Marine feed system shows promise
New technology that is able to produce copepods on a commercial scale, and which is expected to revolutionize breeding of marine fish, was unveiled in Denmark yesterday.
Called Acartia, and nicknamed the "zoo-in-a-can", the system is currently being developed through the Innovation Fund Denmark project COMA (COpepod egg Mass Production in Aquaculture) in a partnership between Akva group, Agrotech, Roskilde University and Aqua Circle.
The project, which is currently halfway through its 4-year cycle, has developed an integrated system of algae production and copepods on a commercial scale, with a planned production capacity of over 100 million copepod eggs daily.
Incentive
A large part of the future global aquaculture growth will be based on the farming of marine species. All marine fish species produce eggs and the newly hatched, almost microscopic larvae require live feed. Copepods are the larvae’s natural prey in the first stages of their lives. The types of live food, which up to now have been available for marine fish larvae, primarily rotifers and artemia, are not their natural prey. Therefore, many fish larvae end up not getting the proper nutrition, resulting in poor survivability and malnourishment. By feeding marine fish larvae with copepods early in the larvae’s life, mortality is reduced by up to 80% and increase in growth can be improved by about 30%. Moreover, subsequent diseases can be avoided.
Involvement
The Innovation Fund Denmark is supporting the project with DKK 7.5 million out of a budget of DKK 15 million. Akva has subsequently provided additional capital for the project. The project has now succeeded in the production of copepods. Roskilde University has been researching copepod nutrition, reproduction and growth for 20 years. A copepod production facility has been developed by Akva, which can supply the international aquaculture industry with high quality copepod eggs. The microalgae required for copepod production is produced in a plant developed by the private/public research institution AgroTech. The trade organization AquaCircle aims at disseminating knowledge about the production and use of live feed to the exporting Danish aquaculture sector.
