Fish Hatchery

Techniques: Quality
Fingerlings for
Offshore Aquaculture
Michael Rust
Northwest Fisheries Science Center
Seattle, Washington

Outline
What is quality from the Hatchery?

Healthy fish
Weaned to Pelleted Feeds
No defects
Uniform Size
Physiologically appropriate

Healthy Fish
Goal: Fish should be free of known diseases
Approach - SPF hatcheries

Goal: Fish should be protected from

potential diseases
Approach:

Vaccination
Nutrition

Automatic Vaccination Lines

Fish Weaned to
Pelleted Diets

Goal: Fast Growth

Goal : Uniform Size
Goal: Cost Effective Feeding
Goal: Reduce Environmental Impacts
Goal: Healthy Fish
Approach - Wean fish early and completely in Hatchery
Approach - Complete Compound Feeds
Approach - No Wet Fish (Trash Fish) Diets

No Defects
Goal : High Product
Quality
Approach - In
Hatchery Provide
Optimal
Environmental
Conditions
Approach - Provide
high quality diets

DevelopmentalAnomalies(Temperature)

Totalhatch

100%

75%
Other
Jaw

50%

Spine
Normal

25%

0%
6

Temp(oC)

12

DevelopmentalAnomalies(Salinity)
100%
90%

Totalhatch

80%
70%

Other
Jaw

60%
50%

Spine

40%

Normal

30%
20%
10%
0%

15

20

25

30

Salinity(ppt)

35

Uniform in Size
Goal: Uniform Product at Harvest
Approach - Start with
uniform graded fish
Approach - Genetic
Selection for Uniform
High Growth.
Approach - Completely
weaned to High
Quality Pelleted diets.

Physiologically Appropriate
Goal - Excellent Growth and Survival under
conditions in Offshore cages.
Perhaps lower Oxygen
Perhaps stronger currents
Approach - Species Selection
Bioenergetics model under conditions likely to be
found at site.

Simple Bioenergetics Model

E=G+R+L

Where:
E is the total energy taken in by the fish from the diet
G is the amount of energy going into growth
R is the amount of energy used for everything that is
not growh (movement, fighting diseases, reproduction,
etc)
L is the losses due from Feces, Urine and energy to
digest the feed (SDA)

Growth (G) represents a

very small part of the
energy budget of wild
animals.
Respiration (R) and
Waste (F+U+SDA)
represents a large portion
of the energy budget
Growth in farmed
salmon can reach 50% of
the total energy budget

R
G
Total

Yearly energy demand (MJ)

Energy use curves

for wild Blue
Rockfish showing
energy partitioning.

Female

F+U+SDA

5
4
3
2
1
0

10

15

20

25

30

Male

6
5
4
3
2
1
0

10

15

20

Age (years)

25

30

Need to develop a simple bioenergetics

model for species of interest in off shore
aquaculture
Conditions off shore are likely to be different than near
shore. In Washington State it is likely that they will have:
Lower Oxygen
Higher Currents

than traditional near shore aquaculture areas used by the

salmon farming industry.
Potentially more energy will be needed for R making less
available for G.
The cost/benefit to G from increased/reduced R is likely to be
different among species
The cost/benefit to G from increased/reduced R is likely to be
different among sites.

Bioenergetics models can be

developed for different conditions
and species using respirametry
Flow
DO in
CO2 in
By measuring the uptake of Oxygen under various conditions you can
determine R and predict G

Flow
DO out
CO2 out

Summary
What is quality? Its

Healthy fish
Weaned to Pelleted Feeds
No defects
Uniform Size
Physiologically appropriate

Thank you