Sustainable Production of Fish and Sea Vegetables Kevan Main Mote Marine Laboratory Presentation for the 13th Annual Sustainable Communities Workshop Mote Aquaculture Research Park Sustainable Land-based Fish Farming ➢ Reproduction, larval rearing & on-growing technologies for stock enhancement & food production ➢ Design, construct & evaluate sustainable land- based aquaculture system technologies ➢ Zero discharge recirculating aquaculture systems ➢ Integrated marine aquaculture systems (marine aquaponics) Mote Aquaculture Research Park Facilities: 2018 Freshwater Fish Production Freshwater Fish Production Sturgeon Processing Maintenance & Shop Storage Fish Hatchery & Freshwater Marine Marine Office Fish Aquac Fish Wetland Research Hatchery Plants Marine Marine Marine Aquaponics Filtration Quarantine Marine Growout Snook Pond Commercial and Experimental Indoor Recirculating Production Systems Large-scale Freshwater Marine Growout Marine Broodstock Fish Growout Species Evaluated in Mote’s Marine Aquaponic System (IAS) Sea purslane (Sesuvium portulacastrum) Redfish Saltwort (Batis Glasswort or Pickleweed (Sciaenops maritima) (Salicornia bigelovii) ocellatus ) Not shown here Mote Marine Aquaponic System Research ➢ Prototype system designed, constructed & stocked (2014) ➢ Completed first redfish & sea vegetable (halophyte) production trial in 2015 ➢ Conducted 2 additional production trials in 2016 & 2017 ➢ In 2018, we initiated a new trial to evaluate improved nitrogen processing options Halophyte/Vegetable Production Results ➢ Sea Purslane grew quickly from cuttings ➢ A full raceway of purslane can be produced every 30 days ➢ 2 other Sea Vegetables examined did not do as well in this system ➢ Saltwort & Glasswort not well adapted to hydroponic systems ➢ Glasswort only starts from seeds Fish Production Results ➢ In the 1st trial - Redfish reached market size (0.8 kg) at 13 months ➢ In the 2nd trial, Redfish reached market size at 12 months ➢ In the 3rd trial, some Redfish reached market size at 6 months Halophyte/ Vegetable Marketing & Education ➢ Developing Local Markets ➢ Farmer’s market ➢ Sustainable seafood events ➢ Eat local week ➢ Sustainable Seafood Events ➢ Working with sustainable chefs to develop new dishes ➢ Publishing a cookbook ➢ Educating Consumers Next Steps Next Steps ➢Scale up prototype system to commercial- scale system to demonstrate economic feasibility ➢Expand markets for halophyte plants ➢Identify additional options to process and/or use saline solids.