14. Aquaculture

Question 1

What is aquaculture? (1)

Answer 1

The farming of aquatic organisms including fish, mollusks, crustaceans and aquatic plants. It also implies the ownership of the stock being cultivated.
- Different from fisheries

Question 2

How is aquaculture growing (3)

Answer 2

1. The fastest growing food production industry worldwide
2. The demand for fish and fish products is escalating rapidly
3. More than half of the fish products eaten today are products of fish
   farming worldwide, and the percentage will continue to rise as the population increases and production from the ocean stabilizes or decreases

Question 3

Explain the history of aquaculture (3)

Answer 3

1. Oysters in Japan and fish in Egypt were cultured before 2000 BC
2. Other ancient examples include domestication of carp in
   China 500 BC, fish grown in channels between crops in Mexico called chinampas and clam gardens on the west coast of Canada and the U.S.
3. Trout were first raised in Germany in 1741 before efforts began for commercial trout culture in North America as early as 1853

Question 4

Explain how aquaculture went from extensive to intensive production (6)

Answer 4

Extensive:
1. primitive techniques with ecological processes
2. few intervention to promote productivity.
3. mportant contributors to local food systems

Intensive
1. More human intervention in techniques has led to greater control of production.
2. allowed for the commercialization of aquaculture
3. greater participation in the global food system (Domestication needed since oceans are not infinite)

Question 5

What drives the demand for aquaculture (2)

Answer 5

1. A growing global population
   and a planet with limited resources makes seafood an attractive option because it is efficient at converting feed to protein
2. An attraction to the health benefits and product diversity of eating seafood is also driving demand

Question 6

By 2050, what needs to happen?

Answer 6

By 2050, for global fish availability to meet projected demand it was estimated that aquaculture production would need to more than double, rising from 67 MT to roughly 140 MT

Question 7

Where does aquaculture occur? What are the popular sectors? Production volume? Value? (4)

Answer 7

1. Aquaculture occurs in all provinces and the Yukon Territory; we farm
   more than a dozen types of fish and shellfish commercially.
2. The largest and most prominent aquaculture sectors in Canada are
   Atlantic salmon, mussels, trout, oysters and clams.
3. 2022 Aquaculture Production Volume: 145,985 tonnes
4. 2023 Aquaculture Production Value: $1.26 billion

Question 8

Explain aquaculture in Manitoba (6)

Answer 8

1. Systems: pond culture and landbased
2. no cage culture
3. Manitoba’s contribution to Canada’s freshwater aquaculture production is less than 0.5%
4. Commercial production exists, however, reported annual harvest
   has not exceeded 150 metric tonnes
5. This level of production is not at all commensurate with the opportunity that exists
6. Species produced include: Rainbow trout/ Arctic char

Question 9

Explain Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) (3)

Answer 9

1. Involves “filtering” water used to grow fish so that water can be reused instead of having to replace water.
2. Recirculation rate varies
   depending on various efficiency factors related to system design and technology deployment
3. Basic processes include dissolved gas
   management, solids removal, dissolved waste removal and temperature control.

Question 10

Explain cold blooded animals vs aquatic animals (4)

Answer 10

Cold blooded animals:
1. No ability to regulate body temperature
2. No energy spent on maintaining body
temperature
Aquatic animals:
3. Have relatively underdeveloped skeletal structures
4. Extract oxygen and excrete metabolic wastes into their environment (water)

Question 11

Typical system components for RAS (6)

Answer 11

1. Water source
2. Fish rearing area
3. Mechanical filtration
4. Biofiltration
5. Gas management
   – CO2 removal
   – Oxygenation
6. Disinfection
   – U-V and/ or ozone

Question 12

Briefly explain water supply (4)

Answer 12

1. No pathogens
2. Chemistry stability
3. Brings it back to normal atmospheric conditions
4. Treats supersaturated water

Question 13

Explain fish rearing area (2)

Answer 13

1. It’s a raceway system
2. Dividers for fish of different sizes

Question 14

Explain sludge cones (3)

Answer 14

1. Depression on bottom of tank
2. Easy way to remove solids by draining
3. Relies on gravity

Question 15

Explain drum filters (1)

Answer 15

1. Captures finer solids suspended into water

Question 16

Explain moving bed bio-filter (4)

Answer 16

1. Nitrogenous waste system
2. Bacteria grows on and eats ammonia and creates nitrate
3. Gets ride of ammonia
4. Churning in aerobic conditions and needs oxygen

Question 17

Explain CO2 stripper (2)

Answer 17

1. Co2 comes out when you break up the water
2. Pumped into a box system

Question 18

Explain low head oxygenator

Answer 18

1. Supersaturates the water with oxygen
2. Inject oxygen into the box

Question 19

Explain on-site oxygen generation/ozone generation (1)

Answer 19

1. Pure oxygen (O2) to O3 (unstable but can go into water as a good oxidizer that kills pathogens)

Question 20

Explain animal husbandry and fish health (4)

Answer 20

1. Feeding strategies and growth tracking
2. Water quality monitoring and record keeping
3. Equipment maintenance: if oxygen is not correct for even 10 minutes they get stressed, 30 minutes they can die
4. Work with a fish vet

Question 21

Explain ridgeland aqua farms (6)

Answer 21

1. Hog barn at the ridgeland colony
2. Began commercial arctic char production in 2007
3. Production of 50 tonnes annually, on-farm processing, marketing of fillets with local distributors
4. 2018-19 investment of ~$2.5M in new production and processing operation with 200 tonne capacity
5. Ridgeland is transitioning to production of rainbow trout
6. Ridgeland was the largest Arctic Char farm in North America and is one
   of the largest landbased aquaculture farms in Canada

Question 22

Explain sapphire springs in Manitoba (2)

Answer 22

1. land-based closed containment
2. 5,000 metric tons of Arctic char annually by 2027
3. 50,000 fish processed every week.

Question 23

What does Sapphire Springs vertically integrated agriculture business include? (3)

Answer 23

1. The hatchery phase, when fish are bred, hatched, and reared until they reach a target size;
2. the grow-out phase, when fish are nurtured and grown until they reach a marketable weight; and
3. the processing phase, when the fish are harvested and prepared for distribution and sale.