Hi Kal, we are oyster farmers in Iceland and we have been watching your youtube videos and we are very interested in your work.
We have our farming in the ocean but are thinking of taking it up to land.
I wonder if I can ask you some quisteons?
In your video you talk about pumping water, are using fresh water or sea water? And at what temputure?
Hey Aquafarmer. My name is J... I’m 20 years old and I live in Florida in the States. I’m super interested in how to farm sea creatures in a healthy, natural, and sustainable way. When I was looking into farming bivalves I learned that they primarily ate zooplankton. I immediately realized that an on-land operation in which zooplankton is used for feed would be far superior to the traditional way of doing it in shallow waters. After some google searches I came across your website and it was literally exactly what I was looking for. Your site was the only thing I could find on the internet about farming zooplankton. Is there any way I could talk to you on the phone about all of this? This is insanely fascinating for me and I have a real passion for this stuff, I would love to talk.
Dear Mr Kel,
I have read your article in Acquafarming, and found great alignment with my
thinking. I have been involved in Trout and Fish Farming , where my constant
reflection was " It is not sound to use artificial feed". With Shrimps,
we found excellent results when managing the ponds with focus on primary productivity.
However, was not easy , either predictable to reach high concentration of rotifers,
and later Polychetae, during cycle. I even have thought of having two separate
productions systems, one for the Zooplankton and the other for the Shrimps.
shrimp farm was sold during low prices crisis, but I am seriously considering
to come back to business. I am also exploring fish farming, and very interested
in seawater farming. However, again, limitation is HIGH QUALITY FEED. I am looking
as well for HQF, for terrestrial farming, like chicken, pigs, lambs, where,
maybe we could use " Protein Enriched water", which might look not
nice in appearance, green-brown, but, FULL of High quality amino acids, and
vitamins.....
I understand you have a Zooplankton production system able to produce up to
2 Tons/ Ha - Day of fresh Zooplankton..... If that is so, I would like to discuss
this further.....
Warm regards,
***************************
Aquafarmer Australia
Thank You for your enquiry A----.
There is no doubt that future aquafarming will centre on the production of high
quality aquatic feeds. Indeed there may well be no alternative.
Aquafarmer’s research on POD design (Prodigious Organic Diffusion RAS)
and Zooplankton production followed with proven commercial applications are
just beginning to unveil a more sustainable future in aquafarming.
POD and Zooplankton designs will be of great assistance to the betterment of
future fish farming and feed production.
These designs lower feed costs but allow for increased nutrition.
Higher nutrition increased growth rates of all culture species.
Which:
Reduce disease issues
Reduce stress events. (both business and culture)
Create a far superior product.
Please understand our company is also a commercial entity. To enable you to
budget and cost control we have included a cost structure.
After your initial email/contact, a fee of $ 500.oo USD provides 4 emails or
2 phone calls (at client cost, max. duration 30mins). This way we can talk through
and understand all your requirements.
If a Site Inspection is required the following charges would apply.
Charged at:: $ 500.oo USD per day + airfares + meals and Accommodation. On average,
a site inspection takes 3-4 days plus travel times.
All payments to be made in advance. (banking details are on the website or can
be emailed)
Based on specific site information a complete design package would be then
supplied. The design is based on the Aquafarmer (modular) POD RAS design with
modifications for automated zooplankton production. A modular design is preferred
as it maintains health and longevity of culture.
The cost of the complete design (relative to specific site specifications) is
$40,000 USD and comes with 24/7 support for as long as is required at no added
cost apart from your phone costs.
The design is sold under a standard contractual license agreement to protect
the IP. Naturally, referred sales attract a sales fee of 10%.
The Zooplankton POD RAS, modular design can be scaled to any output simply by
increasing the modules. Each module requires only 1 pump for operation and harvesting.
The Zooplankton POD RAS License has a cost of $1000 USD per year for 15 years.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
One POD RAS Module Production is about 4 tonnes per day. Exciting times I think
you would agree?
In feed-cost terms that equals $10,000 per day.
YOUR POD RAS has paid for itself in less than six months.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Aquafarmer's POD RAS can be a tank system or it can be a pond system. I prefer
a pond system. It can even be incorporated into an existing fish farm as a continuous
live feed system.
POD RAS technology is not new. It is simply a paradigm shift in thinking and
application.
Hopefully our explanation of design and terms is agreeable and we look forward to discussions and fine tuning the process toward your aquafarming venture becoming a profitable benefit to all and at the same time helping to reduce the drain on natural global resources.
Regards
Kel Gordon and the team,
Aquafarmer Australia
https://www.facebook.com/aquafarmeraustralia/posts/849453605206117
Email Request
Hi,
I am a marine ornamental aquaculturist and wanting to source the above copepod
to try raising more difficult ornamental species. I understand that these are
used for coral trout aquaculture and hope that you can point me in the direction
of someone who has and can supply me with a starter culture?
Kindest Regards,
C-----
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hi C-----
I don't know of any hatchery cultures. You could try Gladstone Hatchery if you
are in Qld. Or maybe have a chat with fisheries research???
If you are really keen you could always find some nutrient rich water and trawl
for your preferred species. It in itself is an amazing day out, if you are into
that... The things I have seen under a microscope...................
I'm giving away secrets here but i always do this and collect my intended culture
species of rotifer and copepod and others....(both fresh and saltwater). They
are all easy to isolate and are usually stronger coming from 'local climates'.
Sounds like you know how to look after them in culture....
Good hunting either way...
Hope this helps
Cheers.
Kel Gordon
Aquafarmer Australia
https://www.facebook.com/aquafarmeraustralia/
**************************************************************************************
TO:
Prawn Farmers Association of Queensland
Hi H.......
This will be the last time I make an effort to assist the Queensland Prawn Farming
Community.
Let me explain. I have contacted Qld Fisheries, the Minister and several industry
representatives and surprisingly no reply. Not even a thanks for your suggestion
in reply...
Helen, I work as an international aquaculture consultant. There are very few
people game enough to run a web site such as Aquafarmer Australia. So it might
pay to at least consider what I have to offer the current prawn farming situation.
There are several commercial prawn farming alternatives to assist the farmers
get re-established quickly.
The easiest way forward would be simply to stock with Whiting. The research
work has all been done. The commercial protocol for Whiting has been established.
And it would take less than 12 months to commence a continual cash flow.
Please read my summary on Whiting culture;
http://www.aquafarmer.com.au/Whiting.html
The hatcheries are in place. The species can be bred every month of the year.
Everyone in Australia eats whiting. And whiting can be continually harvested
every week of the entire year. The species occur locally and their profit return
is greater than prawns at 3 fish per kilo in about 10 months/ 20-30 tonnes per
Ha at harvest.
I am happy to offer my services to breed the millions of juveniles required,
teach the methods and apply the commercial protocol.. Here is a commercial solution.
I have also completed vertically integrated commercial applications for sand
crab culture, pond culture of oysters and Coral Trout farming.
My work is so far in front of Fisheries Research that I am embarrassed by their
embarrassment. And yet I am not funded in any way. Almost certainly my public
condemnation of their excesses is the reason Aquafarmer receives very little
work in this country. Although two programs are currently under research in
NSW using my published information. Some would called that plagiarism.
Isn't it about time QPF got with the future commercially? I am more than happy
to publicly discuss my commercial aquafarming applications, any place any time
against any researcher.
May I suggest a meeting of affected people to discuss the possibility of change?
Because there is no going back.... What's the bet I don't even rate a reply?
Regards
kel gordon
Aquafarmer Australia
Hi Kel
Thanks for your interest in our situation and offer for an alternative species.
APFA have negotiated a financial package with the Federal government for stand
down which means that the farms will lie fallow – no water onto the sites
for one season.
The farms have agreed to do this and not take water onto the farms and will
get finance to do that.
So at this stage alternative species are not being considered. The farms want
to grow prawns again.
Kind regards
Helen Jenkins
Executive Officer
Australian Prawn Farmers Association
Hi and thank you Helen for responding with real news on the situation. I must
admit I had been told things were different... Indeed I have been asked to consult
on the purchase of one farm.
However, I am glad that assistance is available. There is a 'hole' conversation right there.
Anyway here is the thing. In my observed opinion nothing will change in 12 months except APFA is now on a merry-go-round. Whilst the disease seems to target monodon it will be endemically present in the water ways. How do you treat that without spending millions on filtration and isolation? You can’t…..
Have any of the APFA growers ever had to deal with a endemic disease before? I fought one for years and spent considerable sums on treatments only to chase my tail from one pond to another across the farm and back.
In any form of farming the one golden rule is rotation. But I hope I am wrong. Perhaps if we see a real winter, and water temperature levels, this beast will die out? However it is July and I'm surfing without a wetsuit?
Hellen, I wish all APFA members good profits for the next season and hope i am wrong. I was wrong in 1987...hahaha..
Again thank you for responding and in a way I am glad the issue is sorted as work would get in the way of my surfing.
Actually my work on whiting was only done to find an efficient method to feed and culture coral trout. Bit high tech for the prawn industry science community...
Cheers
Is it wrong to use my brain? I see the issues and solutions as clearly as sunshine greets the day.
In my old grumpy and opinionated state it seems idiotic to sit by and collect the prawn farmers dole, as it were. Sitting on your ‘arsett’ won’t work and is a waste of time and profits.
On the other hand it remains idiotic to have legislation
that puts Australian industries at risk…
But that is Australia. Stupid is as Stupid does.
The real problem with the prawn farmers is they are only capable of the one protocol. In that sense they are sheep following the leader which is the so-call Fisheries Research division. They have proven to be the world leaders in stupid.
Off the top I can name about 10 massive failures. Indecently Mr O’Conner why did all the abalone die within 200 kilometres of Port Stephens? And look what you have achieved at the deplorable state of NSW oyster farmers. The word disgust comes to mind. Again stupid is as stupid does. My point is Queensland is no better. Probably worse….
The aquaculture system is brain dead to change and will go the way of NSW Oyster Industry.
***************************************************************************
Kel Gordon Aquafarmer
In 1978 a marine science job was advertised at the fisheries research station at Port Stephens in NSW. Having been fascinated in all things aquatic I applied for the job. It was a "dogs body" job assisting Greg Mcguire in his initial prawn research breeding program. I was unsuccessful.
It was that research that launched the prawn industry in Australia. And, although I was unsuccessful with the job it was that research, that meeting and that inspiration that set me on the aquaculture road. I'm not sure I should thank Greg for I can now say with some certainty that western aquaculture is one of life's real tragedies.
So in 1978 I applied to James Cook University to study Marine Biology. At the same time my interest in music was gaining momentum so I remained in Newcastle, NSW to play punk rock n roll. In hind site I should have stayed a musician and played out my hand, for the longer term as it were.
However in 1984 the opportunity to study aquaculture came up with the brand new aquaculture department at UTAS in Launceston Tasmania.
So off to Tasmania I went with a new wife and a 3 week old baby son. It was a hillbilly adventure with everything we owned on the back of an old Dodge Canter truck heading into hillbilly country.
As it turned out Tasmania was a great place but it was cold, very cold. The university, which at the time was still a college, had a very positive focus on aquaculture and had imported 'the right stuff' in Dr Nigel Forteath whose knowledge and wisdom were never misplaced on those who chose to listen.
I learnt some interesting lessons while studying aquaculture and probably much more on human nature than on aquaculture. It is that same academic pomposity that is responsible for today's lack of drive in aquaculture.
Indeed one of my fellow students from those heady days recently said that "in hind-site aquaculture was a waste of a life". However this statement is only true in commercial, privately funded aquaculture. Government aquatic research has blossomed at the expense of commercial endeavors in aquaculture. There now exists an dangerous and endemic attitude suffocating any commercial investment.
The example I give here is simple. In 1985 I was the only person to successfully spawn black lip abalone. I was a first year student. The news of such a feat soon echoed around the aquatic science community and scientists turned up at the aquaculture department. However they refused to speak with me and preferred for my lecturer to ask me their questions and then gain my technique from him.
I have no doubt that fisheries deliberately pulled the fuses on the land based oyster farm in 1987 as that project showed a remarkable increase in oyster growth rate.
In 1988 I spent two years researching the first RAS of silver perch in Australia. The system used the passive POD filtration system and had a stocking rate of 10 tonnes per megalitre of water. So what you say,,,, it also had 1.5 workers per 35 tonnes production and an electricity component of less than 5% of production cost. The farm is still rated as one of the best in Australia. However, not one fisheries scientist will acknowledge its existence. Does that seem odd?
The same situation occurred with the barramundi at the Broome TAFE fish hatchery in 2000. You simply cannot be a simple lecturer and show how to spawn in two weeks what the hatchery manager could not achieve in 18 months...Indeed while WA scientists were parading for national television I was still cleaning up in the background... I had already resigned.
Again, the fish lock system provides state of the art for fish transfer in rivers but we are ham-strung by so called aquatic biologists insisting we spend $200,000 on a full size working model. I find this altitude pompous, don't you?
And yet these are the entrusted ones. What chance has real commercial aquafarming got?
After many years, thirty in point of fact, I can say confidently that this brand of unimaginative so-called scientist is endemic in government research. They have soaked up many many millions of dollars with precious little output. Indeed we now have some of the best research facilities in the world and probably the worst applied aquaculture as a commercial enterprise in the western world.
I have to say that all research must productively support commercial aquafarming. Instead there exists a pompous them and us case of mind over matter. They don't mind and we don't matter.
Sour grapes? YOU DECIDE....Because...... it will be your future.
================================================
Academic Pomposity An Essay Of:
Or Understanding the Inner Sanctum of Ignorance and Greed
OK when it comes to aquafarming I’m very talented. That is not ego talking,
simply an old man’s observation. I have great observation skills and I’m
educated well enough to understand what it is that I’m looking at. These
skills have directly led to some amazing results.
Unfortunately, these same skills have been my downfall. These skills have inspired
jealously and hatred in the academic community and it is now an obvious fact,
in my opinion, that this combination of inbred ignorance and greedy nepotism
creates a brick wall to creativity and human development through all aspects
of science.
Case in point is the tropical Blushwood Berry. The berry has been know since
aboriginal times to assist in health. Indeed the berry seeds are known to kill
cancer tumours within a few weeks. Now it impossible to buy a Blushwood Tree.
“They are dangerous to health” In truth the general naturopathic
application has been stifled to in favour of corporate profits through patents
and profits. Disgusting!
In 1985 I, as a first year student at UTAS Launceston, successfully spawned
black lip abalone. It was, apparently, a national first and the news spread
quickly. A few days later aquatic scientists turned up at the then Taswegian
College to discover the secrets of this first event. How embarrassing it was.
They all stood on one side of the room and asked questions to Professor (Dr)
Nigel Forteath who then walked across the room to ask me the question, returning
to the scientists to relay my answer. Pompous egos? I think yes. And how dare
a first year student show us up; was written all over their anguished faces.
Anyway, this interrogation went on for several more questions. And therein lies
the definition of academic pomposity. In simple language, fuck you. ‘thou
covert thyne own arse above all other arse and do to thee’s arse first
before thee do unto thou’s arse.’
Incidentally, Dr Wayne O’Conner (NSW Head Fisheries Scientist) was actually
in the room to witness the spawning. He was an apprentice lecturer at the time
and very well working on his academic pomposity. He wasn’t very good so
he went on to become head of fisheries.
Today, he has two research projects underway based on my breakthrough in oyster
culture, ‘Land Based Oyster Culture 1987.’ I was notified by ABC
News and asked what roll I was playing in the projects. I explained that I had
not been notified of any research. So creative people, where ever you be, beware
the Ides of March, watch your back and watch your arse, the silver spoon of
academia is sharp and always come from behind.
In 2000, after losing the fish farm in a horrible, of academic pomposity proportions,
divorce, I landed a job as head lecturer of Aquaculture at Broome TAFE. My brief
as an experienced aquaculturist, was to design a course aimed at increasing
local jobs in aquaculture. Broome is famous for Pearl Culture and the potential
for monodon prawn breeding/culture, and barramundi culture so, in my mind, that
was what the course had to represent. Plus skills like the how to’s of
pump and engine repairs, plumbing, fibreglassing and, my own approach to confidence
through a balance of knowledge and etiquette in the workplace.
Brilliant, I thought as the current curriculum was freshwater cherribin prawns,
yabbies and goldfish. Bit of a joke really. No jobs there and boring as bat
poo. And may I say no actual work load for the staff. A concept common in the
TAFE System of failure.
How dare I introduce such changes! How dare I put the skills and aspirations
of students first, was how I read the thoughts of some fellow TAFE staff!
So, behind my back, the hatchery manager told Kununurra TAFE Management that
I had no qualifications and was out of my depth. So they reduced my pay from
$55,000 to $30,000 without notification and Broome is a very expensive town.
I eventually found out only by questioning my lowered receipts. *^%$#.......
Another shinning aspect of academic pomposity is the gutless nature of condescension
within the ranks. ‘Always stab in the back’.
“You can’t do that I have a work contract.” These were my
first word over the phone to Kununurra.
The Kununurra Manager said, “We can do it because you never signed your
contract.” (Which, was due to me almost dying from a burst appendix being
diagnosed as flatulence, three months earlier…)
Academic pomposity had struck again, twice in the same spot.
“Well fuck it! I quit.”
“You can’t quit!”
“Yes I can. I never signed my contract!”
So, I did quit, on the spot even…. But then had to ask if I could stay
on as the hatchery floor sweeper for six weeks to pay for my return costs to
Queensland. I was so over the workplace abuse. The Kununurra Manager agreed
to my request. And here is where the story gets really great…
The hatchery manager had been trying unsuccessfully, for 18 months, to breed
barramundi in this all new all exciting $2,000,000 Broome TAFE fish hatchery.
But now HIS job was under threat. Ha!
Stupid is as stupid does. And besides, jealousy had deliberately torpedoed good
work for its own gain. The aquaculture course re-design had become an exciting
new aspect of Broome TAFE.
And so, one day as I was sweeping the hatchery floor the manager mouthed off,
in frustration, that, “If I was some great fish breeder and that if I
knew anything I would have spoken up”.
After all, all I had done was redesigned and written up the curriculum to create
educated labour staff for the local industries, in six weeks.
Now, it was made very clear at the start that I was only the lecturer of aquaculture
and that all things hatchery were not my domain. Indeed, I knew exactly why
they were continually having no breeding success. I even sprung the hatchery
manager reading through an outdated barra hatchery manual. I laughed out loud,
on the inside. You either know this stuff or you don’t. One look at the
un-ovulated eggs, under a microscope, told me exactly what the problem had to
be! This guy was a text book hero and a great definition of an academic pompositarian.
‘A fool with voice, an ego driven lack of skills in a blinkered bag, a
lack of observation and understand.’ The TAFE System of failure is full
of such multi-gendered exponents. It that racist?
He continued his hatchery rant. “You fucking idiot you know nothing”,
he said. “And to prove it you have a go at spawning if you are so fucking
great!”
You can understand why I resigned.
“OK, I will”. I continued by directly instructing a staff technician
to setup and increase the injection dose rate of LH_RH by 1000% and add a specific
percentage of HCG and to setup a spawning for 9am. I would choose the female
and male for the run.
“You fucking idiot! You will kill the fish. Shows how little you know.
(more ugly ranting)”
“What do you care.” I said. “You only take the barra home
to put on the BBQ! I could never eat my broodstock! They are not your private
larder…” I was lucky to have witnesses in the room or that situation
would have ended physically.
So the spawning went ahead with me managing the broodstock and monitoring the
entire 36 hour spawning procedure. And right on time the female spawned and
the male did his part at 9pm.
I rang the hatchery manager at 2am (egg hardening and confirmation of fert)
and said we had confirmed fertilisation with over 1 million eggs with visible
cell division and that he had better come to work. To which he told me where
I should insert my head and that I was to drain the tanks.
I immediately rang other staff so the result could be verified and saved from
being flushed. Now, this excuse for an aquaculturist knew what the issue was,
he wanted the glory.
I also informed the head of TAFE at Broome of the success and in light of my
resignation and reasons for it he seemed a little shocked. Within 24 hours an
ABC News team were in Broome with the scientists from Perth boasting and toasting
just how they had finally cracked it with their 2 million dollar hatchery and
what a future Barramundi would hold for WA.
While, in the background, there I was sweeping up the floor. After the photo
shoot the Head of Broome TAFE came over and said’ “I know what went
on here. Thank you. Your job is open if you want it.” It was too late.
I already had a new job in Fiji and very glad to get out of Australia.
Here lies a sleeping sickness. It is endemic to the government and system of
education in Australia. In a vastly overpopulated world efficiency will account
for survival. Global disease or war will invariable account for the vast majority
of humans as the stress of global overpopulation turns nasty.
According to projections the great global famine will occur somewhere round
about 2030. It will be a ghastly future and academic pomposity will continue
to lead the way into the cesspool.
Academia knows and projects this future. And yet ‘covert thy arse and
extend thy research grant’ attitudes does nothing but stall human growth
and awareness. ‘The sheep must not be educated for they are the educators’.
People with any creative bent are persecuted with the efficiency of medieval
witch hunts as the same stupid is as stupid does logic applies. I simply speak
from experience and observation.
As an example, the Chinese, ‘Great Leap Forward’ is an historic
and ‘so hard to believe example’ of such logic and strangely and
ironically was how I ended up in China as an aquaculture consultant to the government
during the 1990’s. They killed-off their men of science. What is it about
humans that so shuns and fears positive thought? The threat of real human power?
The Australian freshwater fish industry, the Sydney Rock oyster industry, My
POD aquafarming designs and the potential for a sustainable protein production
through zooplankton are tombstone evidence to the nature of government inertia
toward creative thinking. Hell, it’s only taken 30 years for fisheries
to catch up and steal my land based oyster farm designs. Imaging where that
industry could have been today… Indeed the Head Of NSW Fisheries, Mr Ogborn,
tried to shut my farm down, after Fisheries began using my private catchment
private disposal POD RAS farm designs as part of fish farming permit policy.
A four letter word starting with a capital C comes to mind…
So don’t kill-off your creative minds in favour of the status quo. Nurture
the young minds of those that dwell on the outer edges. The writers, the painters,
the candle stick makers, the crazy experimenters’ the alternate thinkers
and all those driven by a far greater purpose than money and the creation of
wealth.
Their quirky, out-there horizonic, some would say naive, minds are where the
real answers will be found…
Oh and if this essay gets up your nose then consider that you are a large part
of the problem hurtling humanity toward the brick wall.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Kel,
Read your article "Land Based Oyster Farming". Since this article was written and published in 2003, I am interested in hearing what developments you have regarding land based oyster farming?
If you haven't been working in the field, could you point me in the direction as to whom may be growing oysters on land?
The reason I ask is because I am interested in the economics and sustainability of such a project today (2018) with recent technological advancements.
Let me know!
Thanks,
E
Hi E
"When Aquafaming is shackled by the Ignorance of Accademia"
My work on oysters was done from 1985 untill 1987.. And personally costing me for the research, and the demise of commercial efforts by NSW Fisheries, acting illegally.
In my aquafarming opinion, the work on LBOF oysters shows how easy culture
improvements can be. The potential for pond culture is something special. Educated
observation is a simple and successful key.
Unfortunately the work also shows how restrictive the academic status quo can
be....
Also there has been no real technology advancement in the last 30 years and
yet many millions have been spent on direct research. It is a moral and political;
fucking disgrace. Please let me know of what you refer too?
Australian government fisheries are currently milking my articles as "
new science research projects" which i find typical of their simpleton
lack of vision.
Had THEY struck a real commercial blow back in 1985 the industry would not be the shadow of the great industry it once was. Fisheries had the technology back then... How curiously ironic that the demise of the Sydney Rock Oyster (1984) paved the way for the inferior Pacific Oyster culture in Tasmania at exactly the same time. Questions anybody?
In today's world a PhD is a worthless statement of academic submission and restriction governed by an inbreed system of management; and not one ounce of original thought. An academic needs to focus on more than just their pay packet.
And these days, you can simply get a PhD in aquatic science inside any public toilet. There is always a roll of them on the wall. :-))))) Scientists, I wipe my arse with your ignorance.
Have a great day E
==============================================
POD Aquafarming
(prodigious organic diffusion)
Hi Mr Gordon
I was reading your site with great interest & wondered if you could assist.
I am also a Cumminscorp Investor who did not see a buck back for my investment.
We are interested in the C Box & wondered if it works & how much it
costs.
Let me know your contact details as I would love to chat about these things.
Good evening from Australia.
In short..... the concept is valid. Jeff and myself ran several tests to validate
the published density. In that process we discovered a method to improve output
by density reduction.
Sounds weird but highlights various aspects often hidden in RAS culture.
Before the company float, I offered up a memo with 12 modifications that would
reduce the production costs of labour, maintenance and electricity.
Longer term, a new CBox design would achieve the original goals.
Hope that answers your question.
Regards
Hi Kel
Hope you are doing fine.
I have interest from a few landlocked countries at government level & can
provide the required finance package to lease to the respective governments,
however I need to be able to demonstrate that this will work without any flaws.
1) Are there any working systems that I can go & look at.
2) How long have these systems been in operation for.
3) How much for a complete system & how much would it cost per annum to
maintain.
4) For basic Barramundi how much would one system produce per year.
5) What sort of area would I need per system.
I will be travelling to the Middle east & Africa in about two weeks’ time & would like to get your answers by return so that I can put together a PowerPoint presentation to show my potential clients.
Regards
Ok..
Happy to put together a profile and piece together a generalised design capable
of achieving the C-Box like commercial application.
Hello
1) Are there any working systems that I can go & look at.
Nothing that I am aware of. Well, I know of one but it poses as an RAS but in a slide of hand way, is more a flow to waste system.
2) How long have these systems been in operation for.
The life of an RAS is usually short. None tend to stay in operation for more than 5 years.
3) How much for a complete system & how much would it cost per annum to
maintain.
The above questions and answers are why the, Kel Gordon, POD Aquaculture system makes good sense.
http://www.aquafarmer.com.au/RAS%20System%20Design.html
http://www.aquafarmer.com.au/POD%20RAS.html
The POD approach is a passive approach to all the issues of high tech RAS. Perfect for what you are chasing.
The design is modular. And, if above ground tanks are used a 30 tonne, freshwater system, on the ground and working would be about $__ mill AUD turnkey ready, unstocked, staff trained and operational manuals. Minimal water chemistry and fish biology required.
A 30 tonne system requires 1 fulltime staff and 2 part time staff. The module has a power consumption of somewhere between 3.5 and 6Kwatt, depending on specific location requirements.
4) For basic Barramundi how much would one system produce per year.
A 30 tonne POD can be scaled up to meet expectations. Once the site is established the second and third module and so on modules become simple add-ons in terms of local material costs.
5) What sort of area would I need per system?
The one in the pics is 2 x 30 tonne systems running on 3.5Kwatts (each) at 16 hours per day. It had been in operation for approximately 20 years that I am aware off. Area required is 1-2 acres per module.
The original POD farm’s current Google Earth picture is shown below.
Regards
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Hello N....... Taiwan.
As a brief outline, I give a few thoughts.
Farming Coral Trout correctly, is complex and stumbles with the current approach. I agree.
Breeding techniques are well established but, feeding small fry is still an issue in terms of commercial survival. The method is science research and not commercial application.
My methods are different. I used very high levels of what are very basically known as green water culture with high survival. The method is simply a bell-curve of culture and not mono-culture. The nature of bell-curve culture retards escalating disease issues at critical times in early development.
I also used live feeds only, once fry are transferred to firstly, nursery ponds and then to growout. (no pellet feeds are used for CT culture)
How this was achieved was through the breakthrough with Whiting culture and please read: CT growth performance and survival is hugely enhanced by this continual live feeding method.
http://www.aquafarmer.com.au/Whiting.html
So, it is very feasible to upscale CT production to 1000, 2000 tonnes per year turnover based on efficient hatchery of year round production output. Yes it is a breakthrough for all tropical reef species. It is environmentally sound and commercially efficient.
Currently there are several existing aquaculture facilities in Australia that could easily be converted to CT, and other valuable reef species, production.
Aquafarmer is ready to assist in commercial development of such projects and look forward to your response.
Regards
Kel Gordon
Aquafarmer Australia