Progress 05/01/24 to 04/30/25
Outputs
Target Audience:1. Current aquaculture farmers looking to diversify crops 2. Current farmers interested in operating recirculatingproduction systems 3. Entrepreneurs and others interested in starting an aquaculture farm 4. Limited-resource farmers 5. Aquaculture researchers Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Although the project does not directly provide funding for student employees, several students have been involved in the activities because the grant does provide the necessary resources for experiments. Three graduate students have been the primary beneficiaries of these indirect experiences and each has been busy helping to set up the experiments, measure water quality parameters, help with other analyses, and other such tasks. One full time Research Assistant is paid from this project and has been busy helping with the execution of experiments and other grant activities. They have learned skills related to systems management, construction trades, data collection techniques, exposure to some of the latest technologies in water quality monitoring, data management, and data analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Two professional presentations were given at national conferences to scientific audiences. Over 20 farmers and potential farmers have visited the facilities at KSU and UM, and have learned about the research we are conducting through this project. Members of the local community have likewise visited, school groups, colleagues from other universities, and scientists from State and Federal agencies have also experienced the effects of this project. A peer-reviewed paper was submitted and reviewed at a high-quality journal (J. of the World Aquaculture Society). The editors and reviewers suggested some very manageable changes be made and the manuscript will be resubmitted soon. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?We plan to continue working on the objectives laid out in our grant proposal. We plan to finish Objective 1, Activity 1very soon. We expect to continue working on Activity 2 under objective 1, and finish activity 3. We plan to make significant progress on objectives 2 and 3, although they won't be finalized until year 3.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Objective 1 Activity 1 A Master's student was on-boarded, trained and started working on this activity during the reporting period. The experiment is ongoing at the time of writing this report but so far has been very successful. Shrimp were stocked into a recirculating aquaculture system with advanced filtration to facilitate clear-water production. They are stocked at 500, 750, and 1000 shrimp/m2 and are being fed proportionately according to density.Techniques are being refined to examine genetic markers that denote stress in shrimp, in order to determine whether any detrimental effects of higher stocking density might lead to stress in the animals. This intensive experiment is expected to generate ground-breaking information on high density shrimp RAS production strategies. Activity 2 In order to have sufficient quantities of fish (olive flounder) to stock into the recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) at KSU, the broodstock flounder at the University of Miami were conditioned to spawn, including thermal cycling of water temperatures and nutritional enhancement of the broodstock diet, in an effort to ensure that high-quality viable embryos are available as seedstock to initiative, a fingerling production run of fish in early Fall 2025 will generate the juvenile fish to be sent to KSU for execution of the experiment aimed at evaluating grow-out performance of olive flounder in reduced salinity RAS systems. Such work will help farmers understand the implications of rearing this species at reduced salinity and will allow for improved production and business modeling of such activities. As part of this work broodstock fish that have been selected out from prior rearing runs of this species are being incorporated into the breeding program for olive flounder the University of Miami in an effort to ensure that only the best performing fish are utilized for continued breeding and generation of seedstock of this species. Enhance capacity to produce high-value marine fish (Olive Flounder) in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Additionally, as part of the upcoming larval rearing run, selective grading activities will occur at key time points (post metamorphosis / settlement stage and ~3 weeks post-settlement) to ensure that only the fastest growing fish with no visible deformities are used for grow-out trials as part of this project. Such work will help improve the efficiency of land-based aquaculture production of this species while reducing the size heterogeneity of individuals within specific cohorts, which helps ensure farmers will have as much uniformity amongst stocks of fish as possible during the growout stage. Objective 2. Activity 1 The activities planned for Objective 2, Activity 1are underway at UM, with the pilot-scale RAS unit already stocked with olive flounder sub-adult fish. The tanks and grow-beds for the macroalgae and vascular plants, respectively, are nearly complete and will be brought online in the RAS unit over the coming reporting period. Seedstock of the macroalgae and some of the vascular plant species are already onsite at UM to allow for ease of stocking into the IMTA system once all components are in place and ready for stocking. This aspect of the project will help to assess the broad geographical, climatological, and technological applicability of the techniques used to produce the vegetative crops in conjunction with the high-value marine fish species used in this project (olive flounder). There has already been great interest amongst prospective farmers in both the Kentucky region, as well as elsewhere in inland areas of the U.S., in growing olive flounder in land-based RAS systems in conjunction with extractive vegetative crops such as macroalgae and vascular halophytic plants, and this project will help propel expansion of marine aquaculture throughout the nation. Ulva sp. macroalgaewas shipped to KSU from UM and researchers at KSU have been busy building culture systems to grow the macroalgae. A new M.S. student has been hired and trained in the culture of macroalgae. Objective 3 Activity 1 Activity 1: Marine RAS acceptance survey. The survey has been developed and is in the final stages of refining. The institutional review board approval application has been submitted and approved. Based on a review of recent literature, the sampling procedure has been refined to compare the attitudes of inland vs coastal consumers (defined by county of residence) and urban vs. rural consumers. This sampling strategy will fill a gap in current literature, as many current surveys of consumer attitudes sample from either coastal states or only report findings from a representative US sample. Because land-based marine aquaculture can be established in any state and because seafood habits vary by region, this sampling strategy will provide important information for the establishment of land-based marine aquaculture. Data collection for this activity is on track to be completed by the end of August 2025, with data analysis and manuscript preparation following immediately afterwards. Activity 2 As part of the proposed activities for this project aimed at assessing consumer perceptions of marine RAS products, a cohort of olive flounder are currently being grown at the University of Miami in a full-strength seawater (~32 ppt) RAS system. These fish will be grown out to market size for use in various consumer preference assessment activities. These fish, and the consumer preference assessment results, will be compared with fish of the same species and market size produced in reduced salinity RAS system(s) at KSU as part of the project activities. Additionally, the majority of species of plant products that will be produced in the IMTA system at UM over the course of this project have started to be cultured onsite at UM for use in this project. Once the IMTA system is fully stocked with plant species, alongside the high-value marine finfish (olive flounder) that are already growing in the system this portion of the project will proceed towards production of market-samples of the plant products for use in the consumer preference assessment activities. Taste test of RAS products. This activity is planned to occur later in the grant due to sample availability. Findings from activity 1 in this objective will inform survey development.
Publications
- Type:
Other Journal Articles
Status:
Under Review
Year Published:
2025
Citation:
Chhetri S., Stieglitz J.D., Hoenig R.H., Ray A.J. In Review. The effects of stocking density on the production and health of olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) in RAS. Journal of the World Aquaculture Society, submitted in review
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Chhetri S., Ray A.J. 2024. The effect of stocking density on the production and health of Olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus in nursery-level RAS. Aquaculture America, San Antonio, Texas, USA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2024
Citation:
Chhetri S., Fisk J.C., Ray A.J. 2024. The effect of stocking density on the growth performance and stress of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus in RAS. AQUA 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2025
Citation:
Chhetri S., Ray A.J. 2025. Influence of crowding stress on the growth performance and hematological parameters of olive flounder Paralichthys olivaceus in land-based intensive RAS. Aquaculture 2025, New Orleans, LA, USA.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2025
Citation:
Ray A.J., Stieglitz J.D. 2025. Olive flounder (Paralichthys olivaceus) performance in RAS. Aquaculture 2025, New Orleans, LA, USA.
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