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MARINE FINFISH
HATCHERY
INTRODUCTION
This building is scheduled for construction in the fall of 2003.
Funding for the facility comes from a $1.2 million construction grant
from the Department of Commerce (Economic Development Administration)
and $1.1 million from the University of Maine.
The purpose of the facility will be to provide marine finfish juveniles
to the aquaculture industry, to provide space for research and
development projects, and for training purposes.
BROODSTOCK HOLDING
There will initially be two broodstock holding facilities. The larger
of the two will house 6 ¥ 7m tanks designed to hold adult
halibut. There will be sufficient space to hold up to 150 ¥
20kg halibut. This stock would be divided into either 2 or 3 stocks
held on different photoperiod regimes to enable production of
out-of-season eggs. The equipment will include lighting, photoperiod
controls, stripping tables, feed preparation equipment and wash up
areas. The second facility will be designed to hold up to 700 ¥
3kg round marine fish species such as haddock or cod and will be
equipped with egg collectors, lighting and photoperiod controls and a
wash up area. There are already some broodstock facilities in place in
CCAR that will supplement the new capacity.
EGG HANDLING ROOMS
Eggs collected from broodstock, either stripped manually as in the case
of halibut or collected from natural spawning fish such as cod or
haddock will be brought into the egg handling rooms for
fertilization/measurement. These rooms will also be used for egg
disinfection procedures and any packing or handling procedures that may
be required before sending material to other sites or prior to movement
through to the larval rearing systems. The rooms will be lightproof and
equipped with sinks and workbenches.
EGG AND LARVAL INCUBATION
There are two systems proposed which will be similar in design allowing
flexibility in terms of configuration to accommodate a variety of
species. The two incubation rooms will be separated in the interests of
biosecurity and will be accessible from the egg handling rooms where
gamete material will enter. Following required fertilization/rinsing
procedures eggs will be stocked into conical tanks for incubation.
These tanks will be equipped with the necessary inlet outlet
configurations appropriate for the material incubated. The total
capacity of each room will be 2400 L and will hold between 0.5-5
million eggs depending on the species. The rooms holding these tanks
will be temperature controlled (both air and water) and fitted with
adjustable lighting systems to enable brightness and photoperiod to be
adjusted.
YOLK SAC INCUBATION SYSTEM
In the case of species with delicate and/or protracted yolk sac phases
such as halibut, a separate yolk sac incubation system is a necessary
feature of the hatchery. The proposed system is designed for halibut
but could be used for other species with similar life history
characteristics. The capacity of this system will be 14,000 L and will
hold up to 0.6 million larvae. This room will be temperature
controlled, lightproof and supplied with filtered, sterilized seawater.
LARVAL REARING SYSTEMS
The system is designed for the rearing of two species simultaneously
and the respective facilities are completely separate for the purposes
of bio-security. The halibut rearing systems are divided into two
sections. The first consists of 6 larger 7000 L tanks to rear large
batches of larvae on commercial scale. The second section houses 20
¥ 2000 L tanks for rearing smaller batches and for replicated
trials. The total system volume is 82 m3 capable of holding up to
400,000 larvae at any one time. The system has been specified to enable
production of around 100,000 juvenile halibut with realistic survival
rates (6% from fertilized egg to weaned juvenile) assuming availability
of egg material.
The round-fish hatchery rearing system will consist of 16 ¥
2000 L tanks capable of holding up between 0.2 to 2 million larvae of
marine round-fish species depending on appropriate stocking densities.
This system has been specified to enable production of around 100,000
juveniles with an overall survival rate of 7% (typical of haddock from
fertilized egg to weaned juvenile) assuming availability of egg
material. The systems would be capable of running on fresh and salt
water.
Live feed production systems. Almost all marine and many fresh water
aquaculture species require live feeds (algae, rotifers or Artemia)
during the first feeding stages. The proposed system would be capable
of producing up to 1 billion freshly hatched Artemia and enriched
Artemia per day. Rotifer production capacity is estimated to be around
0.5 billion per day. The standing stock of algae would be 12m3.
WEANING AREA
A specific weaning area is included in the project for the halibut
hatchery. This system would be capable of holding 100,000 juvenile
halibut to around 10g in 12 ¥ 4m2 tanks.
BUSINESS INCUBATION/DEMONSTRATION LAND-BASED ONGROWING UNIT
This unit will be designed for semi-commercial scale ongrowing of
halibut in a land-based recirculating system. The system will be
designed to hold 5,000 juvenile halibut to a market weight of 4kg at
commercial densities using shelving systems to increase carrying
capacity.
ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
Temperature control will be a critical part of the hatchery equipment
and installations. A central chilling system (2 million BTU/hr) will
provide cold glycol to heat exchangers in all rooms requiring chilling.
An oil fired boiler system will provide heat energy to systems via heat
exchangers. Air handling units in each area will control temperature
and ventilation.
DESIGN
The conceptual design,
crop models, capacities, adjacencies and overall system design was by
Dr Nick Brown. The architect/engineering firm contracted for the
project is Ames A/E (Bangor, Maine).
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