News8 Jul 2016 15:17
AquaBounty Canada has been given approval by the provincial government of PEI to redevelop Snow Island’s Atlantic Sea Smolt Ltd Facility in Rollo Bay. The facility, which has been licensed to produce Atlantic salmon eggs since 1978, has been dormant for over three years.
The company plans to use the facility to rear conventional Atlantic salmon broodstock for egg production purposes.
Just as with Atlantic Sea Smolt, AquaBounty will operate using groundwater on a flow-through system that will feature screening effluent and a settling pond.
The site is currently not operational but has been used as an aquaculture facility (including broodstock facility originally) for the past 37 years under the business name OvaTech. In 2012 the facility was purchased by Atlantic Sea Smolt, but the site has not been in operation since October 2013.
The Rollo Bay West facility will be used for non-transgenic salmon egg production purposes. “Green”, or unfertilized, eggs will be transported to the Fortune Facility to be fertilized.
Strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) developed by AquaBounty are in place for transporting eggs in rugged, sealed containers.
Up-scaling
With the recent approval by both the US (Food and Drug Administration) and Canada (Health Canada and Canadian Food Inspection Agency) to sell AquAdvantage Salmon for human consumption, AquaBounty must begin to scale up to commercial production.
The company’s Fortune facility currently houses both AquAdvantage salmon broodstock and conventional Atlantic salmon. However, the number of conventional Atlantic salmon required for commercial production purposes far exceeds the available space at the Fortune facility, hence the acquisition of Rollo Bay.
Dave Conley, Director for Corporate Communications with AquaBounty, spoke to Fish Farming Expert about the expansion.
“The market demand for conventional Atlantic salmon eggs is increasing and AquaBounty needs to ensure access to a consistent supply of eggs for commercial production purposes. This facility acquisition is simply to make sure that we have all the eggs we need to conduct our business,” he explained.
Therefore, the proposed project involves the renovation and redevelopment of the existing site in Rollo Bay to enable AquaBounty to expand and scale up to commercial production of their operation on PEI.
The facility presents an opportunity for AquaBounty to acquire a site that will house up to four year classes of conventional Atlantic salmon, which in turn can be used to produce eggs for their production requirements. The production capacity (without expansion of the site) is estimated at up to 10 million eggs per year.
It will house around 3,400 sexually mature broodstock at any one time.
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