Established on the edge of Lake Wendouree in 1873, the Ballarat Fish Hatchery is the oldest in mainland Australia. Managed by the Ballarat Fish Acclimatisation Society, it was established “to introduce trout, (redfin) perch and other English fish into Ballarat district waters.”

Located on St. John’s Island in Singapore, the Marine Aquaculture Centre (MAC) is a strategic initiative of the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA).

The H.B. Parsons Fish Hatchery in Oklahoma is the centrepiece of a remarkable fisheries management program. The only municipal fish hatchery in the state, it is involved in a wide variety of programs and activities designed to promote fishing in the city. As fisheries biologist Bob Martin tells Hatchery International, the program is a state-level agency program, but funded by a city.

A 40-minute trip in a light aircraft – or a five-hour ferry ride – separates the north side of the Comau Peninsula and Puerto Montt in Chile. Bumpy dirt roads, artisanal fishing vessels, as well as national and private parks dominate part of the landscape nearby. It is also where egg producer AquaGen had set up its breeding facility.

The last several months have seen a variety of vandalism incidents at hatcheries around the world that led to the loss of fish and related capital. While it varies from case to case whether these incidents appear to have been politically motivated, specifically targeted or are merely random acts of vandalism, they do have some hatchery operators talking about their security measures and what is required to prevent such incidents from occurring in the future.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure. That’s the basic principle behind TimberFish Technologies, an American company that has built an aquaculture system that cleans a waste product, and in the process provides clean water for fish to grow and microbes to culture food to feed those fish.

On August 24, 2016, President Barack Obama used the Antiquities Art to declare 87,563 acres of mountains, forest and rivers as Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument. The monument is located in northern Penobscot County, Maine. This includes a large section of the upper East Branch of the Penobscot River known as a significant piece of this extraordinary natural and cultural landscape.

Non-profit hatcheries rely on donation of time and money by the community at large to keep their operations running.

About three hours north of Toronto in Ontario, Canada, a not-for-profit trout hatchery has mastered the art of sustainable stocking.

Scott Snyder has joined Zeigler Bros., Inc. as the company’s new nutritional technology manager. In his role, Snyder will provide nutritional and technical support for domestic aquaculture production and customers as well as international licensees.

Looking back at the opening of Marine Harvest’s new Inchmore hatchery, freshwater manager John Richmond is optimistic.

The high mortality rate of green-lipped mussel (Perna canaliculus) spat shortly after they are seeded onto nursery ropes has been linked to feeding delivery.

NEW ZEALAND - New Zealand-based independent science organization Cawthron Institute opened its new Finfish Research Centre located at the Cawthron Aquaculture Park near Nelson, New Zealand on Tuesday.

Mixed feeding schedules, based on ad hoc circadian patterns, may be instrumental to optimize fish oil use in aquafeeds, maintain the targeted omega-3 (n-3) fatty acids in fish tissues and ultimately support the further growth of an environmentally sustainable and economically viable aquaculture industry.

U.S.-based biotechnology company White Dog Labs (WDL) has announced that independent testing by the Center for Aquaculture Technologies in Canada (CATC) has demonstrated the potential benefit of ProTyton, a single-cell protein (SCP), to shrimp farming. Initial studies demonstrated that inclusion of ProTyton into a CATC reference diet reduces mortality of whiteleg shrimp compared to a commercial diet when challenged by Vibrio parahaemolyticus (Vpa) — the aetiological agent of Acute Hepatopancreatic Necrosis Disease (AHPND), and commonly referred to as EMS.

Americans and Brits are increasingly saying "I'll take the fish," according to new research from U.S.-based food provider Cargill.

Recent developments in molecular techniques now allow researchers improved and more precise methods to edit the genome of livestock animals. Gene editing tools, such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) and TALENs (Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases), are gaining attention around the globe for their ability to easily introduce or knock out specific target genes with the aim of enhancing certain animal traits.

A Tanzanian study identified protocols that induce ovulation of African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) broodstock and improve the quantity of egg hatchlings. This is a welcome development in a country where practically all C. gariepinus fry are sourced from the wild.

One of the facts of many aquaculture facilities is that your fish are going to need to be treated for gill and external parasites or fungus. Be it chloramine T, Parasite S or Peroxaid, the frequency of treatments depends on many factors specific to each facility.

Hatchery techniques that work excellently for one bivalve specie larvae may not always have similar results on another.

Production of steelhead smolts using natural origin broodstock can be optimized by sorting slower growing individuals several weeks after ponding and rearing them as age-2 smolts (S2), according to combined results from the hatchery and laboratory experiments of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Manchester Research Station.

Feeding Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) higher dietary phosphorous (P) throughout its freshwater life stage significantly reduces occurrence of vertebral malformations, according to a study conducted at the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling in Scotland.

Dubai’s Vikings Label plans to build a large, land-based salmon farm, and has tapped Gråkjær to be its contractor.

The government of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, has come out solidly behind Grieg NL Seafarms Ltd's massive aquaculture project with the announcement by Premier Dwight Ball of a $30-million investment from the government.

The Fynest Caviar Co. can now proceed with finalizing plans to build a closed containment RAS on Loch Fyne in Cairndow, Scotland after the concept received the go-ahead from Argyll and Bute council’s planning committee.

Kingfish Zeeland, which operates a new RAS production facility for yellowtail kingfish (Seriola Lalandi) in the Netherlands, has confirmed that it’s started to sell product into the United States through its Florida partner Candor Seafood.

Ideal Fish has officially opened its brand new land-based aquaponic facility in Waterbury, Connecticut, in the United States, spanning 63,000-sq-ft of recirculating aquaculture system (RAS).

I remember when “organic” was just a basket full of spotted apples in the corner of the produce section. It’s not that anymore.  

Compared to on-shore grow-out farms, where water is pumped through tanks and raceways, fish hatcheries and nurseries use significantly less water. The reason is that the biomass produced in these facilities is normally 10 to 100 times smaller than in grow-out farms. So, why is there a need for RAS technologies in fish hatcheries?

A freshwater director for one of the world’s leading salmon producers explains how closed containment fits into the company’s corporate strategy going forward.

Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) present us with an alternative to seawater net-pen aquaculture.  The recent struggles with net pen licenses, and legislation in general, have made it difficult in many countries to expand current sea farms or create new ones.  

Consider these two scenarios: Business A – Fish enters farm at two grams in September and reaches 30g two years later; Business B – Same species of fish enters farm at two grams in October and reaches 30g in nine months.  

In 2013, the European Union’s food sector was a major consumer of energy, accounting for 26 per cent of final energy consumption. Agriculture and livestock production were responsible for 33.4 per cent of the energy costs associated with food consumed in the EU.

Animal biotech and genetics company Enzootic and NRGene, provider of genomic big data analysis, have completed the sequencing and assembly of the world's first high-quality genome of freshwater shrimp M. rosenbergii.

Efforts to culture ballan wrasse (Labrus bergylta) have reached a major milestone with the first spawning of the farmed fish in captivity.

A study at the Memorial University in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada investigated methods used to trigger spawning and artificially induce maturation in sea cucumber (Cucumaria frondosa).

Vancouver Island on the west coast of Canada is a long way from the Balkans, but a European expert is looking to replicate the success he had there by raising freshwater crayfish in British Columbia.

Fish-breeding experts in Taiwan have broken new ground with the first successful breeding in captivity of one of Asia’s premium fish: the large-mouth grouper, known in the Philippines as lapu-lapu, but most commonly referred to in China as garupa.

The Tru Shrimp Company has signed an agreement with the Oceanic Institute of Hawaii Pacific University to develop a nucleus shrimp breeding program in the U.S. Under the agreement, Oceanic Institute will supply Pacific white shrimp (Litopenaeus vannamei) breeding stock selected and developed exclusively for Tru Shrimp.

Aquaculture biotechnology firm Benchmark and salmon producer AquaChile have announced a breeding and genetics joint venture to form a new genetics company that will create a "world-class salmon breeding operation," according to a statement from Benchmark.

Riverence 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.

Croatia’s Cromaris has hired Scotland’s Xelect Ltd to render genetic services for the bream and bass producer. Under the agreement Xelect will provide complete genetic management service to Cromaris’ selective breeding program.

Through a grassroots-approach, a USAID-funded program is offering a solution for sub-Saharan Africa's fish farmers' perennial problem of sourcing catfish fingerlings.

The Philippines’ perennial shortage of milkfish fry may find its resolution in the National Broodstock Development Program (NBDP), an initiative of the Department of Agriculture – Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources through the National Fisheries Research and Development Institute (NFRDI).“A broodstock development program is considered one of the limiting factors faced by many industry stakeholders. This may be addressed with the help of the government by establishing a broodstock development facility which will cater to the needs of interested stakeholders for their broodstock requirements by operating a breeding and hatchery facility,” Francisco Santos, OIC-Chief at the Aquaculture R&D Division of the NFRDI, told Hatchery International.“With the increased number of hatcheries operating in the locality, producing and obtaining juveniles for aquaculture use is seen to have greater feasibility and economic viability,” Santos said.NBDP, which has been approved but not yet signed, covers the stock inventory of existing breeders, hatchery facilities and manpower, selection and upgrading of broodstock, development of breeders, screening and identification of program recipients, upgrading of knowledge and skills through training and technical staff.“While milkfish is important, its production has been hindered by various problems. Among the most critical of these is the limited supply of fry,” he said.Based on 2015 figures, the milkfish requirements of the Philippines was estimated at 2.5 billion fry. Private and government hatcheries supplied only one billion. The rest were either imported, mostly from Indonesia, or were wild fry.

Russia’s scientist and businessman Rasul Bikmukhametov has launched a state-of-the-art hatchery in a small hangar using several know-how that are not applied anywhere else in Russia, the regional government informed in a statement on its website August 9, citing earlier reports made by the state-owned news media Vesti.

The oyster industry in New Brunswick, Canada, faces a best-of-times, worst-of-times scenario as it moves into the next decade. The Canadian province aims to grow the industry by 10 per cent annually over the next five years but concedes it has limited options for ensuring spat supply.

Russia’s biggest natural gas and oil-extracting companies Gazprom and Novatek have allocated funds to Soba Hatchery under its project to restore the whitefish population in Arctic rivers.

There’s a Winnemem Wintu legend that goes like this: “When we first bubbled out of our sacred spring on Mt. Shasta at the time of creation, we were helpless and unable to speak. It was Salmon, the Nur, who took pity on us and gave us their voice.  In return, we promised to always speak for them.”

A small number of Lost River and shortnose sucker fish were released along the shores of Oregon’s Upper Klamath Lake several weeks ago.

The mussels in the Delaware River Basin are about to get a helping hand.

LP Kuzmitch, a privately-owned company in Eastern Kazakhstan, plans to start producing sturgeon fingerlings in a bid to restore populations of this species in the region.

A rare trout makes its home in the upper reaches of the Gila River of New Mexico and Arizona. The Gila trout (Oncorhynchus gilae) is native only to small headwater streams where it was landlocked thousands of years ago from sea-run Oncorhynchus species.

The freshwater pearl mussel is under threat of extinction across England with most remaining populations under severe decline. Now, a new conservation project by the UK Environment Agency's Kielder Salmon Centre is using sea trout to help the mussels flourish once again.

NOAA Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) has started altering stocking times and location to optimize survival of Atlantic salmon smolts migrating down Maine's Narraguagus River into the Gulf of Maine on America's eastern seaboard.

How efforts by government agencies in California contributed to a record salmon return at the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery

California salmon hatchery managers likely gave a well deserved sigh of relief when record winter rains of 2016/17 ended a five year drought and restored flows to the state’s salmon producing rivers. But the legacy of those drought years continues to haunt them, as poor adult returns this fall have reduced the egg production goals at Coleman hatchery, the states largest producer of Chinook fry, by half, according to Sacramento area media. Coleman aims for 12 million smolts to release each spring into Battle creek, a tributary of the Sacramento river. This year, it will be around six million. Poor adult returns to their natal stream, prevented staff from collecting and fertilizing enough eggs. However, there were plenty of Chinook around the California Central valley last fall, enough to provide a commercial and sports fishery, and other hatcheries met and exceeded their goals, but the Coleman fish just didn’t come straight home. Managers say that giving smolts a ride down river in the spring, in response to past drought conditions, is to blame. Hatchery staff were able to collect sufficient eggs and sperm to produce fry on target during the drought years. But spring river conditions in 2014 and 2015 were described as “abysmal”. Warm water temperatures and low river levels could harm the freshly released smolts and increase the likely hood of predation, so in those years they were pumped into tanker trucks and driven the 280 miles down stream to acclimatization pens at the mouth of the Sacramento river. This means that they missed the normal “river imprinting” process and that has disoriented the fish that attempted to find their way home this fall. Historical returns to the Coleman are around 143,000 adult fish. Last fall saw merely 3,000. That was only enough to collect and fertilize about four million eggs. But staff were able to round up some of the missing brethren. Wire tags indicated that many of the strays ended up at Nimbus hatchery on the America River, another branch of the Sacramento, and they gave up another two million eggs for Coleman production. In an effort to avoid mixing genetic strains, US Fish and Wildlife Service officials declined to bring in fish from other watersheds to increase Coleman numbers.

The reliable production of high quality offspring is paramount for successful aquaculture. This is true for both a shift from quantity to quality in established species as well as for closing the lifecycle of new candidate species. High mortality rates can occur in hatcheries if abiotic and biotic conditions are not within tightly framed optima, which is a consequence of the reproductive strategy of many teleost fish species.

A probiotic supplement that boosts the survival of oyster larvae exposed to pathogens is now ready for commercialization.

FloatPac, owners of FishPac live seafood transportation systems, have announced the first successful shipments of live salmon parr fingerlings (Salmo salar), from Scotland to Dubai.

AquaTactics Fish Health has a new addition to its team of fish health experts. Dr. Kyle Farmer is the company's new veterinarian and professional services manager, providing fish health consultation and fish health medicine support to public stock enhancement facilities and private aquaculture clients, both nationally and internationally, the company said.

Earlier this year BernAqua announced that it had received organic certification for some of its hatchery feed products. Based in Belgium, BernAqua specialises in advanced nutrition and environmental solutions for hatcheries.

The team at Innovaqua, a Spanish company specialising in aquaculture technology, is responsible for the design and manufacture of the Mirafeed system.

Global fish feed producer BioMar is investing to increase production of fry and RAS feeds at its factory in Denmark, following an upward trend in the company’s sales volumes.  

Evonik, one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals, has launched a new software tool that gives amino acid recommendations for optimizing tilapia feed. AminoTilapia was built following a factorial modelling approach and allows users to optimize amino acid regulations for different growth stages of tilapia, by simulating different production scenarios.

The 2018 Global Aquaculture Innovation Award has announces it is now accepting applications for the sixth annual competition.

Aquacultural engineers Paul Hundley and Maddi Badiola recently announced the formation of HTH aquaMetrics llc , with offices in Hiawassee, Georgia, USA and Getxo Biscaye, Basque Country, Spain. HTH aquaMetrics llc is a recirculating aquaculture planning, design and consulting firm that provides technical and due diligence assessment services for aquaculture system and facility investors, owners, managers and operators. According to a press release from the company, the basic premise of aquaMetricsTM is that there are distinct, measurable characteristics that can be analyzed to determine the chemical, physical and biological traits of an existing or proposed aquaculture system. “These traits,” notes the press release, “when accurately measured can be analyzed to define material condition of existing systems and the operational performance capability of existing or proposed systems. Material Condition refers to mechanical and electrical integrity and reliability. Operational Performance refers to process, ecological and economic inputs, outputs and efficiency.” These conditions and capabilities relate to the economic value, environmental impact, and opportunities for improving an integrated production facility. For additional information go to: www.HTHaqua.com

The Wilsgård Offshore Tank Fleet (OTF) is a barge-based smolt production concept under development by Norway’s Wilsgård Fiskeoppdrett AS for use in Norwegian fjords. A key part of the design is a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) explains managing director Fredd Wilsgård. “The OTF is 100% closed and has no emissions. That means that we clean all the water that comes in and we clean all the water that goes out.” By cleaning the water that comes into the OTF, no unwanted organisms (bacteria, sea lice, etc) enter the production system. Also, the production water is cleaned and sterilised before it leaves the system. And it’s 100% secure against escapes. One of the goals of the OTF is site area optimization. Since the OTF cleans water coming in and going out of the system, it will neither be affected by nor affect the environment. As Wilsgård points out, “this means that you can establish larger OTFs, more OTFs and that they can be located in the same fjord. If you look at traditional area use at a site, 200 × 600 metres, you can place six OTFs in such an area and deliver large smolt at up to 70 traditional concessions.” The OTF is designed to take on fry at 30–40 grams and rear them to 500 grams before the fish are transferred to traditional fjord-based cages for a period of about 12 months. Since the OTF takes fry into production, the area required on land is also significantly reduced. The company has applied for eleven development licenses, with a total maximum allowed biomass of 8580 tonnes for the OTF.