Maine Perspective Front Page
Breakthroughs in Cod and Haddock Research
Editor's Note: On Tuesday, Nov. 3, people in Maine will be asked to vote on a bond issue question: "Do you favor a $20,000,000 bond issue to improve the Maine economy by supporting innovative research and development of businesses and nonprofit and educational institutions in the fields of biotechnology, computers and other information technology, aquaculture and marine technology, forestry and agriculture, and advanced materials?"
Passage of the bond issue will earmark $13.5 million for the University of Maine System for capital improvements and equipment purchases to support research and development in marine biotechnology, software engineering and development, advanced technologies for forestry and agriculture, biotechnology, and advanced materials engineering and development.
In a five-part series, Public Affairs Science Writer Nick Houtman looks at the areas of research and development that would be affected by the bond issue. The series continues with a look at aquaculture.
Two years ago, a University of Maine professor's success in raising cod increased the chances that an aquaculture-based cod hatchery could be developed. That breakthrough was made by Linda Kling and her students in the School of Marine Sciences, and they are now working with Canadian researchers to repeat that success with haddock.
Their research efforts have increased the percentage of larval fish that have survived to the juvenile stage. Work is continuing this fall on the fine points of haddock nutritional requirements.
"Last spring, we reached our goal of raising 8,000 haddock from eggs to juveniles at the Aquaculture Research Center at UMaine," says Kling. "By manipulating factors such as water temperature, light and water motion, we were more successful than we had been before."
Kling's student team includes undergraduates Ben Cole of Atkinson, (Animal Sciences); Eric Jefts of Old Town (Natural Resources Program); Trevor Davis of Orono (Aquaculture Program, School of Marine Sciences); Kate Morrison of Poland, Maine (Aquaculture); Charles Ingalls of Bucks Harbor (Aquaculture); and Henry Anderson of Oragen, Mass. (Aquaculture).
The haddock project goes back to 1996 when, in the wake of the cod announcement, Kling was asked to consult with researchers in New Brunswick. The provincial government was supporting efforts to raise haddock, but the results had been disappointing. Kling visited the laboratory at Shippagan and shared results from her own work on cod.
The following year, Kling received haddock eggs from the Canadian lab, and both facilities improved their success rates. They also identified a major hurdle.
"We were understanding more about the requirements of haddock all the time, but it became clear that we were both coming up against the same problem - how to wean the larval fish off a live feed and onto an inert diet. The live feed is just too expensive for an aquaculture operation," Kling explains.
In 1998, the Canadian program got another push forward when the aquaculture company, Connors Brothers, became a partner. The company received a grant to build a haddock hatchery for research in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The work was subcontracted to the National Research Council of the Canadian federal government.
The facility has the capacity to raise 50,000-100,000 juvenile fish, and Connors Brothers also has about 17,000 juvenile haddock in net pens. Kling is the only American scientist on the haddock program advisory group.
"The Canadian program is an aggressive effort," Kling says. "New Brunswick has assigned a staff person to coordinate it, and each of the scientists involved is expected to issue project reports. There have been four face-to-face meetings among the scientists, and another was held in September."
Work is also proceeding in Kling's lab at UMaine with funding from the Sea Grant College Program. "Our research earlier this year shows that we can't wean haddock from live feed as early as cod, but we're not sure why that is," she says.
Her research subjects are about 5,400 juvenile haddock kept in tanks in the basement of UMaine's Aquaculture Research Center. Eventually all the fish will be transferred to net pens at Island Aquaculture on Swan's Island where their growth will be monitored throughout the year.
For the next six weeks, Kling and her students will study the fine points of haddock nutrition. Protein content and cost of the diet are two of the most important considerations. They are using soymeal as the protein source because it costs less than fish meal.
Kling expects to continue her work on haddock and is preparing a proposal for the Northeast Regional Aquaculture Center to work with scientists at MIT and Boston Aquaculture Company.