Researchers funded by the California Sea Grant program have created a tank and filtration system that dramatically increases the survival rate of halibut larvae in captivity. Using better nutrition and new tank design, Raul Piedrahita and Doug Conklin have developed a nonpolluting, energy-efficient culture system that increases larval survival rates from less than 5 percent to 50 percent. With some modifications, the system could eventually be operated away from the coast, where real estate is more affordable and regulations are less strict. Marsha Gear, communications director with the California Sea Grant program, said researchers anticipate finding commercial applications for the technology, such as raising farmed halibut.
"That's the hope, that it would become profitable to do that," Gear said. "Some of the obstacles have been getting these animals up to full size and keeping the water clear."
Those are problems the new system overcomes. She said she has not heard from commercial fishermen concerned about how use of the technology might affect prices for wild-caught fish, as has happened with salmon farming.
"As far as I know, we haven't had any input like that" Gear said. "We're not that close. The discussion has been, 'gee, it would be nice in the next five to 10 years,'" to use the technique commercially.
Gear did not know how long it would take to raise a halibut to commercial size under the new system, but a press bulletin indicated that it should be cost-effective. It said that studies have shown that the fish tolerate crowding and grow fast even when reared two layers thick on the bottom of a tank. Adults spend their lives nearly motionless on the sea floor, which suggests feed costs for farmed halibut could be relatively low.
Because a halibut hatchery has operated in Redondo Beach for more than a decade, providing eggs and larvae for scientific experiments, basic techniques for hatching the fish are already in place. The Sea Grant researchers are raising California halibut, paralichthys californicus, a smaller cousin to the Pacific halibut caught in Alaska waters, hippoglossus stenolepis. Commercial catches on the California coast have dropped from highs exceeding 2,000 metric tons to 450 metric tons per year, and researchers are enthused about the potential for stocking coastal waters with hatched halibut.
"The hatchery technologies we are developing for aquaculture can easily be used for producing juveniles for stock enhancement," researcher Douglas Conklin said.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets next month in Sitka, Oct. 6 through 12. The agenda includes reviewing progress and refining alternatives for Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Rationalization, including Aleutian Islands pollock, reviewing the Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Demonstration Project, and several reports on essential fish habitat and habitat area of particular concern. There will be a short discussion of the community development quota program, initial review of proposed amendments to individual fishing quota and community development quota regulations for Area 4C/4D, and a report on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Subsistence Halibut Survey and initial review of the halibut subsistence regulatory amendment package. There also will be reports, reviews and action taken on scallop, crab, and groundfish fishery management plans. A detailed schedule, full agenda and instructions for submitting testimony can be found on the council's Web site at http://www.fakr.noaa.gov /npfmc/. Written comments must be received by 5 p.m. Tuesday.
The federal government is seeking to buy nearly 18,000 cases of institutionally packed canned salmon for use in institutional (prison) food and nutrition programs. The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it is seeking bids for 17,940 cases of 4-pound cans of pink salmon. Bids for the salmon, to be shipped between Oct. 16 and Nov. 30 to prisons such as Leavenworth, Kan., and other federal facilities, had to have been submitted by Sept. 20. "The Alaska delegation has been encouraging the government all year to buy more Alaska salmon for food programs because it is nutritious and because its bulk purchases also will help to reduce inventories and raises prices for Alaska salmon fishermen," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski in a press release. The buy, which must come from salmon packed during the 2003 season, comes after a commitment made by the administration earlier this summer to buy at least $15 million of salmon packed during the just concluding 2004 harvest season an increase of nearly $3 million compared to purchases last year. More information can be obtained by contacting the Contracting Officer, Livestock and Seed Program, USDA, at (202) 720-2650.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978, and has also designed and built gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and sablefish, and gillnets salmon in Upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.
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