Project Overview
Due to cold water conditions in Alaska and a limited growing season, extra-large sized oyster seed from hatcheries perform significantly better than smaller. Having larger seed can reduce the growth time to market size by many months. Smaller sized oyster seed performs well in the Pacific Northwest and demand for these sizes drives the production goals of hatcheries in WA and HI, which are the seed sources for AK. For decades, Alaskan farmers have attempted to source 3mm and larger seed, but have had very limited access. Another factor for Alaskan farmers is having larger seed available at the perfect time of year to optimize the limited growing season.
This proposal focuses on the need to deliver significant quantities of locally conditioned, large sized oyster seed to instate nurseries at the right time. Development of a solution to this issue is a direct continuation of the oyster hatchery work that has been ongoing at OceansAlaska’s facility in Saxman. Container based pre-nurseries can be configured to several sizes and capabilities, but all based on the cultivation of micro-algae for feeding oyster seed (or other shellfish), water filtration and heating of seawater. All components of such a system can be consolidated prior to barge shipping to Alaska. Container based systems can be deployed regionally, as needed, and can be matched to local organizational and labor capabilities. Detailed plans and standard operating procedures can be slightly modified as needed for each different location and organizational needs.
OceansAlaska will contract with Pro Aquaculture Solutions of Prince Rupert and Blue Starr Oyster Co. of Tokeen to complete all steps of the proposal. Both companies have a strong history of working with OceansAlaska on hatchery solutions and have intimate knowledge of conditions in Alaska. In person delivery of results of the project will be presented to the Metlakatla High School science program as part of an ongoing outreach program. Site evaluations will be conducted on Prince of Wales Island and Metlakatla.
Interim Report
The Alaskan oyster growing season is a short season with cold winters. Blue Starr oyster company has found that getting +4mm seed early in the growing season that goes into a FLUPSY increases growth rates. Smaller 2.38mm seed does not perform anywhere close to the 4mm seed in the FLUPSY. The problem is that +4mm seed is not readily available from commercial hatcheries. So a facility with algae production is required in Alaska to be able to produce +4mm seed.
The proposed solution is a containerized nursery system that can heat water, that allows for algae to be produced and oyster seed to be grown to the +4mm size.
We started with a conceptual design of 3 containers with a roof system over the top. The original design was using weller tank systems that take up a large area. The cost for making this design was getting expensive and there were some issues with keeping the tanks warm. Going through the design process and costing out equipment and material showed the weaknesses of the original design. From this we have adapted the design to be more space and energy efficient.
A major part of the design is salt water heating. A large amount of research went into finding an energy efficient way to do this. The solution was a heat pump system with heat recovery from the outflowing water from the hatchery. We also changed our system to be an all bottle oyster nursery system that saves a large amount of space.
We currently have a final design that is space and energy efficient that prioritizes algae production to get the result of producing +4mm seed.
The next step is to get the designs professionally drawn up and then go through in detail all equipment and materials needed for the design. All of this information will be put into a document that goes through in detail the design, production capabilities and costing for the containerized nursery.
Additional Information
The project is going along well and see no issue in completing it in the end date. We will be utilizing all the funds for the project. It has been a very interesting process designing the oyster nursery to suit the requirements of the Alaskan oyster industry in an energy efficient way. The other takeaway is that the best way to get equipment to remote locations in Alaska, could be one of the main challenges. By using a container hatchery design, the potential is to have all equipment and materials in the containers and delivered to the site, taking out a large amount of logistics.