Fish farms - A special application for Krah pipes
Introduction
Around 17% of the world population reach their protein level by eating fish. That’s even more than vegetables or pork. Accordingly, fish farms have become an important factor in the worldwide fish supply, as wild caught fishes can’t meet the demands anymore. Overfishing and mass mortality rates in seas and oceans are the result. The following report shows a typical “cycle” of fish living in such farms and how Krah Pipes are helping to guarantee a safe and appropriate handling of the fishes, using the example of salmon.
Salmonid lifecycle in nature
The salmonid species most commonly farmed in Chile are the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), Coho salmon (Oncorhynchus kisutch), and rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). These species are anadromous, meaning they spawn in freshwater and remain there until reaching the juvenile phase. They then undergo smolting, a fundamental physiological change that allows them to migrate to the ocean where they grow and mature sexually. The following few graphics show the lifecycle of a salmon, from the fertilized egg to a finished, grown salmon:
Salmonid lifecycle Lifecycle in captivity
Salmon lifecycle in captivity
Attempts to domesticate and raise salmon have focused on recreating the natural conditions of their lifecycle in the wild. In order to achieve this, fish are kept in net pens, land-based flow-through systems or recirculating aquaculture systems where the overall biological process of the fish can be controlled by regulating water parameters such as temperature, dissolved oxygen and pH. The lifecycle can be altered by manipulating breeders during spawning using hormones and/or modifying the photoperiod or temperature during the alevin phase in the farming systems. In addition to temperature, fish growth rates also depend on the amount of feed provided. This factor determines metabolic efficiency, which is generally expressed as the feed conversion rate.