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Improving salmon growth in RAS systems Terry W. Snell, Matthew Carberry, John Carberry, Tim Wilson, Sustainable Nutrition Inc.
Introduction Recent trials at the Sustainable Aquatics marine hatchery have demonstrated that it is possible to grow Atlantic salmon to maturity faster in RAS systems with less than 1% deformities and greater than 98% survival rates as compared to the industry standard in ocean net pens. In our system, we observed growth from eggs to 22 g fish in 25 weeks posthatch, suggesting that it is possible to grow alevins
to harvestable adults in 12 to 20 months, as compared to an industry average of 36 months. The keys to our success include fine-tuning allometric growth in alevin stages, providing optimal nutrition in juvenile and adult stages, and maintaining excellent water quality in a RAS system to avoid growth inhibition. Our approach is in contrast to most of the scientific effort to improve salmon yields which has been directed at genetic improvements of stocks
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Day 70 Figure 1. Sequence of salmon larvae development at Sustainable Aquatics hatchery
Hatchery Feed & Management Vol 9 Issue 1 2021