw this first-hand.

“I spent the entire summer working in Myanmar and saw some of this personally while I was there. It’s a fact that’s been written out and documented in lot of places,” he said.

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What did not sit well with IFFO are the "negative messaging" and "misinformation" from the contest organizers. It says that while the competition organizers state on their website that they are not against the use of fish based raw materials, their “intention has been to encourage the exclusion of marine ingredients from use in farmed fish feed, reducing choices for feed companies.”

IFFO also pointed to Dr Kevin Fitzsimmons of the F3 Challenge for associating fishmeal production in Southeast Asia with forced labour. It quoted Fitzsimmons as saying: “In many countries, the fishmeal industry is responsible for forced labour, mistreatment of employees, and fishing from substandard fishing vessels with very high rates of injury and deaths.”

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Fitzsimmons denied IFFO is being accused of anything. “Again we were pointing out that they have been leaders in responsible fishing, that’s their whole goal and we completely agree with that. Again there was no accusation at all. We applaud it. They are trying to make it as sustainable as possible. We have no problem with that at all. They are doing a fine job at it. That’s specifically what I said.”

The F3 Fish-Free Challenge is a competition in which contestants are invited to produce an aquafeed that does not contain marine animal meal or oil. The contest closed on September 15 and the winner was announced today at GOAL, hosted by the Global Aquaculture Alliance in Dublin. The competition is supported through crowdfunding and sponsorship from the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the New England Aquarium, the University of Arizona and the World Bank.

— Liza Mayer

Shellfish industry, community align efforts to clean up shores

Marine debris a reality for shellfish growers

everal initiatives to clean up the most active shellfish aquaculture areas in British Columbia gained momentum recently with the “Big Beach Cleanup” held from September 23-30.

The event, spearheaded jointly by BC's shellfish industry, the government, and a non-profit, is in response to the challenge of cleaning up debris escaping into waterways from shellfish farming operations.

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Most of the items collected by the Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards were debris from the shellfish industry. Gear escaping into waterways from shellfish farms is a challenge for shellfish growers

it to break free,” Darlene Winterburn, executive director of the BC Shellfish Growers Association (BCSGA) tells Aquaculture North America (ANA)

“This equipment is costly and the preference is always to keep it securely in place. The majority of farmers are proactive in maintaining their equipment and monitoring shorelines to collect debris (of all sorts), but there are opportunities for improvement,” she adds.

In mid-September the BCSGA and Fisheries Oceans Canada (DFO) held a “Turn it in Week," where license holders in Baynes Sound, Powell River, Tofino, Heriot Bay, Cortes Island, Deep Bay and Nanoose Bay and Lund were encouraged to bring debris from their farms to a labelled bin at one of the designated sites for disposal.

“Everything was done on a voluntary basis and the response was very positive. Each site had a ‘lead’ who volunteered to answer questions, monitor the site and, generally, oversee how things were going at the location,” says Winterburn.

She says ‘Turn it in Week’ was a onetime event intended to give folks a helping hand. “But we will be assessing all events to evaluate their effectiveness and to determine how we can move forward,” she adds.

The non-profit Association for Denman Island Marine Stewards (ADIMS) has a 13-year history of beach cleanups on Denman Island. This year, its efforts merged with those of the industry and DFO’s, in what is now called the Big Beach Cleanup.

“We recovered oyster trays, but the debris we collected included a diverse range of items listed on the Great Canadian Shore Cleanup's list, including candy wrappers, cans, bottles, household debris, fast food packaging, rope, tires, clothing, plastic bags & bottles

and cigarette butts, as well as some things that were less expected - remnants of a sink, pieces of metal, construction material, lots of glass, porta potties, parts of boats, styrofoam, a life preserver, and so on,” says Winterburn, on the cleanup on Baynes Sound.

“It was interesting how each area varied so differently from the next in terms of what we found.  Overall, I'd say the debris was a reflection of all activities that use and have used the water, and the highway, over the years.”

ADIMS reported after the September cleanup that debris from the shellfish industry accounted for over 90 percent of waste collected from the western shore of Denman Island.

Marine debris is an unfortunate reality for shellfish growers, Winterburn says, thus the same working committee behind the cleanup initiatives is also exploring alternatives to old farming practices, including using "more durable flotation systems that are less likely to blow apart during storms.”

“There are no findings yet, but we are looking for and sharing information with members as it becomes available,” she says. Given the costly farm implements, the focus of the cleanup was “reuse, recycle” what was found, wherever possible, she adds. “We gave members who pitched in with their time and labour first opportunity to reuse equipment we found. ADIMS allowed anyone access to reusable items on September 30.”

Asked whether the Big Beach Cleanup will be a regular event, Winterburn says the BCSGA, DFO and ADIMS will be doing assessment post events. “We will see where it goes from here. We shall see.  Industry has always done informal cleanups in Baynes Sound,” she says.

Members of the community helped out during the Big Beach Cleanup Credit: BCSGA

— Liza Mayer

Credit: ADIMS Facebook page

Algae-based vaccine for aquaculture in the works

Blue Economy Challenge winner hopes to reduce antibiotics use in all aquaculture species

Cork, Ireland-based MicroSynbiotiX is testing a microalgae-based oral vaccine, which it hopes will reduce the use of antibiotics in aquaculture and offer an effective alternative to hand-held intraperitoneal injections and current oral vaccines.

The vaccine will come in the form of a freeze-dried powder, avoiding the need for cold storage and making the treatments more feasible in remote locations. Amongst concern over antibiotic resistance, MicroSynbiotiX CEO Simon Porphy notes that bacterial vaccines have allowed the Norwegian aquaculture industry to greatly reduce antibiotic use.

“What we’re trying to do is achieve this similar goal [of reducing antibiotics use], but for all aquaculture species, especially warm water species like shrimp,” says Porphy. “We’re trying to make low-cost oral vaccines, especially bacterial vaccines so that you can avoid the use of antibiotics.”

Industry’s first ‘green’ vessel to debut next year

Aship with “very low” emission levels — thanks to its hybrid propulsion/battery power source — will debut in the fish farming industry in the summer of 2018.

Technology group Wärtsilä will develop the vessel, which will be used as a salmon processing and transportation vessel.

“The fish farming industry, like other marine industry sectors, is seeking better ship designs and greater efficiencies that reduce overall operating costs and lessen the environmental impact. Wärtsilä is proud to have been selected for this project that introduces the world’s first hybrid propulsion system for this kind of vessel,” says RikuPekka Hägg, vice-president, Wärtsilä Ship Design. The

Microalgae ferments as part of the process behind MicroSynbiotiX’s new oral vaccine, which they aim to have in the market by 2021

While the technology may seem new and unproven, Porphy adds that microalgae is essentially a plant, and plant-based oral vaccines have been available for decades. By replacing the required greenhouse with an enclosed fermentation bioreactor, the potential environmental impact is reduced and batch-to-batch consistency is achieved.

The company has raised roughly $1.3 million (£1 million), which includes their 2016 Blue Economy Challenge winnings. This gives the company the seed funding to add three members to its team as they move on to the next phase.

Invivo challenge trials are expected to conclude before the end of 2017, which will be followed by field trials.

Porphy says that navigating the rigorous regulatory process will keep their products from hitting the market until 2021, but he is confident the product will make a significant impact.

“We’re certain our product will be more effective than the conventional oral vaccines based on the scientific information that’s already available in open domain,” says Porphy.

MicroSynbiotiX continues to seek new strategic partnerships, in particular with animal health companies, as they move forward into the variables of field trials. Porphy appreciates the challenge of being a small operator in a world of larger companies, however.

“Our story is like David vs. Goliath,” says Porphy. “We’re a bunch of young scientists who are entrepreneurially driven. We felt that there was a huge technology transfer gap and there’s a financial opportunity in this gap.”

“I would recommend these stones to anyone looking for

– Phil Shambach, TIPPCO FISH,

vessel will be used for salmon processing and transportation in Norway

Credit: Wärtsilä

Diversification drives success of family business

Having the ability to produce seed for a variety of species was transformative for Taylor

BY MATT JONES

he Taylor family’s history of growing shellfish in Washington State goes back as far as 1890. Under the umbrella of Taylor Shellfish Farms, the family business has evolved into a successful aquaculture company with diverse products and production methods. Bill Dewey, director of public affairs, says that diversification has been the key to the company’s success.

“In the last 25 years, they’ve dramatically grown the business, a lot of that due to the opportunities afforded by hatchery technology,” says Dewey. “We built our first hatchery in 1989; that’s really fuelled the growth and diversification of the company, as we’ve been able to produce seed for a variety of species, stock our farms and make them more productive. The company grows by starting new farms and acquiring other farms. We’ve diversified geographically and by species and by market. I think at this point, we’re probably the largest producer of farmed shellfish in North America.”

Shellfish Farms

Taylor Shellfish’s offerings are wide ranging. The company produces 4-5 million lbs of Manila clams per year, which started as beach culture but has evolved to include mechanized farming techniques. Dewey is particularly proud of a tulip harvesting machine that he obtained and reconfigured into a Manila clam harvester for use on his own farm. Taylor Shellfish has since taken the same design and used it to develop their own harvesting machine. Along with mussels and geoducks, the company also grows several types of oysters using a variety of techniques.

“We grow them on tidal long lines,” says Dewey. “We do bag culture systems, off-bottom as well. Our BC farm has quite a bit of deep water suspended culture. You name it. We have a high diversity of culture systems and it’s constantly evolving.”

ACQUISITIONS

Dewey says that while the company has purchased many other operations, it has been largely based on opportunities – they have no craving for a monopoly. The 2007

Pioneer Square. Oyster bars evolved into a small but important facet of the business over time

Credit: Liza Mayer

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Clam seed from one of the raceways at Taylor Shellfish Farms’ hatchery in Kona, Hawaii. Having consistent supply of seed to stock Taylor’s farms is key to company’s growth

Staff Alivea Binder shows off geoduck harvest from the company’s site on Southern Puget Sound

Harvesting kumamoto oysters from Chapman Cove in Oakland Bay

Oyster seed is loaded onto a boat to be planted in Washington’s Totten Inlet

Patrons enjoying half-shell oysters at Taylor Shellfish Oyster Bar in Seattle’s

Oysters growing on long lines stretch off into the distance at Taylor Shellfish’s farm in Samish Bay

purchase of British Columbia’s Fanny Bay Oyster Company, for example, allowed the company to obtain more farms and a processing plant and put them in position to establish another retail shop/oyster bar. Dewey says that oyster bars evolved into a small but important facet of their business over time. Initially, the company was selling products through farmers markets in Washington.

“The gentleman who was doing those markets for us had some health issues and, it turns out that the farmers-market trade really hinges on the personality and who you have doing them,” says Dewey. “We really struggled after his health issues and decided to make a foray [in 2011] into a retail store in downtown Seattle. We started opening oysters for people in the retail stores and had a few tables and chairs and that became popular pretty quickly so we put in a few more tables and chairs. Before we knew it, the demand was overwhelming the store, so we got a beer and wine licence and then there were lines out the door. We saw the demand for a tide-to-table experience.”

Along with the bar in Vancouver, Taylor Shellfish also runs three oyster bars in Seattle; a fifth bar is under construction in Bellevue, Washington.

“It’s only a relatively small percentage of our overall production, but it’s a higher profit margin area and a great way to have direct interaction with your customers,” says Dewey. “They enjoy it and we do as well.”

The diversity of products, techniques, locations and markets is the key to the company’s success, says Dewey. In addition to growing a variety of products in a variety of locations, they also sell to varied customers – Taylor Shellfish exports to at least a dozen different countries and have their own distribution center in Hong Kong.

“All that diversification tends to build stability into the company,” says Dewey. “You can have market slowdowns on one species or a price drop because of competition, but you’re buoyed up by the other species. You could have red tide or vibrio pollution closures in one area, but you still have lots of other areas while you work to get those areas re-opened.”

Another key to success is vertical integration – having hatcheries, nurseries, farms, retail and distribution all under the same umbrella, says Dewey. It ensures that a variety of steps in the supply chain are all on the same page. The company also owns or leases roughly 12,000 acres of tidelands in Washington State.

Members of the Taylor family themselves are another X factor, according to Dewey. For 25 years he’s worked with the family who, he says, are extremely passionate about the business.

“They eat, sleep and breathe it,” says Dewey. “They’re thrilled by the challenge.

NEWS

New traceability rule takes effect January 2018

An industry group says a new traceability rule that the United States will implement beginning January 2018 will cost US companies $53 million in recordkeeping expenses alone.

Taylor Shellfish opened its first oyster bar in 2011 after seeing consumer demand for a tide-to-table experience. It now has three in Seattle, one in Vancouver, BC and one under construction in Bellevue, Washington

They’re constantly evolving in response to it, whether it’s market evolution, culture system evolution, they’re doing things differently all the time. We work in a very dynamic ecosystem that is constantly throwing curve balls at you. We’re just trying to be flexible and constantly work on trying to figure things out and get better at it. They don’t get stuck in their ways.”

Dewey has spent his career working with the fourth generation of the Taylor family working in the industry. The fifth generation of the family recently graduated from college and are ready to take up the family tradition.

“They definitely have plans to keep doing this and growing the business,” says Dewey.

Seafood entering the US needs to be fully documented and traced from the fishing vessel or farm

The Seafood Traceability Rule requires seafood imported into the US to be fully documented and traced from the fishing vessel or farm before they can enter the US. It requires information such as what kind of fish it is, as well as how and where it was caught or farmed. The rule also applies to fish and other seafood products harvested in the US and re-imported after processing overseas.

The rule seeks to prevent imports of illegally caught fish and combat seafood fraud. “It’s time for imported seafood to be held to the same standards as domestically caught fish. It’s time to level the playing field for US fishers and reduce the risks facing US consumers. All seafood sold in the US should be safe, legally caught and honestly labelled,” said advocacy group Oceana.

The rule, however, is expected to add to the operating costs of legitimate businesses and is expected to hit small farmers particularly hard.

The National Fisheries Institute (NFI) said imports monitoring will cost US companies $53 million in recordkeeping expenses alone. “These additional regulations will not decrease pirate fishing… but increase food prices and reduce seafood choices for the average American family,” NFI said.

Credit: Liza Mayer

Credit: Getty

Cutting-edge fish monitoring tool gets green light

tool that Cermaq claims will transform fish farming from stock management to individualized farming has received positive assessment from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries.

The tool, called iFarm, is based on photo recognition of the fish and brings fish welfare and fish health to a new level as each fish is being individually monitored, said Cermaq.

iFarm is ‘a giant leap for fish farming,’ says Cermaq

iFarm monitors factors as growth, sea lice, disease, lesions and others aspects that affect the health and welfare of the individual fish, said the company. It added that “it is possible to separate the fish that needs treatment, for example against sea lice. Thus, the extent of sea lice treatments will be dramatically reduced.”

“We are pleased to get the opportunity to develop iFarm, an innovative technology that will strengthen the entire industry. iFarm will effectively reduce the need for sea lice treatment and will enable us to bring fish welfare to a new level by monitoring each fish in the pen, “says Knut Ellekjær, Managing Director of Cermaq Norway.

Advances in ‘seatech’ a strong theme in Fish 2.0 competition

he third run of the US sustainable seafood investment forum Fish 2.0 announced their 40 finalists recently, with about 15 aquaculturerelated businesses making the list to vie for capital and business knowhow during the event this winter.

Founder and executive director Monica Jain says this year’s finalists comprise the “strongest group ever.”

Monica Jain, executive director of Fish 2.0, says seatech is a strong theme among this year’s entries

“The level of innovation is potentially both systemchanging and very profitable. We’re seeing the rise of ‘seatech’ — new monitoring, visibility, production and processing tools for the seafood industry — as well as other advances that remove barriers to growth and sustainability for fishers, farmers and buyers throughout the value chain,” she said in the announcement.

The aquaculture-related finalists include Maine-based eel farmer American Unagi, the Pacific Island-based Indigo Seafoods and Shepherd Islands Organic Seafoods,

Florida-based Pensacola Bay Oyster Company, and the French insectbased fish feed maker Ynsect, just to name a few.

For these aquaculture-related businesses to make it to the finals is no small feat; they were chosen from an initial pool of over 180 businesses.

About 50 percent of the finalists are post-revenue startups, firms that have begun to generate sales and are now looking at increasing efficiency and scale. More than half are based outside the US, according to organizers.

“The companies that earned places as finalists are committed to growth and have products and market strategies that resonate with the varied group of investors who serve as online judges,” Jain said. Winners will be announced on November 8 during the Fish2.0 Innovation Forum at Stanford University, California.

— Erich Luening

Another alternative for underwater monitoring

With a jump in speed and improved stability over its predecessor, Inspector 2.0, the recently released robotic submersible developed by California-based SeaDrone Inc, offers fish farmers another way to observe their pens and other underwater facilities without having to get wet themselves.

“[The] robot can be down all day while a diver can only be underwater at 2030 minutes at a time and needs to take breaks,” SeaDrone CEO Eduardo Moreno told Aquaculture North America (ANA).

LED Lights

As previously reported in ANA, Inspector 1.0 was launched at TechCrunch Disrupt 2016 and was the first sub-6-kg underwater vehicle capable of handling 1.5 knot ocean currents using its omnidirectional drag design and high thruster-toweight ratio, according to the company.

The latest version of the robo-sub is pitched as a cheaper alternative to specialized piloting of remotely controlled drones used for the inspection of underwater fish farm platforms, like pens, anchors, and other tasks.

The SeaDrone package is portable, piloted from an iPad and its path and camera can be automated for frequently repeated jobs, says the company. Aquaculture customers in Japan, Norway, and Chile continue to be the primary market for the SeaDrone Inspector.

“We believe that we are expanding the market and allowing more people to have

Inspector 2.0

their own vehicle and perform their own inspections,” explained Moreno. “Our robots are three- to five-times cheaper than competitors for the performance that we offer.”

SeaDrone Inspector 2.0 maintains everything that made SeaDrone Inspector successful and further improves it with an increased top speed of 20 percent and vehicle stability improved by 100 percent. It comes with spare battery packs. The Inspector remains stable while it stays in place shooting images and to that end its battery has been shifted from the top to the bottom. Being top-heavy matters underwater as it does above the surface, and Moreno said this change vastly improved stability and made the newer version considerably easier to control.

— Erich Luening

SeaDrone

BY TOM WALKER

“Aquaculture water is a very dynamic environment,” says KC Hosler, project delivery manager for Pentair, from his office in Nanaimo, BC.

Pentair’s sea pen aeration and sea pen oxygenation systems use similar equipment to inject gases into the water, yet they have different applications, to solve different challenges. Hosler outlined two ocean conditions — phytoplankton blooms and low-oxygen events — and explained how the systems can help to mitigate them.

AERATION OPTIONS

“When net pen operations use aeration systems in BC, it’s primarily for plankton mitigation,” explains Hosler. Plankton, or algae blooms, cause fish health issues, can create a low-oxygen situation, or in extreme cases, can even be toxic to the fish. “Aeration is creating a few different effects in the water that are beneficial for the fish,” he says.

Air bubbles rising from the diffusers help to decrease the density of the water above and that induces a vertical flow of water from depth to draw in water that is of better quality. “That water might be free of plankton, it might be higher in oxygen, or potentially a different temperature,” says Hosler.

As the bubbles rise they bloom up and that vertical energy is converted into an outward radiating flow, says Hosler. “The bubbles spill out in all directions and create an outward flow at the surface that is pushing water away from that air source,” he says. This helps push away from the pen plankton that may be at the surface.”

“By introducing air bubbles into the water you are also creating gas transfer,” says Hosler. “Some of the oxygen that is contained in that air is absorbed into the water in the pen, helping to boost the oxygen level or make more oxygen available to the fish.”

An aeration system is centered on an air supply of one or more compressors and an accumulator tank. That air is distributed to all points of use by piping systems. There are flow control panels at the pens themselves that distribute the air to diffusers. “The diffusers are deployed on a grid pattern to equal area coverage and we select the diffuser locations to suit the conditions at a site including pen size, water depth and number of fish in the water,” Hosler explains.

The compressors can be rented from local suppliers Hosler points out. “Many of our customers prefer to use that as an operational expense as opposed to a capital expense,” he says. “The maintenance and service of those compressors then falls to the vendor who is supplying them.”

AQUATIC

OXYGEN INJECTION

“Sea pen oxygenation is much the same as sea pen aeration, except you are injecting oxygen gas rather than air,” says Hosler. “The objective is gas transfer only, rather than the water movement, mixing, and gas transfer of the aeration systems. The oxygen is usually generated on site through generation technologies or concentration technologies.”

The system again distributes oxygen to each of the pens using a flow control panel and deploying a different type of diffuser, again on a grid pattern, to introduce fine bubbles of oxygen into the water at a given depth.

“When we diffuse the oxygen into the water it is usually at much lower volume than aeration,” Hosler points out. The bubbles are much smaller to create lots of gas-to-liquid interface.

Hosler says there is more complexity with oxygen equipment. “Oxygen generation systems usually require a diesel generator to supply power and usually need to be housed in a separate building, so there is much more need for up-front design to implement them.”

CERMAQ’S EXPERIENCE

Cermaq Canada operates 28 farm sites around Vancouver Island BC. Brock Thomson, regional production and special projects manager, says they use a variety of technologies to manage water conditions including aeration and oxygen systems and feed management, during plankton and low-oxygen conditions.

“Depending on the severity of the situation, aeration or oxygenation systems have proven to improve the local environment and fish behavior,” says Thomson. “Across our facilities, aeration systems are deemed a seasonal necessity.”

Thomson says low-oxygen levels have become a “regular production challenge.” “Low DO levels are also a seasonal issue

A set of compressors for an aeration system at Marine Harvest Hardwicke Island farm. Aeration systems help address water issues such as phytoplankton blooms and low-oxygen events

at many of our locations,” he says. “In most cases the low DO events have not increased in either frequency or severity, however the duration of the season has increased.”

“Oxygenation systems have been used in limited locations where we feel we get the greatest return on the investment,” says Thomson, adding that such systems are “dramatically more costly than aeration.”

When dissolved oxygen drops

A low dissolved oxygen (DO) situation can be a result of high plankton mass, high water temperatures, or an up welling of deeper low oxygen water. When oxygen levels drop in the water and fish can’t get enough, they will breath deeper and faster, University of BC researcher Dr. Patricia Schulte explained to ANA last year. “That’s a problem because it costs energy,” says Schulte. “The fish has a limited amount of energy so maybe it’s going to reduce the amount of energy it puts into growth and grow more slowly. Or it might reduce the amount of energy it puts into its immune system and be more susceptible to disease.”

It is standard practice to reduce feed during low-oxygen events so as not add the stress of digestion to the fish, but that too has an effect on growth. If oxygen levels fall too low, the fish die.

Credit: Tom Walker

Maine Aquaculture Business Incubators

We o er:

• Extensive technical support with access to juveniles and seed

• Academic partnerships with the University of Maine

• Entrepreneurial training & business counseling

• RAS and ow-thru culture facilities from 50-1000 sq meters

• State-of-the-art culture systems

• Business support facilities and networking opportunities

We provide entrepreneurs and business startups professional support and excellent facilities to develop their aquaculture ideas.

• Assistance in grant writing and identifying funding opportunities

• Plus exceptionally high quality sources of water!

For more information, contact: Chris Davis, Maine Aquaculture Innovation Center 193 Clarks Cove Road, Walpole, ME 04573 Phone: (207) 832-1075, cdavis@midcoast.com

68th Annual NWFCC

December 5-7, 2017, Red Lion Hotel, Redding, California

“Conservation, Mitigation, Recreation”

Hosted by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, this year’s NWFCC will take place at the Red Lion Hotel, on Hilltop Drive, in Redding, California.

Conference Information

Michael Ficele: 707-945-1237 / Dr. Mark Clifford 530-918-9450 Hotel information: 530-221-8700

http://fishculture.fisheries.org/northwest-fish-culture-concepts/

NOVEMBER

November 14 – 17,  Latin American & Caribbean Aquaculture 2017, Mazatlan, Mexico

November 29-30, Aquaculture Innovation Workshop, Vancouver, BC, www.conservationfund.org

DECEMBER

December 5-7, 68th Annual Northwest Fish Culture Concepts, Redding, CA, https://s01.123signup.com/ home?Org=NFCC

FEBRUARY 2018

February 19-22, Aquaculture America 2018, Las Vegas, USA www.was.org

Aquaculture America 2018

liza.mayer@capamara.com

Manager, Alma Aquaculture Research Station

University of Guelph

Are you a proactive research leader and skilled manager, experienced in aquaculture and able to seek, plan and implement collaborative research projects? If so, here’s your opportunity to represent the University of Guelph, Office of Research as the resource person for the private, public and research communities.

Reporting to the Director, Research Facilities Management and OMAFRA / U of G Agreement, and with support of the Aquaculture Program Coordinator, the Manager, Alma Aquaculture Research Station (AARS), is the primary point of contact between researchers and the research station in regard to enabling and facilitating the conduct of facultyled aquaculture-based research trials and programs at this station. As such, the incumbent must have an excellent understanding of research principles, approaches and procedures, and be able to plan how research activities and trials can be implemented effectively within the quasicommercial operational paradigm of the research station. As well as being an information and resource person for the private, public and research communities, the manager proactively seeks opportunities for projects between the AARS and industry and other private sector partners.

QUALIFICATIONS

The mandate as Manager of the Alma Aquaculture Research Station calls for a master’s degree in Fisheries/Aquatic Science, plus a minimum of 5 years’ hands-on aquaculture experience, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

To view a detailed posting for the role of Manager, Alma Aquaculture Research Station, including application instructions, please go to our website at www.uoguelph.ca/ jobs, or view the link below. Applications, quoting Hiring #2017 0512, must be sent to: careers@uoguelph.ca. Closing date: November 16, 2017.

https://www.uoguelph.ca/hr/careers-guelph/currentopportunities/manager-alma-aquaculture-research-station

VAKI BIOMASS DAILY A REVOLUTION IN BIOMASS MEASUREMENT

With a Vaki Biomass Daily frame placed permanently in each cage, fish are continually measured with pinpoint accuracy. For every site and every cage, the daily overview of average weight, size distribution, condition-factor and growth is available 24/7. Pentair AES has assembled a team of experts with diverse backgrounds in aquaculture, with decades of research and commercial industry application experience. Accurate information, real time data and reliable overview. Trust in a team that’s here to help you—ASK US!