Preparation of this document

This manual is part of the publication programme of the Aquaculture Management and Conservation Service of the Fisheries and Aquaculture Department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and complements the FAO Fisheries Technical Paper No. 471 entitled “Hatchery culture of bivalves: a practical manual” published in 2004.

This manual was written for those interested in establishing an aquaculture operation, with minimal experience in this activity, limited technical support and restricted access to information. It stems directly from one of the author’s experience and differs from other manuals by its precision and amount of detail, going one step further in providing a practical template in the building of a hatchery which can be directly copied or modified if needed. Because it focuses on developing aquaculture in resource-limited areas, the manual has been written with the assumption that the user has little, if any, information sources. For this reason, the manual stands as an entity, providing not only the technicalities of setting up and operating a hatchery, but also makes some of the scientific background, deemed useful to the aquaculturist, readily accessible.

The interest in producing this technical manual was generated by the efficiency of the modular hatchery developed and tested over the course of 4 years at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research Inc. (BBSR) for tropical scallop culture. This facility was designed around the facts that little space was available for the building of a hatchery, the budget was small, and proof techniques needed to be developed, prior to a substantial investment. This resulted in a cost efficient, compact, portable hatchery housed in insulated containers. It is a concept, which can be adapted to any region with, as its only requirement, access to “clean” seawater. This modular hatchery may be easily expanded or modified for other bivalve species.
This manual is therefore a technical guide enabling the replication of such a modular hatchery, and also includes detailed protocols pertaining to all aspects of scallop culture, as developed in Bermuda. Protocols reported here were initially written for unskilled personnel, providing a complete and basic outline of the procedures required. However, these protocols have also proved useful throughout years of operation, as they provide an easy routine to follow for all, including more experience personnel, preventing any careless mistakes easily made throughout the course of a chaotic hatchery day!
The manual is divided into chapters, each of them focusing on a rearing phase and providing: a) Technical drawings with descriptive text; b) Scientific background on biology and culture aspects; and c) Operational and culture protocols. The manual concludes with an economic summary of the set-up of such a modular hatchery and of the labour requirements based on operation in Bermuda. Although the costs given are specific to Bermuda, a detailed equipment list is provided as an appendix, presented as a template which can be used for the calculation of region-specific costs. Other appendixes provide details on required calculations, techniques, equipment list and templates to be copied for routine/maintenance checks.
Last but not least, all those involved in the development of this manual have to be gratefully acknowledged for their dedication, hard work, long hours and enthusiasm. Dr Neil Bourne was the first to provide us with the confidence to pursue our ideal. We also thank him for his constructive criticisms of this manual. Those involved in the aquaculture technique developments and construction of the hatchery from its infancy, were: Doerte Horsfield, Paul Farrington, Mike Helm, Andrew Cogswell and Claudia Hohn. Data for the economic summary was compiled by Charles King.
The technical drawings were prepared by Souhaila Sarkis, registered Landscape Architect. She is gratefully thanked for her thorough and accurate work. The amount of detail given is a first in the description of an aquaculture facility. For printing purposes the original drawings have been reduced and are not to scale. Scaled drawings are available as PDF files in the enclosed CD-ROM at the back of the manual allowing the reader to print any of these for ease of use and consultation (original paper size format: 11”x17”). The CD-ROM also contains PDF files of all chapters.
A final thank you to Dr Sandra Shumway and Dr LeRoy Creswell, for putting in the time to ensure that this manual is scientifically sound and clear in its presentation. Preparation of the manual has been under the overall coordination of Alessandro Lovatelli, Fishery Resources Officer (Aquaculture), FAO.
The graphic layout of the manual was prepared by J.L. Castilla Civit.
Photos are courtesy of Mike Helm, Souhaila Sarkis and Samia Sarkis, unless otherwise noted.