A successful Irish fish farm is collaborating with UCC on an ambitious new marine venture, writes Lorna Siggins, Marine Correspondent
University College, Cork, is involved in a unique aquaculture venture to breed the first Irish turbot eggs. University scientists are working with Turbard Iarthar Chonamara Teo in Leitir Mor, Co Galway, on a project backed by the Marine Institute and the Higher Education Authority.
Turbard Iarthar Chonamara (TIC) Teo is one of the State's most successful fish farms and has recent installed a new €100,000 recirculation unit to control water temperature which should increase their output six-fold. The farm has been run by owners Joe McElwee and Jimmy Reaney since 1997, with support from Udaras na Gaeltachta. It harvested some 50 tonnes of turbot, last year mostly for foreign markets.
The farm's project with UCC involves breeding juvenile stocks, which to date have had to be purchased from commercial fish farms in the Isle of Man and France. The five-gramme juveniles are normally "on-reared" after importation to about one kilo weight and prepared for the market.
However, price and availability of juveniles depends on world demand, disease status and numbers available, and more recently the requirements of major growers such as China. The TIC/UCC plan is to produce the first Irish turbot eggs from certified disease-free broodstock in the June/July spawning season.
"That will lead to a major cost-saving and will guarantee the raw materials for a purpose-built hatchery at UCC," says Dr Nigel Jordan who is running the project with Prof John Davenport in UCC's aquaculture development centre - part of the university's Environmental Research Institute.
The fish hatchery at UCC is the first of its kind in the State and has been running since last September. Apart from tanks, it also has algae and live-feed production "rooms" which were designed by Dr Jordan. The juveniles feed on the plankton during the early stages of growth, and are then switched to a formulated diet for the remainder of their lives.
Signs so far are "encouraging", says Davenport. It takes about 10 weeks for eggs to grow to juveniles, and another month before they are ready for transfer to the TIC farm in Connemara. The scientists say that a 10 per cent harvest would compare well to commercial operations and would be "highly satisfactory".
Two funding tranches of €97,000 and €58,000 awarded by the Marine Institute have supported the collaboration between UCC and the turbot farm, while there has also been further support from the Higher Education Authority.
Dr Jordan and research assistant, Vanessa Mall, hope that the success of the project will provide a "stepping stone" to farmed rearing of other marine species - and consequence diversification within Irish aquaculture, as recommended in a recent report by Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM). "The high value from halibut, Dover sole and cod is now being realised on a global scale and we should be part of it," Joe McElwee of TIC says.
BIM funded the new recirculation unit at TIC Teo. The technology for this was pioneered in North America, and maintains water temperatures at 16 degrees - optimum for the flatfish. Normally, growth at Leitir Mor slows down in winter when temperatures drop to around nine degrees. Reaney and McElwee hope that the development can multiply their output to 300 tonnes, at a value of €2.5 million by 2006.