Cod Culture Norway fingerling production set for spring
NORWAY
Monday, December 17, 2001,
http://www.fis.com/
Cod Culture Norway AS (CCN) has begun pumping water into its NOK 44 million
cod hatchery at Kollsnes, near Bergen. The official opening of the hatchery
will be on 14 February. In three months, the first two million cod larvae
will be hatched.
"The first spawning group will spawn during the natural spawning season
of cod, which is February-March-April. We also have four other spawning
groups, which will be light manipulated to spawn at other times of the year,
thus utilising the full capacity of the hatchery," Grethe Rønnevik
Adoff of Bergen Aqua, told FIS.com. Bergen Aqua was one of the initiators of
CCN and manages the hatchery.
One year's production at CCN will result in 10 million fry, which again will
result in 30,000 tonnes of cod after two years in cages.
"When we reach full capacity of the hatchery, we plan to produce 30
million fry per year," Adoff said. Full production will be reached in
2004/2005. That will result in 90,000 tonnes of cod after two years in
cages.
Cod's feeding needs differ from salmon's. When cod larvae start to feed at
the late yolk-sac stage they need live feed. Initially rotifers - a small
prey the fry producer can grow himself - are used. As the cod larvae grow,
the feed is switched to Artemia, which is imported as dry cysts, hatched,
and enriched to meet the nutritional demands of the fish larvae. The cod
larvae reach the early fry stage when they are 12-15 millimetres long and
are weaned onto dry feed diets when they are 25-35 millimetres long.
By Odin Hjellestad
FIS Europe
(From Aquaculture Info List, e-mail: dave.conley@sympatico.ca)