Finfish.org » aquaculture research

Reducing Fishmeal in Aquaculture Feeds

Michelle — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 05:28:31 +0000

Fishmeal (Source: www.nofima.no)

According to the Nofima website, salmon can grow well on feeds utilising far less fishmeal than is currently standard.

Whilst fishmeal is a valuable source of protein, a combination of price, sustainability and flexibility factors are leading feed producers to source alternatives. Plant proteins cannot completely replace marine ingredients without affecting the performance of the farmed fish. Therefore, Nofima is investigating the issue from a different perspective – by increasing the nutritional value of the fishmeal, less product is required.

Some of the substances that make raw marine ingredients valuable are separated with water in the production of fishmeal. The water is referred to as ’stickwater’ and in order to exploit it, the stickwater is highly concentrated and returned to the fishmeal. Examples of substances in the stickwater include: free amino acids, peptides, small proteins, minerals and soluble vitamins. The production of low value fishmeal for non-aquaculture feed purposes does not include the transfer of the stickwater back to the fishmeal. This creates a surplus of stickwater that Nofima believe can be utilised in fish feed for the aquaculture industry.

For further information, please click here.

A Natural Way to Boost Fish Growth

Hayley — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:42:55 +0000

Bamboo charcoal is a semi-porous substance, which is becoming increasingly well known for its health benefits. New research indicates that these benefits may also translate to fish!

Results from a study released by the Fisheries Research Institute (FRI) under the Council of Agriculture, suggest ground bamboo charcoal can be a natural way to boost fish growth and enhance aquaculture production.

Experiments were conducted by feeding Taiwan tilapia with fish food containing ground bamboo charcoal.

It was found that fish fed with the ground bamboo charcoal showed significantly better results in terms of weight gain, growth and length-weight factor than those fed with normal food.

Previous experiments have indicated that wood charcoal and wood vinegar can yield a similar outcome.

Using Genetics to Combat Fish Parasites

Hayley — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 06:05:27 +0000

New research out of British Columbia is uncovering the genetic secrets of the Pacific sea louse, a marine parasite, detrimental to wild and farmed salmon.

The parasite feeds on the skin, mucous and flesh of the host fish, weakening and, in some cases, killing them.

Sea lice cost the Canadian aquaculture industry millions of dollars in economic losses every year.

Genomics in Lice and Salmon (GiLS) is a three year project, which is using advanced tools to understand the interactions between the lice and their salmonid host.

The study looks at the species of fish that are most susceptible to lice, the significance of fish size, the systems that are affected in the fish, and how temperature and salinity influence infection.

For more information click here

Feeding Stem Cells for Fish Growth

Hayley — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 01:23:49 +0000

Researchers from Nofima Marine in Norway have discovered valuable knowledge from studying the stem cells in fish.

It is now known that they can influence the development and health of fish based on which nutrients are given to the stem cells.

After studying stem cells in Salmon for ten years, Nofima Marine have discovered that cells perform a greater variety of functions than was previously believed.

For example, in practise, an adequate level of omega-3 fatty acids in feed is important for the tissue development and health of farmed fish in certain stages of a fish’s life.

This research tools allows the study of how stem cells react to different feed ingredients, which can increase the knowledge about the optimal feed composition for the different stages of the fish’s life. The anticipated development of a stem cell can be changed by adding certain nutrients.

From here they hope to study how access to nutrients affects broodstock, which in turn affects egg quality, larvae and the harvest size fish.

Read the full news article here.

Aquaculture in Atlantic Canada

Hayley — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 05:49:32 +0000

Genome Atlantic, a not-for-profit organisation, has received $3 million from ACOA’s Atlantic Innovation Fund to solve the aquaculture industry’s challenge of early maturation in cod.

Early maturation can account for significant financial losses due to increased production time and decreased product quality.

What makes this project different is combined expertise.

The new C-ADAP3T project (Comparative Assessment of Diploid & Polyploid Physiology & Production Traits) will use genomics and selective breeding to develop sterile production fish to overcome the early maturation barrier.

Genome Atlantic led the development of this project, and will manage its overall progress.

The research component will be conducted with the region’s leading genomics and aquaculture researchers and resources from Fisheries and Oceans Canada’s St. Andrews Biological Station, Memorial University Ocean Sciences Centre, Cooke Aquaculture, the Huntsman Marine Science Centre, University of New Brunswick and University of Guelph.

The news article can be viewed here.

Fish Oil Can Help Congestive Heart Failure

Andrew — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:37:42 +0000

Here is a new published study showing that taking fish oil can reduce the risk of death in patients with heart failure. An Italian study showing the benefits of fish oil was just published in the Lancet (a prestigious medical journal). This study also showed that heart patients who take fish oil are less likely to be hospitalized.
The results show that those given the fish oil were 9% less likely to die during that 4 year period. The difference went from 9% to 14% when researchers examined the 5,000 patients who took the capsules once a day as directed (I think this means some patients didn’t take their medicine as directed). The number of those admitted to hospital for arrhythmias fell by 28% during the same period.

Luigi Tavazzi of the National Association of Hospital Cardiologists (Italy) said ”Our study shows that the long-term administration of one gram per day of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid was effective in reducing both all-cause mortality and admissions to hospital for cardiovascular reasons.

More information can be found at: http://stem-cell-therapy.blogspot.com/2008/09/fish-oil-can-help-congestive-heart.html

Fish brains help design feed of the future

Andrew — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:37:13 +0000

UQ researchers are analysing fish brains and fish feeding behaviour so they can help create new environmentally friendly feed for aquaculture.
UQ PhD student Jeremy Ullmann has been studying farmed barramundi at UQ’s Moreton Bay Research Station for the last year and a half.

Mr Ullmann said he was assessing how important sensory systems were to the barramundi so he could tailor fish feed which could be applied to other fish species and reduce the aquaculture’s reliance on fishmeal.
The aim of this research is to first identify which sensory systems are important to feeding, and then determine abilities and preferences with the goal to increase feeding and eventually create alternative protein diets,” Mr Ullmann said

More information canbe found at: http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=12123

Oldest Live-Birth Fossil Found; Fish Had Umbilical Cord

Andrew — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 11:35:58 +0000

Carolyn Barry in Sydney, Australia
for National Geographic News

May 28, 2008

Remains of the world’s oldest known mother have been unearthed in the Australian outback, scientists say.

The remarkably well-preserved fossil—about 375 to 380 million years old—shows an embryo connected to its mother fish by an umbilical cord.

It is the earliest evidence of a vertebrate giving birth to live young, shifting back the date some 200 million years, said John Long, head of sciences at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia, and lead author of a new study describing the find.

(See a prehistoric time line.)

The fossil is also the earliest record of vertebrate sex, since live birth occurs when an ovum, or egg, has been fertilized internally by male sex cells.

“Having such advanced reproduction for a fish that primitive is amazing,” Long said.

Evidence of live birth—as opposed to egg laying—is extremely rare and has only been found in a few fossils of dolphin-like reptiles called ichthyosaurs and marine lizards known as mosasaurs, Long said.

The new fossil captures a long-extinct placoderm, a primitive, shark-like armored fish.

(Related: “Shark Ate Amphibian Ate Fish: First ‘Food-Chain Fossil’” [November 8, 2007].)

Dinosaurs of the Sea

Often called the “dinosaurs of the sea,” placoderms were the ruling class of marine creatures for 70 million years—in the middle of the Paleozoic period—until their extinction about 360 million years ago.

Evolutionary Innovation

Michael Lee, an evolutionary biologist at the South Australian Museum, was not involved in the new research.

“Live-bearing and maternal nourishment of embryos is a very important evolutionary innovation, which we ourselves exhibit,” Lee said.

“The evidence that the included individual is an embryo [rather than ingested prey] is very strong—it’s the same species, the right size to be an embryo, in the correct location within the body, and has what appear to be umbilical structures.”

Live birth “might be preserved more commonly than we thought. Now that we know what to look for, it might be noticed more often,” he added.

In fact, a reevaluation of a fossil found in 1986 reveals that it is a second placoderm fossil with three embryos nestled inside the mother. Study author Long had found the second specimen, a Gogonasus fossil, on an expedition to Gogo funded by a National Geographic Society grant. (National Geographic News is part of the National Geographic Society).

More information can be found at: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/05/080528-mother-fossil_2.html

Aquaculture Investment Opportunity

Andrew — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 07:35:55 +0000

I note with interest ath at The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Seafood CRC) has an opportunity for existing Seafood CRC industry participants, or new industry participants, to invest up to $2,450,000 over six years in research that will deliver transformation improvement to the Australian seafood industry.

The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (Seafood CRC) has an opportunity for existing Seafood CRC industry participants, or new industry participants, to invest up to $2,450,000 over six years in research that will deliver transformation improvement to the Australian seafood industry.

The full article is below, but may be of interest to a number of participants

http://www.growfish.com.au/content.asp?contentid=12339&utm_source=Aquafeed+English+Newsletter&utm_campaign=e38be53bea-Aquafeed_Newsletter_-+11+-+6+-+2008&utm_medium=email

Offshore Aquaculture Economics: Key US Report

Michelle — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 03:50:06 +0000

Globally, interest in aquaculture and the benefits it brings, is continually increasing. The US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently published a report examining the economic potential and prospect for success of offshore aquaculture in the US.

The report, titled Offshore Aquaculture in the United States: Economic Considerations, Implications & Opportunities, was developed by leading fisheries and resource economists and business experts. The report examined the following in the context of the US:

Trends and factors shaping aquaculture today;
Forces that will drive it in the future;
Inputs and outputs necessary to sustain its growth;
Economic consequences of offshore aquaculture development in the United States; and
Benefits and costs of such a domestic industry to the nation.

Additional information on the report can be found on the NOAA website at this link.