Sunday, April 01, 2012

Probiotics fighting disease fish and shellfish

My girlfriend swears by her probiotics to help maintain a healthy stomach and whole body "betterness." I take them occasionally when healthy just isn't what I'm feeling. 

But a team of researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Milford Marine Labs have found that naturally-occurring bacteria isolated from the digestive glands of adult eastern oysters (Crassostrea virginica) and northern bay scallops (Argopecten irradians irradians) may be used as potential probiotic candidates in oyster larviculture.

Two related research studies published in the Journal of Shellfish Research identify a new probiotic bacterium, designated OY15, which has been shown to significantly improve larval survival in pilot-scale trials during the first two weeks of life, the most critical stage for the organism when mortality rates are among the highest.

Known to the public for their use in yogurt and other foods to improve human digestion and health, probiotic bacteria isolated from other sources can also be used to improve survival, nutrition and disease prevention in larvae grown in shellfish hatcheries. 

With shellfish aquaculture being the name of the game on the Cape and The Islands, this sort of news should interest the shellfish farmer looking for alternatives to the usual antibiotics to fight bacterial disease.

Antimicrobial drugs approved for use in aquaculture in some countries, but not the US, have traditionally been used to treat bacterial diseases, but overuse of antibiotics can result in the development of resistant strains of bacterial pathogens. The use of probiotic bacteria has become increasingly popular for improved nutrition, healthy digestion and disease prevention and is used in human foods like yogurt and in pet foods.


Hatcheries produce shellfish seed to supplement natural seed, which is often limited by loss of habitat, contamination from pollution, climate change and other factors. Bacterial diseases caused mainly by pathogenic bacteria such as Vibrio are a major cause of mortality in hatchery shellfish, particularly at the very early larval stage. This can lead to significant financial losses to commercial growers and to production of farmed shellfish, which accounts for 25 percent of the total world aquaculture product.

As demand for environmentally-friendly aquaculture grows, the use of probiotics for disease prevention and improved nutrition in shellfish aquaculture is also growing. While a number of research studies have shown promise, development of probiotics that can be used in aquaculture is a multistep process requiring fundamental research and full-scale trials, Milford Lab researchers explained.

“The objective of the first part of this study was to isolate and evaluate new probiotic bacteria which, when incorporated into foods used in shellfish hatcheries, might significantly improve larval survival,” said co-author Diane Kapareiko, a microbiologist at the Milford Laboratory, in a statement. The second part of the study was to test the new probiotic candidate on the survival of oyster larvae in pilot-scale trials during their first two weeks of life.

The Milford scientists isolated 26 candidate probiotic bacteria from oysters and scallops of which 16 had an inhibitory effect against a known shellfish-larval pathogen (B183) of the Vibrio species of bacteria. Further screening for safe use in culturing the oyster larvae and their microalgal feed indicated which probiotic candidates would inhibit growth of the pathogen most effectively and therefore could confer a protective effect upon oyster larval survival.

Lab studies indicated that survival of two-day old oyster larvae during two-week pilot scale trials improved when supplemented with the probiotic candidate OY15 strain.  Four treatments were conducted: a larval control with no bacteria, a pathogen control with larvae and pathogen B183 only, a probiotic control with larvae and probiotic candidate OY15 only, and a combination treatment comprised of larvae and both probiotic and pathogen.






Monday, March 05, 2012

Just had surgery on my right foot.
Trying to get back to writing blog, and some stories for my editors now.
Have patience, I'll have something up by the end of the week.

E.L.

Thursday, February 02, 2012

The Dream Job

As I'm always reminded during these tough economic times in America, I am blessed to be working in the job I went to college for and now, thanks to my Canadian publisher, covering the aquaculture industry I left my corporate tech news desk to do.


As I'm never one to sit on my butt and let life pass me by, I'm trying to envision my next career move, say in five years. Covering the aquaculture industry now for 4 years, I've come across several jobs I might want to end my career on over the next 20 years. One of which I'm writing about for the next issue of Aquaculture North America, due to subscribers by the end of the month.


Coral Gables, Fla.-based AquaSol is a one-stop-shop for aquaculture consulting services. The company has consulted and offered project management services to clients in New Caledonia, Oman, The Bahamas, Belize, Brazil, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Honduras, Suriname, Switzerland, Vietnam, Uganda, Turks & Caicos, United States, and Venezuela.


While working at a shellfish hatchery on Martha's Vineyard island in Massachusetts, geting my hands dirty in the industry I wanted to write about, I was told by hatchery manager Rick Karney early on that the real money is in consulting. Even back then, around 2002, I was thinking beyond just writing about the industry to actually having my hand in making aquaculture work better for the consumer, fish farmer and whole saler alike. 


Tom Frese, the CEO and president of AquaSol, is essentially doing the job I would some day want to do on the media side of things. The company is staffed by folks who have varied experience in the aquaculture business. They provide a plethora of aquaculture related services, including site search & analysis, feasibility studies, environmental impact studies, social impact studies, technology transfer, marketing plans for farm-raised products, financial feasibility analysis, business plans, due diligence, project management, farm design, hatchery design, processing plant design, feed mill design, strategic planning, farm management, development of national aquaculture development plans, sustainable community-based fish farming projects. 


As I say in the story I'm currently writing, aquaculture consulting and startup management has become a niche all its own as firms look for that extra edge in an increasingly competitive international industry.

AquaSol is meeting that demand.

Another possibility I'd be most interested in is lobbying for the industry in Washington D.C. Some of that work is being done by already existing lobbying groups representing the huge Soy Feed industry which sees a huge value in aquaculture. But there is still a gap between traditional commercial fishing, environmental NGO lobbies and those that represent, solely, the aquaculture industry. One group that tried at that job was the Ocean Stewards Institute, an aquaculture advocacy group. Because of financial constraints they had to drop the law firm that was representing them in Washington D.C.

One of these days, maybe in the next five, aquaculture media consulting, or aquaculture lobbying might be something I'd dip my toe in. Until then, I am happy where I am, writing for a tested and successful publisher in aquaculture media, Capamara Communications and their two trade pubs--Aquaculture North America and Hatchery International.


Wednesday, January 04, 2012

New England Aquafarmer’s Best Aquaculture Stories and Notes of 2011


As I work on the second issue of Hatchery International (HI) for 2012, I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on some of the aquaculture issues I wrote about for my Canadian publisher and editor Peter Chettleburgh, who has been publishing HI and the many manifestations of Aquaculture North America (ANA), previously titled Northern Aquaculture, since the 1980s. 

Some of the stories I wrote for Peter this year are described in posts here, including posts on one of the few US-based VC firms catered specifically for the aquaculture start-up community; another post had to do with one of the first and only fin-fish hatcheries in operation just in my back yard; and another had to do with refreshing page viewers on who I am and why I’m living my dream writing about this exciting global aquaculture industry.

Notes from ANA
One of the funnest and inspiring stories I wrote about this year had to do with the New York-based VC firm Aquacopia, Llc. Every industry, from the Internet/Tech boom in the 1990's to Aquaculture now, needs Venture Capital (VC) funding to push young start-ups to become commercial and to follow along, navigating the company through the first stages of its business. Aquacopia is the only VC firm focused entirely on Aquaculture. 

I had the pleasure of writing about them in the current issue of Aquaculture North America, interviewing the CEO and co-founder of the  firm, David Tze.
Aquacopia has its fingers in many pots, from alternative feed to marine pen technology and seafood distribution. For instance, Tze is excited about the opportunities at Oberon FMR, Inc., an alternative feed manufacturer in Idaho Springs, Colo.

Oberon is an early stage, startup, company with proprietary technology capable of producing a sustainably produced protein meal. Oberon’s product serves as a fish meal replacement (FMR) or additive ingredient for animal feeds, primarily those destined for the aquaculture industry. Oberon has developed a sustainable process for generating high quality single cell protein (SCP) meal from by-products contained in the wastewater treatment streams generated by food and beverage manufacturers.  

Over at Ocean Farm Technologies (OFT), they say Aquacopia came just at the right time as the company was lacking enough dough to move their developed product into the testing stage.
For ANA, I’ve also been given my own column called FishBytes, where I combine  my former experience as a Internet tech journalist in the 90’s for CNET News.com and my love of the aquaculture industry to write about how technology and the web are streamlining and bringing efficiency to the seafood farming sector.

Notes From HI

But the most enjoyable story of the year for me was writing about the ongoing effort here on the island of Martha’s Vineyard to establish a winter flounder aquaculture fishery enhancement project. 
The Aquinnah Wampanoag Tribal Council agreed to lease their shellfish hatchery to the Dukes County/Martha’s Vineyard Fishermen’s Association (DCFA) for $100, allowing the association and University of NH to use the shellfish hatchery for the winter flounder project, the tribe announced in October.

Before fertilized fish eggs can be brought into the facility, it had to be refurbished as a finfish operation. Currently the work is being done to rewire the electrical system, bring in appropriate pumps and tanks for the winter flounder.

The building hasn’t run as a hatchery since before 2006. Two saltwater pumps at the facility were destroyed when the building was hit by lightning in that year. It has already been used for the raising of quahaugs, bay scallops and oysters. There is already plenty of information about the health of Menemsha Pond from work done in federally funded bay scallop restoration work by the tribe.

The partnership is part of a federally funded two-year $308,000 National Sea Grant project to find ways to restore one of the most troubled fish resources in Southern New England. The grant provides for enough funds to retrofit the facility to raise fish instead of shellfish. As much as $20,000 from the grant will be used to replace the pumps and get the place working again.

DCFA members say the first fish should be in tanks by March for the seasonal spawn period.
It turns out that 2011 turned out to be a reasonably good year for the aquaculture sector in the US, with an aquaculture policy announced by the Obama administration and several legislative efforts in Congress to establish regulations for the still small, yet, burgeoning American fish farming industry.

We also saw some of the first hatchery spawned blue fin tuna in Croatia by the Atlantic Tuna farming and coral giant Umami. The US-based company, with wild tuna corals in Mexico and the Mediterranean, saw their hatchery lab teams in Croatia successfully spawn blue fin tuna in captivity. 

Umami Croatian subsidiary Kali Tuna has made an investment growing over 1,000 young tuna into mature brood stock at its aqua farms in both its operations in Mexico and Croatia to help replenish the Bluefin tuna population. This is likely the world's largest brood stock holding, with the goal being to release hundreds of millions of fertilized eggs and fry back into the wild every year.

“Currently there is no re-stocking program, but we keep the barriers of the cages low enough for eggs to go into the wild,” Johnsson explained. “The restoration/to market ratio remains to be seen.”

This spawning event is a major step forward for the Company's hatchery project. Having a reliable and predictable supply of eggs is essential to the success of the Company's propagation programs.  

Earlier this year, Kali Tuna started work on building the world's first mobile tuna hatchery, one that will incorporate the latest equipment and technologies while being cost effective,” Johnsson explained.
It’s the companies long term goal to propagate Tuna and close the life cycle to supply the Tuna market, he added.

As a writer covering this industry, 2011 has been an exciting and inspiring year. I have started writing a book on Aquaculture in New England and how the sector fits into the region’s historical relationship with the North Atlantic ocean and the fisheries that  exist there.
Keep following me here to see how 2012 treats our fastest growing food production machine called aquaculture.
E.L.