A hungry adult cod rises from a tank anticipating lunch. Below, Manager of Operations Nick Brown looks in on brood stock halibut at the University of Maine’s Center for Cooperative Aquaculture Research in Franklin. STAFF PHOTOS BY AARON PORTER

FRANKLIN—Working hand in hand with the state’s nascent groundfish aquaculture industry, the University of Maine’s research facility is growing almost as fast as the halibut and cod in its tanks.

Just two years ago, the center was an abandoned land-based fish farm in Franklin. When the property came up for auction the university bought the facility, assessed at $1.6 million, for $400,000 with an eye to using it as a research center for finfish aquaculture.

Since then money, personnel and fish have been poured into the site and more are on the way. A new 300-by-80-foot building is scheduled for construction over this winter.

Nick Brown, operations manager for the research center, explained that the expansion will allow the current efforts at raising halibut to expand to a scale that will indicate financial viability. It will also allow research into raising a number of species concurrently.

The new building will be paid for with $1.2 million from the federal Department of Commerce, $500,000 from the university and $250,000 from the state’s Advanced Technical Development Center.

A walk through the existing research space is a good indicator of what is to come. Inside, the buildings of the research center are barely recognizable as the down-at-the-heels fish farm the school bought in 1999. Pumps hum, water trickles, shaded lights illuminate clean tanks; technicians bustle about feeding fish, checking tank conditions; vats teem with growing brine shrimp used as food for the growing fish; disinfectant stations are visited religiously to keep the growing environment as clean as possible; the whole operation smells remarkably un-fishy.

In a dark, air-conditioned cave of a room, 5,000 Atlantic halibut swim lazily in a series of saltwater tanks.

Pumps continuously recirculate the water, running it through filters that remove effluent and other waste. Only 10 percent of the water is replaced with fresh seawater every day.

Brown said the waste from the fish is pumped into a settling tank that works like a home septic tank. He is proud of how clean the shore-based operation can be.

Conducting all the work in tanks also allows Brown to control the variables that might affect fish growth. For instance, the small amount of water brought into the system every day is purified through ozonation to prevent the spread of pathogens from the wild to the farmed halibut.

As the debate over the viability of salmon aquaculture in the state rages, fish farmers are looking to other species they could bring to market. Just go to any seafood counter and look for the highest prices if you want to get an idea what fish are being eyed as new farm stock.

Halibut, haddock, cod and even tuna are possibilities, Brown mentioned. For now the research is limited to halibut and cod.

"We’re not going to be doing research for research sake," he said. "It’s industry-driven completely."

"They have to share the costs of the specific project they’re involved in," Brown said.

Jake Ward, director of industrial cooperation for the university, said the school has been in discussions with local entrepreneurs and industry representatives about taking over the halibut project. So far, no one has signed on but, Ward said, research will continue under grants to develop new small businesses.

"It’s something Canada and Europe have been doing for years," he said.

There are two prongs to the halibut project in Franklin. The first is to grow to market size the 5,000 halibut purchased from a Canadian supplier. Brown said the fish arrived at about 25 grams apiece in May of 2001. By harvest in the summer of 2003 they will be eight to 10 pounds each. That effort will establish the viability of growing fish to market size in the controlled tanks.

"Halibut is just about the most difficult fish we have encountered," Brown said. At the hatchery phase halibut are very susceptible to fluctuations in temperature. Even the maturing fish grow at different rates depending on temperature. By growing the fish in controlled tanks, "you’ll be able to tune the water for the optimal growth of the fish," Ward said.

On top of that, Brown oversees the establishment of a brood stock of wild halibut so the fish can be grown from eggs on site.

"We want to be self-sufficient," he said.

In larger tanks about 65 halibut, taken from the wild in the past two years, are slowly getting accustomed to living in tanks. Brown said his hope is that some of those fish will produce eggs next spring. But breeding halibut isn’t easy.

First the sex of the fish must be determined by ultrasound. Then eggs must be stripped at the right moment.

"You play a guessing game," he said. "If she decides to spawn at 3 in the morning you’ve got to be there at 3 in the morning to get those eggs."

The eggs then go into an incubator for about 15 days. Once they hatch the fish live off the nutrients in their yolk for another 40 to 45 days. The larval fish then spend 50 to 70 days in tanks where they must be fed with live food. Brown said producing live food is one of the most expensive elements of the process. Tanks of tiny sea animals such as rotifers and artemia (brine shrimp) are grown in vast quantities. He said a growing halibut eats up to 5,000 artemia per day. Literally billions of the organisms will have to be kept on hand to feed the growing fish.

Once the fish develop a stomach and metamorphose from round fish to flat fish, they are placed in a transition tank where they are weaned off the live food to a dry food. Following that the fish are placed in large grow-out tanks where they live until they reach market size.

This entire process for a couple of distinct species will be housed on an expanded scale in the new building. Currently 50 cod are held in tanks on site to act as brood stock. Also a tank of young cod is growing from eggs spawned at another hatchery last February.

Brown said there will be other options opening up, such as poly-cultures growing seaweed or worms in conjunction with halibut or cod.

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