As traditional fishing methods continue to deplete wild marine fish stocks and pose environmental concerns, the need for alternative methods of fish production has become imperative. Organic aquaculture, which aims to minimize the environmental impact and promote animal welfare, has emerged as a promising solution. The project ORACLE FISH aims to provide a concept of organic marine aquaculture fish larvae , by feeding the fish larvae with copepods produced as an organic live feed. Thereby closing the loop for a completely produced organic marine fish.
Currently marine fish can be weaned to organic formulated foods after the successfully completing their larval phase. However, there are no available organic food items during the duration of the larval phase, which can vary from a week to a month , depending on the marine fish larvae.
The present live feed for marine fish larvae are rotifers and Artemia , that cannot be organic produced. I n nature, copepods are the most prevalent live prey for marine fish larvae. C opepods are well documented as an ideal live feed for marine fish larvae and is in many ways superior when compared to rotifers and Artemia , both in terms of nutritional value, prey size and survival rate.
But what if we could offer not only a new live feed but at the same time create an organic solution? This is now possible since scientist at Roskilde University, Denmark have developed a new solution to provide organic copepods as live feed . We have developed an intensive production system, a new organic food for copepods, and found the ideal copepod species for organic live feed production.
An interesting trait with the organic copepod species is that it can de novo synthesiz e fatty acids into rich omega n- 3 and n- 6 fatty acids. This ensures organic copepods, rich in essential fatty acids, which are crucial for the survival, healthy growth, and development of marine fish larvae.
This study suggests a technological solution for up scaling organic copepod production. The study validates that production after organic principles is indeed feasible, b oth in terms of production capacity and in terms of creating a nutritious organic live feed.
Acknowledgement
The project Oracle Fish is part of the Organic RDD 8 programme, which is coordinated by International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems (ICROFS). It has received grants from the Green Growth and Development programme (GUDP) under the Danish Ministry of