The Conservation Fund on Monday announced experts from its Freshwater Institute will present research on how to improve the process of raising Atlantic salmon in freshwater recirculating aquaculture systems.
The presentations will be given at the Aquacultural Engineering Society’s Issues Forum and the International Conference on Recirculating Aquaculture, to be held back to back in Roanoke, Va., from 18 August to 22 August.
Recirculating systems conserve water and resources in a system that provides an alternative approach to ocean net pens or flow-through aquaculture systems.
The Freshwater Institute’s work has focused on how to improve the operations of recirculating systems and raise the most popular market fish, such as Atlantic salmon. The research is working toward a sustainable system, one that uses grain-based feeds to eliminate demand for ocean forage fish, uses little water, imposes no threat to the health of wild fish and eliminates polluting waste.
“Sustainability is a pretty word, but there is a whole lot underneath it,” said Joseph Hankins, director of the Freshwater Institute. “Our work, and this conference, is focused on the practicality of recirculating aquaculture. We are very much focused on resolving the challenges of salmon production in land based, recirculating systems.”
