bunsenburner
Premium Member
Peter Cowin of Seabait. 3/1/06 @ SMCC
I really got a lot out of the SMCC aqua culture seminar. Peter described his work growing the Ragworm (Nereis (Neanthes) virens) which began as an undergraduate research project. Not too much was known at the time about growing marine worms and since his goal from the start was to make a business of his work, he had to be a jack of all trades, from scientist, to businessman (he did his market research and set up a business plan) as well as an engineer (scale-up to production size). He continued his work in graduate school which he proudly stated he never finished since instead he started Seabait (www.seabait.com). He and his Dad even met the Queen!
The initial operation used the out flow from a power plant located on the North Sea in England to provide warm salt water. He described the basic set-up and a few problems they encountered over the year. For example, the cold water gate at the power plant became stuck and they cooked almost all their mature worms about a year after starting. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m sure their investors were not happy with this. The worms are used for sport fishing bait as well as shrimp aquaculture . Apparently they high HUFA content of the lab grown worms is like Shrimp Viagra. Some really interesting pictures of eggs, larva, and adults were shown. I found myself wondering if the ~200 um and food ready 4 segmented larva (also ~ 200 um) would be good for rearing ornamentals. They worms are currently being fed to halibut in Seabaitââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s pilot facility in Franklin.
Although the larva get better growth rates when feed phytoplankton, I found it very interesting that these worms can produce significant quantities of highly unsaturated long chain fatty acid without phytoplankton as a food source. This is somewhat unique. Growing phyto isnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t too difficult but if I could feed bakers yeast to my hypothetical fry food instead of phyto it would simplify things.
The company has also looked into growing other worms as bait and feed stock. One of these was the Lugworm. It was noted that in addition to being good foodstock, these worms produce and extracellular hemoglobin (spelled haemoglobinââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ he is a Brit) that does not produce a antibody response in the animals tested thus far. Since these worms live in relatively oxygen poor environments it can be more readily loaded with O2 and releases oxygen more easily. The interesting traits of the oxygen carrier of this worm has promoted research into in medicine as a blood substitute during surgery.
Pictures of the facility in Franklin were also shown. Apparently after the bed were seeded with worms and bacteria they were able to shut off their biofilters (The beds have a huge surface area of sand). These worms can also live off of fish waste so they are exploring using the worms as a sort of filter for the halibut rearing. Very cool since they are also one of the food sources.
This is all just what I recall from my head, so there may be some understanding errors (Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m no aqua-culture expert). Someday I would love to visit the operation as well as the aqua culture facility at SMCC.
Cheers,
Dr. Ryle
I really got a lot out of the SMCC aqua culture seminar. Peter described his work growing the Ragworm (Nereis (Neanthes) virens) which began as an undergraduate research project. Not too much was known at the time about growing marine worms and since his goal from the start was to make a business of his work, he had to be a jack of all trades, from scientist, to businessman (he did his market research and set up a business plan) as well as an engineer (scale-up to production size). He continued his work in graduate school which he proudly stated he never finished since instead he started Seabait (www.seabait.com). He and his Dad even met the Queen!
The initial operation used the out flow from a power plant located on the North Sea in England to provide warm salt water. He described the basic set-up and a few problems they encountered over the year. For example, the cold water gate at the power plant became stuck and they cooked almost all their mature worms about a year after starting. Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m sure their investors were not happy with this. The worms are used for sport fishing bait as well as shrimp aquaculture . Apparently they high HUFA content of the lab grown worms is like Shrimp Viagra. Some really interesting pictures of eggs, larva, and adults were shown. I found myself wondering if the ~200 um and food ready 4 segmented larva (also ~ 200 um) would be good for rearing ornamentals. They worms are currently being fed to halibut in Seabaitââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢s pilot facility in Franklin.
Although the larva get better growth rates when feed phytoplankton, I found it very interesting that these worms can produce significant quantities of highly unsaturated long chain fatty acid without phytoplankton as a food source. This is somewhat unique. Growing phyto isnââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t too difficult but if I could feed bakers yeast to my hypothetical fry food instead of phyto it would simplify things.
The company has also looked into growing other worms as bait and feed stock. One of these was the Lugworm. It was noted that in addition to being good foodstock, these worms produce and extracellular hemoglobin (spelled haemoglobinââ"šÂ¬Ã‚¦ he is a Brit) that does not produce a antibody response in the animals tested thus far. Since these worms live in relatively oxygen poor environments it can be more readily loaded with O2 and releases oxygen more easily. The interesting traits of the oxygen carrier of this worm has promoted research into in medicine as a blood substitute during surgery.
Pictures of the facility in Franklin were also shown. Apparently after the bed were seeded with worms and bacteria they were able to shut off their biofilters (The beds have a huge surface area of sand). These worms can also live off of fish waste so they are exploring using the worms as a sort of filter for the halibut rearing. Very cool since they are also one of the food sources.
This is all just what I recall from my head, so there may be some understanding errors (Iââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢m no aqua-culture expert). Someday I would love to visit the operation as well as the aqua culture facility at SMCC.
Cheers,
Dr. Ryle
