Our Aquaculture Division is carrying out a new Project within the Seventh Framework R&D Programme funded by the European Commission. The project entitled “Prospawn: Implementation of natural spawning for marine fish species in culture” brings together a strong group of twelve European fish farming companies in conjunction with leading research institutions from six EU States.
We will be collaborating in this Project with Portuguese, Norwegian, Dutch and British companies in order to optimise several aspects of the reproductive technology of commercially relevant species such as Atlantic halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus), sole (Solea spp.), turbot (Scophthalmus maximus), cod (Gadus morhua), black-spot sea bream (Pagellus bogaraveo), European hake (Merluccius merluccius) and striped red mullet (Mullus surmuletus). The University of Stirling in Scotland, the University of the Algarve in Portugal, the Instituto de Acuicultura de Torre de la Sal in Spain and the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands are the leading institutional participants in this fascinating applied research Project.
The Project is rooted around the idea that the main obstacle preventing industrial juvenile production in these species is caused by inadequate holding facilities and environmental conditions. For that reason the main objectives of the Project are (1), the development and testing of two new types of features for the holding systems of broodstock populations (breeding nests and shallow raceway systems); (2), the determination of species-specific optimal environmental conditions mimicking natural habitats and the investigation of potential distressing effects of physical perturbations (vibrations, noise) created by surrounding equipments and Staff and (3), the development of an automated egg quality assessment tool for marine fish based on blastomere scoring.
Our objective for this activity is the development of new technical protocols which shall make possible the optimisation of large-scale production of juveniles for the target species. We feel these are certainly much needed for the diversification of an industry demanding innovative production alternatives in order to improve the sustainability of current Aquaculture operations.