Aquaculture

[Ocean Breeze]

Wondering if anyone has any type of aquaculture set up at their school.

If so, is it food grade.. ie can the fish and veggies/fruit be eaten?

[Ocker]

How could you eat Ralf

[Ocean Breeze]

Ralf? Who is Ralf? a HOD?

[Ocker]

A Fish with a sweet disposition

[lizzieb]

Slartibartfast would be the person to ask about aquaculture, I reckon

[Slartibartfast]

Food grade means it can be sold onto the market and abides by a massive amount of health and safety legislation. The seafood industry in Australia in particular has a huge number of hoops to jump through and many more inspections annually than other areas of primary industry. Even the plastic tubs food pellets are kept in or the produce shipped in must be of food grade quality and as a result it is significantly more expensive.

Yes we do have an aquaculture centre. No it isn't to food grade standard as we have the marine life to study not consume. To do so would cost $1,000's more annually to bring equipment to the required level. We don't/cannot sell the fish for eating.

Because our fish aren't in inground ponds and eating a variety of foods, they taste 'pellety' and not as nice as they could be by a long shot! Our school budget dictates that we are unable to vary the pellets either which accounts for the taste. Basically the environment they are in is too sterile and controlled for any real natural flavour and it is different raising fish for eating compared to studying which is why we have them.

I do eat the veggies though from the Ag plot, mainly carrots and snowpeas while I'm supposed to be watering them with the aquaculture waste water! My defence is it's for continued quality assurance of the produce!!!! We sell bags of veggies to the staff every Friday.

[Sassi]

Hi,

Most aquacultured fish in OZ is actially reared in tanks or raceways, ponds are getting less and less common, it is still widely used in Asia and Africa where they culture a lot of tilapia (carp). The main food source in aquaculture is pellets! If fish are cultured in ponds, say barra, the fish actually gets a bit of a muddy taste, good companies do purge the fish in fresh water tanks before they are harvested to get ridd of the muddy taste, and even better companies (like cell aqua, purge the fish in saltwater for that genuine barra taste. Salmon is another example, where the first stage of the lifecycle, egg to smolt, is reared in freshwater tanks and after they undergo smoltification (to adapt to seawater) they are transfered out to sea cages where they are reared until harvest size, the only food source is pellets! All salmon that you can buy in OZ is cultured!

If you have any specific aquaculture question, I'd be more than happy to help (I have an honours degree in Aquaculture and Marin bio).

Sassi

[Sassi]

Here are a few photos from a salmon hatchery in Tassie, where I used to work. The first on is of some of the tanks, the second on is of the pellets, the last one of me sorting some salmon for a genetics experiment!

Sassi

[Slartibartfast]

Quite a setup! Our fish taste like how the single type of pellet we use smells. Compared to a naturally raised fish of the same species, well the taste just doesn't compare - Barra included!

We tried the experiment again last week with Luderick (Black fish) and it was hard to imagine it was the same species. We need to vary their pellet types if we want to eat them.

[Sassi]

What pellets are you feeding them?

Yes it is indeed, isnt it? It is taken at SALTAS hatchery in Tassie, they were the first salmon hatchery in Tassie, they had monoply until a few years ago, so it is well established indeed! What you can see on the photo isn't even half the hatchery, it is double that, plus they have the same set up again at another site as well, at another river.... SOOOOOOO COOL!

[Slartibartfast]

Sassi, we use Ridley Aqua-Feed diet for Barramundi, Perch Species and Other Native Fin Fish Species

Start Dust/Dust
Start 1 - 1.8mm (Crumble)
2mm
LC 3mm Long Cut

Packaging 20kg

Rainbow-sky: If you would like to visit a working aquaculture centre that's close to you, you cannot go wrong with:

Tailor Made Fish Farms
476c Marsh Road, Bobs Farm, New South Wales 2316 (on the way to Nelson Bay)
Phone: (02)4982 6600 Fax: +61 (0)2 4982 6606
http://www.tailormadefishfarms.com.au/index.html

They produce over 600kg of live Barramundi per week year round and have a thriving hydroponic setup also - it's truely massive and growing all the time. Also they are school group visit friendly and are currently building a visitors education centre.

[Ocean Breeze]

Hey Sassi & Slartibartfast, this is all great stuff.. I am avidly absorbing every detail.
Was concerned sourcing the food grade containers re the cost.
Its a thought... worth starting up?
How could it be useful to Food tech?