Professional Documents
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SUPPLEMENT
FISH FARMING
AQUACULTURE
URBAN AQUAPONICS
SUPPLEMENT
ibury trout farm is one of Britains oldest and most attractive trout farms, originally founded in 1902 by naturalist
Arthur Severn to stock the local rivers and streams with
native Brown Trout. The main focus of the trout farm
today remains the same, 90 percent of fish go towards restocking
and only a mere 10 percent are sold for direct consumption.
The place where science and skill play the largest part is the fertilisation room. This is where Martin collects the eggs and the sperm from
female only fish. These are the requirements to produce a female only
population.
A female population is preferred for the rainbow trout species as
males sexually mature while they are quite small and by time they
reach market size the meat is grey and watery. Fertilisation and triploiding is a very time specific task.
The hatchery
Fertilisation room
Producing triploids
Incubation room
The next room we were shown was the incubation room. Restored
a few years ago, there was a wall of sealed glass jars connected by piping. The vessels were full of bore hole water that had passed through
a de-gassing unit, just like the rest of the water used for all of the
hatchery processes.
When we visited there were no eggs currently being incubated,
this was probably a good thing considering how fragile the eggs are in
this state. Nurturing trout eggs can be very difficult, a lot can go wrong
very quickly. From days two through to 19 the fertilised ova are very
delicate. A small knock on one of the jars is potentially enough to kill
the entire 200,000.
The greatest risk at this stage however is fungus. The issue being
that if an egg dies there is a high probability that Saprolegnia will
develop on the dead egg. Saprolegnia will not directly attack a live
egg but as the fungus spreads on the dead egg the water flow to the
live eggs surrounding it will be impaired causing them to die as well.
Once it has become established it can quickly take over an entire jar.
A constant but steady flow of water into the bottom of each tank
functions to keep the eggs only just in a state of suspension so that
the weight of eggs on top does not affect the rest. The flow of water
assists in keeping the water in the tank sustaining good oxygen levels.
During the incubation period around 80 percent of fertilised eggs
make it to hatching, in winter this figure can reach 95 percent.
At the end of the incubation period, all eggs will be subject to a
process referred to as shocking, this involves moving the eggs about
to rupture the unfertilised ova, at Bibury they do this by pouring them
back and fourth between buckets a few times. This will cause any
unfertilised eggs to turn white, making them easier to identify so they
can be removed. In the past all of the eggs would be laid out in a tray
and the white ones would be removed by hand, a time consuming task
indeed. Now days a machine is implemented, using infrared technology
the machine can detect the white eggs and remove them, a time saving
device appreciated by the hatchery staff.
Hatching room
The hatching room was dark, and contained many fish at various
stages of early development in shelved trays of water. Some of these
trays contained 5000 fingerlings. The majority of fish in this room
had hatched and were now at the swim up stage. Some 21-day-old
eyed ova were still incubating, they were not as fragile as the eggs we
had encountered earlier. Once an egg has visible eyes they are more
resilient to external forces and can then be transported as required.
All fish that reach 5 grams at the hatchery are vaccinated against Enteric
Farm tour
At the end of our hatchery tour, we were kindly shown around the
beautiful outdoor uncovered fish farm that is accessible to visitors of
the public. At the farm visitors are able to purchase food to feed the
fish. This is of course only a small amount of additional feed, the vast
majority is fed to them by staff.
The food conversion rate (FCR) at Bibury ranges from 0.7 0.8 for
the fry, meaning that for every 700 800 grams of feed given to a fish,
they expect to see one kilogram of growth. The larger fish on the farm
convert at a rate of 1.2:1. Sketting feed is used, and a lot of it! A lorry
will deliver a load of feed at least once per month.
There is also a fishing experience available to visitors where in
one specific part of the farm they can catch, purchase, and take their
caught trout away with them, (there are also onsite barbeque facilities
available for those wanting to consume immediately).
Final thoughts
Wheat proteins
for aquafeed
URBAN AQUAPONICS
by Pete Whiting, Grow Bristol
ics system we were inspired to set up our own urban farm: producing
vegetables vertically, without soil and using much, much less water! In
this type of system, the water and nutrient solution is pumped around
the suspended root zone of the crops on multiple layers, perhaps
ten high. The water is then re-circulated rather than running to waste
or evaporating. With Controlled Environment Agriculture, almost
everything can be managed to optimize growing conditions, even the
light. Philips, one of the leading commercial producers of LED grow
lights, are creating Light Recipes (with particular parts of the light
spectrum) to manipulate productivity, nutrition, taste, and texture in
crops, in the absence of daylight. It sounds futuristic, but such closed
growing systems could potentially mean food security in the desert, in
our cities, or even the arctic year round.
Add to all this, the possibility of farming fish as well as growing
greens and you have aquaponics. Integrating RAS aquaculture into
International
Aquafeed
had the
opportunity to
speak to Pete
Whiting about
Grow Bristol
GrowBristol
business partners
Pete Whiting
(near) and Dermot
OReagan (far) at
work with urban
aquaponics
PW: Aquaponics
is most suited to
growing leafy vegetable crops. This
is primarily due to
the main nutrient
source being the ammonia from the fish that is converted into nitrates,
which plants use in foliar growth. However, some aquaponic farmers do also grow root and fruit crops. Additional nutrients could be
added to your growing system without harming the fish if the system is
designed with this in mind.
IAF: You say that the technology is already available in aquaculture
and horticulture, what do you think needs to happen for aquaponics
to be more widely adopted?
PW: For aquaponics to be adopted more widely both the horticulture and aquaculture industries need to be convinced by a
large commercial scale success story in the UK. The benefits of
integrating these two farming methods are plain to see and with a
growing market for farmed fish and locally produced (not just locally
sourced) veg we believe it will happen.
IAF: Why have you selected Tilapia as your species to farm, I
understand that it is not so common in British supermarkets, how
has it been received in the marketplace?
PW: We have chosen to farm Tilapia as it ticks all the boxes for
us. Tilapia has a very good Food Conversion Ratio and is suited
to the conditions of an indoor urban farm. It also has a great taste
when farmed to a high standard of welfare and sustainability. It is
the second most farmed fish globally and is well known amongst the
UKs ethnic population. Tilapia is already being more widely used
by some large restaurant chains, particularly in Asian cuisine. As a
new niche product for UK consumers who value provenance as
much as price it has great potential.
IAF: Why do you see an urban setting as the future for farming?
PW: The future of farming is certainly not just in an urban setting
but thus far we are largely looking to the peri-urban and rural environment to help feed our cities. With growing urban populations
planners need to make provision for urban farms. They can help
supply the most perishable products directly from within the city
reducing waste and transport even without soil!
IAF: How do you foresee the future for GrowBristol? Are there
larger scale projects on the way?
PW: Next year Grow Bristol will start to develop plans for a large
indoor aquaponics farm. We aim to create a scaled up version of
our current project in a light industrial unit in the city.