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What's Next for Fish Farmers?

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What's Next for Fish Farmers? R e s e a rch, Education, Outre a c h Volume 19, Number 6 SPOTLIGHT ON AQUACULTURE What’s Next for Fish Farmers? Gauging the Future of a Fledgling Industry BY MERRILL LEFFLER specially formulated feeds. Filtration is key to maintaining water quality, since contaminants can not only pro- duce off-flavors, lowering the value of his product, but can also sicken or even kill the fish — and put a serious dent in Sheriff’s investment. If all goes well, depending on the species, fish will be ready for market in six to seven months (for yellow perch and bluegills) or nine months (for tilapia) or a year (for hybrid striped bass). Although the clean tanks at Del- marva Fisheries seem on track for pr oducing a wholesome and valuable seafood product, the record for aqua- cu l t u r e that relies on rec i r culating sys- tems has posted as many failures as successes. The reason: raising fish for pr ofit depends on conquering a suite of challenges, and often raising fish is not the toughest part. “G r owing fish is the least of my pr oblems,” says Sheriff. In addition to In each tank here at Delmarva ot far from Cambridge on watching the tanks, feeding the fish Fisheries 12,000 gallons of water pass Maryland’s Eastern Shore and and cleaning the water, Sheriff, like th r ough clarifiers that remove solids Nmiles from the Choptank River, other aquaculturists, has to worry and then through biological filters fish circle the confines of 40-foot rec - about where the next crop of finger- that break down chemical wastes and tangular tanks. Though separated lings will come from, and, with low- leave them harmless. Unlike the tur- fr om the docks and deadrisers associ- price imports from South America bid waters of the Chesapeake, the ated with fishing on the Chesapeake, and Asia, about who will buy his fish water in these tanks, under the build- for Rick Sheriff these fish rep re s e n t once they’re ready for market. ing’s low roof and low lighting, looks his catch, his form of food prod u c - “I concentrate on fingerling sup- nearly transparent. tion. Clean water continually circu - plies and marketing,” Sherrif says. By all appearances, this is the way lates through each of Sheriff’s thirteen According to Sea Grant Extension closed-system farming is supposed to tanks, which sit in an out-of-the-way specialist Don Web s t e r , that’s the right work. Sheriff gets fingerlings from industrial park in Hurlock, Maryland. thing to do. “More aquaculture fails hatcheries that raise juveniles in high Water quality, if all works right, is because of business management numbers, then nourishes them with completely under his control . than system management,” says Web - A Maryland Sea Grant Publication Re c i r culating systems can be located anywhere and don’t depend on expensive waterfro n t pr operty or un p r edictable water supplies pumped from a river or bay. wise, the Department of Natural Re s o u r ces operates a hatchery where it has spawned some six million shad larvae for release into the Patuxent This 12,000-gallon recirculating tank, with an automated feeding system, teems with and Choptank rivers. tilapia at feeding time. Systems like this one, located in a converted barn on an Eastern DN R is using “Reproboost” tech- Shore fish farm, offer the control and economy needed to grow fish profitably. nologies, implants that release hor- mones over a period of time that st e r . Fingerlings, too, pose a major ing cages off the coasts of Maine and induce fish to spawn in captivity. pr oblem, according to Web s t e r , since Washington state. U.S. shellfish farm- Developed at the Center of Marine fish farmers must have a reliable sup- ers also cultivate oysters on the north- Biotechnology (COMB), part of the ply of the fingerlings they want when west and northeast coasts, and mus- University of Maryland Biotechnology they want to raise them. sels, crawfish and clams on the east Institute, these time-release implants “Rick’s system can grow fish prof - and Gulf coasts. Still, all told, the U.S. have made it possible to prod u c e itably,” says Robert Butz, a dairy and imports a great deal more seafood la r ge numbers of larvae that tradi- grain farmer in western Maryland than it exports, carrying an annual $5 tional spawning techniques could not who is now farming fish in tanks, billion seafood trade deficit. No won- de l i v e r . “but that’s not the complete story. der that the U.S. Department of Com- In addition to providing juveniles You need others to supply fingerlings me r ce’s Aquaculture Plan calls for the for stock enhancement, res e a rc h e r s — you need industry support when nation to invest more of its res e a rc h use hatchery-rea r ed strains to test for you get in trouble. This is still a fron - and expertise in raising domestic disease tolerance — in the effort, for tier mentality.” seafood products. example, to manage around the oys- In Maryland and the mid-Atlantic, ter diseases, MSX and Dermo . fa r med fish production for consump- Tough Times on the Frontier Beyond this, aquaculture is now play- tion hardly registers — aquaculture’ s The rearing of fish, shellfish and ing an important role in education as la r gest economic impact still comes aquatic plants — known generally as well — numbers of Maryland elemen- fr om ornamental fish. In Maryland, aq u a c u l t u r e — may be the aquatic tary and middle and high school the largest and most profitable aqua- equivalent of land-based agricultural teachers are using aquaculture to cultural production comes from Hunt- husbandry, but it lags far behind its teach students about biology and ing Creek in the western reaches of te r r estrial sibling. ecology by growing fish in tanks (see the state, which for eighty years has Though slow to catch on in this si d e b a r , “Aquaculture in the Class- pr oduced fish for the aquarium trade. country, the cultivation of fish is roo m ” ) . Another important role of aquaculture hardly new, going back at least 2000 Despite these important and in the Chesapeake region continues years in China, which may be why, worthwhile roles for aquaculture, the to be its use in proactive res t o r a t i o n with its long head start, China far out- bottomline for entrep r eneurs like Rick ef forts. Aquaculture has proven cen- paces other countries in overall aqua- Sh e r i f f and Robert Butz rem a i n s tral to efforts to res t o r e the Bay’s cu l t u r e production. That nation alone financial. What they bank on is a shad and oyster populations, for accounts for some 70 percent of mo r e controlled method of farmi n g example. At the University of Mary- fa r med fish each year, while the U.S. fish — not in ponds and not in net- land Center for Environmental Sci- trails far behind, a distant eighth at pens, where water quality and the ence (UMCES), the Horn Point Hatch- one percent of world prod u c t i o n . pr oblem of effluents can create envi- ery has produced more than ninety Most U.S. production comes from ronmental challenges — but in com- pe r cent of the disease-free spat used catfish grown in ponds in the Missis- pletely enclosed environments, rec i r - to reseed oyster bars in the Bay. Like- sippi delta and salmon raised in float- culating tanks, that offer the kind of 2 • MARYLAND MARINE NOTES At a recent meeting at the UMCES Ho r n Point Laboratory, Webster and Sea Grant Extension aquaculture spe- The Science of Closed Systems cialist Andy Lazur brought together university res e a r chers with Maryland ne of the country’s leading res e a rc h aquaculturists who hope to raise, in Oinstitutions in developing marine rec i r culating systems, species such as indoor rec i r culating systems is the Uni- tilapia, yellow perch, hybrid bluegills versity of Maryland’s Center of Marine and hybrid striped bass. There are Biotechnology (COMB) in Baltimore’ s other species to consider as well — Inner Harbor. Led by Yonathan Zohar, including marine species like the sea COMB is taking a multidisciplinary br eam. “What we wanted to learn, ” ap p r oach for moving fundamental says Lazur, “were the major prob l e m s res e a r ch from the lab to the farm. While that growers face, so we could set Zohar’s work involves analyzing the out a course of assistance to help this rep r oductive hormones and biochemical fledgling industry.” reactions that cause fish to become The model for this kind of cooper- gravid, COMB res e a r chers have been ation is well established. After all, focusing on a suite of other issues as de t e r mining res e a r ch needs by bring- well, from nutritional needs of diffe re n t ing scientists together with farme r s life stages to new microbial communi- has been at the heart of agricultural ties that can make marine circu l a t i o n development in the United States for systems more economically feasible.
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