Volume 19 Issue 4 JULY/AUGUST 2018
PROFILE
NEW HORIZONS
A New Zealand scampi larvae. Kevin Heasman and his team have hatched over 1500 this year so far (Photo: Kevin Heasman).
Scalable Scampi
Land-based rearing project for New Zealand Scampi shows potential for commercial viability BY BEN NORMAND
Aerial view of Riverence Hatchery. Parent company Spring Salmon bought the Washington-based Aquaseed hatchery in 2014. They renamed it Riverence, and are just completing a major renovation that will see investments total in the millions. Key to the facility are four 40’x140 hatch houses, with concrete floors and stainless steel tanks.
Hatchery reborn
Substantial investments at Riverence Hatchery in Washington state aim to boost the potential of North American fish farming sector with premium egg supply
BY TOM WALKER
iverence Hatchery in Washington state is putting the final touches to a state-of-the-art egg production facility, aiding their quest to grow and support the salmonid farming industry in the United States. “We have two main goals,” explains west coast salmon industry veteran Jason Mann. “We are looking
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to increase fish production and enable farmers across North America.” Mann describes the North American trout and salmon industry as ‘flat lined.’ “The annual U.S. trout production is between 20-25,000 metric tonnes,” says Mann. That’s similar to U.S. salmon production he notes. “But when you look at the amount of seafood that is imported, we can be a larger part of that market.” Aquaculture production is growing in other countries he points out, but not in the U.S.
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RAS RESULTS
RAS research targets ‘friendly’ bacteria
REARING PROGRESS
Readers may remember that we published a short article (Hatchery International, Nov/Dec 2016) covering the launch of the project. Author Quentin Dodd led with a description of one of the earliest big breakthroughs of the project: the first birthday of Camilla, the first New Zealand scampi larvae to be reared in a laboratory successfully. Prior to this discovery, the closest science had come was to hatch one larvae in 1976. The larvae died soon after initial description.
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BY COLIN LEY
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European team aims for more sustainable management of microbiota ooking after and promoting friendly bacteria in RAS systems, rather than killing the good with the bad, could have beneficial impacts on fish health and production profitability, according to the early findings of a three-year research project run by scientists in Norway, Denmark and Germany. Starting in 2015, the project team’s aim was to examine how much the fostering of an elevated microbial community in both RAS and flow-through systems might benefit the species being farmed. This addressed the common challenge, especially in RAS systems, that incidents of fish loss owing to unfavourable conditions and disease outbreaks may be linked to the activities of so-called “opportunistic bacteria.”
t’s no secret that New Zealand’s primary sector is driven by exports, and the New Zealand Scampi (Metanephrops Challengeri) fishery is no exception. There are reliable reports of single scampi selling for $20/fish, or $300/kg, overseas. While the fishery is well managed and healthy now, any fisher can tell you that unstable international prices caused by the inherent unreliability of wild catch is bad for business in the long term. A sustainable, reliable source of scampi is thus desirable to those seafood companies that target New Zealand scampi. One company pursuing this goal is Waikawa Fishery Company Limited. A self-described, “sustainable Maori seafood company,” it has been working with the Cawthron Institute in Nelson, New Zealand, to develop a proven, cost-effective and scalable way to rear New Zealand scampi on land.
Professor Olav Vadstein of NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology. (Photo: Sharon Minkoff )