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HPL Finfish Aquaculture Program
| Aquaculture outreach activities are coordinated through the Maryland Cooperative Extension Service and the Maryland Sea Grant Program and include technical support for industry and interested individuals via individual contact and advisement, planned programs and training, publications (Aquafarmer), site visits, tours and workshops. These efforts are designed to solve problems faced by industry or provide new information to improve their operations and product quality. Subjects cover a broad scope of aquaculture including: aquaculture economics and marketing, culture system design and operation, effluent management, fish production, hatchery management, health and water quality management. Information is available on a variety of culture species: aquatic plants, baitfish, catfish, crawfish, ornamental fish, striped bass and hybrids, shrimp, sturgeon, sunfish and Tilapia. Shellfish culture research and outreach is coordinated by a sister program at HPL and Maryland Sea Grant. |
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Invasive species education
With the introductionof the northern snakehead in a Crofton, MD pond in 2002, program efforts in cooperation with MD Department of Natural Resources (MDDNR),led to determination of piscicide sensitivity and eradication recommendations. In addition, a partnership has been established in 2004 with the Maryland Association of Pet Industries (MAPI) and MDDNR to educate pet owners of the danger of release exotic pets or aqaurium plants in the environment and foster responsible pet ownership. This partnership program also includes a re-homing program for these exotic species providing an environmentally sound option pet owners: www.mdapi.com |
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Northern Snakehead Fish |
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Facilities
Several fish culture and laboratory facilities are currently in operation including the hatchery, the finfish section of the new Aquaculture Restoration and Ecology Laboratory (AREL), and earthen and lined ponds.
The fish hatchery building has been in existence for 20 years and will eventually be moved into the AREL facility. It consists of six 6 ft (2000 L) tanks, eight, 4 ft (1000 L) tanks, Six 2 ft (150 L) tanks Fifty 1.5 ft (70 L) tanks (flow through or recirculating) and outside are two 12 ft diameter tanks, three 8 ft diameter tanks and two 6 ft diameter tanks.
A new, state of the art, finfish hatchery and multi-disciplinary research complex, the Aquaculture and Restoration Ecology Laboratory (AREL) opened in Winter of 2003. The fish hatchery portion of this new building has 8,500 square feet of research space and includes:
- 1) a hatching room with 36 MacDonald hatching jars and live foods culture systems;
- 2) a larval rearing room with 36- 2 foot diameter tanks and 9 4-foot tanks. These tanks will operate using three 3 recirculating systems (RAS) (15 tanks per RAS) which include solids, biological, UV, foam fractionation and ozone filtration ;
- 3) an environmental control room with three recirculating systems each having four 8 ft diameter tanks;
- 4) a grow-out room with 20 four ft diameter tanks;
- 5) a raceway room with 6 raceways and three 8 foot tanks;
- 6) a dry laboratory for general fish culture support; and
- 7) a dry laboratory for physiology research. The facilities provided by this new building will allow for research on production scale problems with a variety of species because of the capability to control light, temperature and salinity in all tanks. Subsequently, larger and more complex experiments with more replication than currently allowed will produce large numbers of fingerlings for restoration work. A quarantine discharge treatment system will provide safe guards in preventing release of non-native species or pathogens of concern.
In addition there are four, 2 acre earthen ponds, and eight, 1/4 acre lined ponds which are used for larval rearing, fingerling production, growth experiments and broodstock maintenance.
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