The Aquaculturists: feed mill

Tuesday, August 20, 2013

20/08/13: Aquaculture questions

We tackle some big questions on the blog today:

Is aquaculture responsible for rapid rises in sea-levels?

The answer is yes according to finding in a study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

Researchers found that parts of the Yellow River delta in China are falling by up to 25 cm a year, probably because of groundwater extraction for onshore fish tanks. This figure is 100 times greater than the global average.

The science journal, Nature reports that these findings come as something of a surprise to the aquaculture community. “This is not yet on the industry’s radar, but it should be,” says Stephanie Higgins, a PhD geology student at the University of Colorado Boulder who led the study.

Is integration the future of aquaculture?

With profit margins getting tighter, should fish farms expand into feed production and processing? Or is it just asking for trouble?

This article looks at Cooke Aquaculture's experiments with integration in Canada.

The firm bought a feed mill five years ago as foray into integration.

Today, the Truro feed mill produces 320 tonnes of salmon feed a week for the Digby farm, says Chuck Brown, communications manager, Cooke Aquaculture.

The mill uses fish byproducts from wild fish industries in its feed and the company has reduced its reliance on fish ingredients by 70 percent over the last ten years.

It seems the feed mill has been a success and, given that the company plans to open a processing plant in Shelburne in 2015, the experiment with integration look set to continue.

Can shark-resistant netting help ensure responsible aquaculture?

One of the limitations of warm-water aquaculture is sharks. These creatures can chomp through traditional nets and cages with ease, making the fish inside a tasty a meal.

To tackle this problem, DSM Dyneema, NET systems Inc and the Cape Eleuthera Institute have joined forces to create shark-resistant nets called Predator-X.

Made of Dyneema polyethylene fibres and stainless steel wire, the Predator-X nets have a high breaking point and and cut resistant.

In trials, the net managed to withstand bites from tiger sharks, hammerheads, black tip, reef, lemon and nurse sharks, as well as bull sharks.

In an interview with National Geographic magazine, Ken Robertson, application development technical service engineer, DSM Dyneema, spoke about the specifics of the nets and aquaculture in general.

Read the interview...

Watch a video about the Predator-X:

English: Great white shark at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, August 2006. Shot with Nikon D70s in Ikelite housing, in natural light. Animal estimated at 11-12 feet (3.3 to 3.6 m) in length, age unknown. Français : Photographie d'un Grand requin blanc (Carcharodon carcharias) de 3,5 mètres environ, prise à l'île Gadalupe en août 2006. Matériel : Nikon D70s dans un caisson étanche Ikelite. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Monday, July 15, 2013

15/07/13: Feed mill in Ghana opens; Alltech and Japanese University collaborate; veg and aquaculture

A $5 million feed mill has been opened in Ghana. The Israeli mill, Raanan Fish Feed West Africa in Prampram has a capacity of 24,000 metric tonnes. The mill is the fits in West Africa to apply the technology for floating extruded food to tilapia and catfish.

Seventy percent of the food is sourced locally with the remaining 30 percent imported from Israel.

The company has also set up an aquaculture training centre with the government in the Ashanti region.

A $5 million fish feed mill with an installed capacity of 24,000 metric tonnes has been inaugurated at Prampram, near Tema in Ghana, to help boost the aquaculture sector of the country.
The Israeli mill, Raanan Fish Feed West Africa, is the first in West Africa to apply the technology of producing floating extruded fish feed for tilapia and catfish.
It is currently producing between 1,000 and 1,400 tonnes of feed every month for both the local and the export markets.
Raanan sources 70 per cent of its raw materials locally, with the remaining 30 per cent, mainly vitamins and premixes, being imported from Israel .
- See more at: http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2013/07/15/israeli-firm-builds-5m-fish-feed-mill-in-ghana/#sthash.12JQokS4.dpuf

Alltech and Kochi University, Japan have signed a five-year strategic research alliance to study yellowtail and amberjack nutrition.

“Alltech has been successfully partnering with top academic institutions in the form of research alliances throughout the world with the common goal of finding long-term solutions to the key issues facing our industry. We are very excited to work with Kochi University in researching natural ways of increasing production efficiency in the aquaculture sector, particularly since aquaculture is one of the most promising industries for growth as we look to feed an increasing global population,” said Dr Karl Dawson, chief research officer, Alltech.

We all know that eating vegetables helps you grow up big and strong (thanks mum and dad for that advice) but now veg could be used to help the Australian aquaculture industry grow up healthily.

The vegetable industry is currently considering research that would see vegetables used to feed insects for the production of high protein fish food for use in aquaculture.

“Insects are a high quality, high yield and sustainable alternative to fish-meal, which is currently used to feed farmed fish. 2.2kg of vegetables can produce 1kg of insects such as Black Soldier Flies, which are around 42 per cent high quality protein and a viable alternative to fish-meal,” said Kurt Hermann, AUSVEG spokesperson.

“Feeding fish using vegetables may prove to be an excellent revenue stream for growers. This issue is no drop in the ocean, with approximately 25 per cent of vegetables produced in Australia going to waste at a cost to growers of around $155 million annually,” Mr Hermann.

AUSVEG is Australia’s leading horticulture body representing 9,000 vegetable and potato growers.

“Australian vegetable growers are producing more than 277,000 tonnes of excess product each year, which according to this new research can help to provide the local aquaculture industry with a much needed, sustainable food source,” said Mr Hermann.

With falling wild catches and increasing demand for seafood, it is predicted that Australian aquaculture will need to double its production by 2020 to meet projected increases in demand.

“This is exciting research with the potential to not only assist Australian aquaculture, but help secure the future of Australian vegetable growers by using vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. Improving efficiencies in such a manner will be essential for food security, as the global population heads towards a projected nine billion by 2050.”

English: Variety of fresh vegetables being sold on a street at Guntur, India. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)