The development of marine aquaculture requires the reliable supply of fish eggs and larvae in desirable quality and quantity from land-based hatcheries, instead of relying heavily on wild-caught fry, as a majority of marine fish stocks are under pressure, fully exploited or overfished. Driven by this high pressure and demand, partners from Malta and China have come together to solve the common problems in marine hatcheries, including low controllability, high labor dependence, and compromised water quality. The HatcheryMatch project will innovate the common hatchery practices, changing from empiricism-based operation to data-based standardization, in order to achieve a reliable production of marine fry and follow the global IoT development.
The HatcheryMatch project aims to develop four new automation technologies which will improve water quality, embryonic categorization, and feeding and in turn reduce stress and losses during the hatchery phase of fish lifecycles. Prototypes for a live feed system, hydro cavitation disinfection device, tank bottom cleaning system and a digital, embryonic image analyzer are being developed. A pilot recirculating hatchery has been designed integrating these new technologies to reduce stress on marine stocks, lower labor dependence and increase seeding rate. The hatchery will be installed at facilities in Qingdao China and will be used to produce turbot for local production as well as future research activities.