    
Technological Advances in Aquaculture
Technology advances in Shrimp Farms. Audio clip.
The main technological trend in world fishery is the development of larger
and more sophisticated fishing vessels and harvesting equipment. Most of
the developments have been in factory trawlers. New factory trawlers are
hundreds of feet long and are capable of processing over 600 metric tons
of fish per day.
Nets are also growing longer and more sophisticated.. Some of the longest
nets are more than a mile long and large enough to swallow the Statue of
liberty. Such nets are capable of bringing tens of tons of fish in a single
sweep. Nets are also being computerized such that fisherman can monitor
the catch before the net is even pulled out of the water.
New sonar arrays are being developed that are more sensitive and are
bale to track fish more effecitvely. Fishermen can use such information
to herd fish together and then capture all of them in a single attempt.
Some trawlers are so sophisticated that computers can controll the entire
fishing operation from monitoring the fish herding them, captureing them,
and then bringing them aboard.
Corona Giken Industries, based in Matsudo city, Chiba prefecture,
has released the Sampling Field Kit, a system that can quickly and accurately
detect salmonella, colon bacillus and yellow staphylococcus. There
are three types of kit: for medical treatment, liquids, and foodstuffs.
The object is placed in a special diluted solution, then filtered and the
bacteria is allowed to cultivate. Changes in colour are checked against
a colour chart for positivity, and in this way bacteria can be detected.
A sample can be prepared in 30 minutes and a result seen within 24 hours.
A new UWG-Solar Cagesystem from Aquaculture Technology can be used in
lagoons, sea-bays, fjords, lakes and large ponds and works by attracting
plankton (mainly copepods and cladoceres) using a light source in the centre
of fine-meshed submerged fish cages. The net-cages (2 x 2 x 2m) are
made from highly resistant monofile polyester fabric with 0.3-2.0 mm mesh,
furnished with a large zippered entrance and space for the electric cable.
The net cage is stretched, free of folds, onto an inox or aluminium frame.
An Solar-Generator is also supplied so that the system can be run in remote
sites, and with facilities for connections to an electric source, it can
be equipped with an electric transformer to avoid high voltages and the
risk of electrical accidents. Depending on the zooplankton abundance,
the fish-stocking density (from the hatchling stage to fingerling
size of 5cm) can reach 5.000 Ind./m3, and survival rates of more than 90%
have been achieved with various marine and freshwater fish species.
The Fish Biology and Aquaculture group has devised a new method of disease
control in aquatic animals. A patent application has been filed in
the US. The aim now is to establish the validity of their method and to
commercially exploit it. Several staff members of the Zoology Department
are also active in research on molecular biology and transgenic fish
technology. There is an ongoing collaborative programme in this area with
the University of British Columbia, Canada, and the Canadian Department
of Fisheries and Oceans. The group is isolating and characterising fish
hormones so that genes for these hormones may be cloned and appropriate
gene construct (gene + promoter) made. The gene-construct may then be introduced
into fish eggs to produce transgenic fish that have superior characteristics
such as fast growth and disease resistance.
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