Award details

13TSB_ACT: Lobster Grower - Develop the technology to fast track the aquaculture potential for the European Lobster

Reference	BB/M005208/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Lars Johanning
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor David Hodgson
Institution	University of Exeter
Department	Engineering Computer Science and Maths
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	131,490
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	06/05/2014
End date	30/11/2015
Duration	19 months

Abstract

Summary

The project relates specifically to primary livestock production of a high value marine species and aims to put in place an essential base of both knowledge and aqua farming infrastructure to enable economical and low carbon 'green' European Lobster farming. This early stage development project will develop initial design Sea Based Container Culture (SBCC) system solutions with the end aim to inform about production criteria of final prototypes that can be tested at an industry scale at a later stage. Preliminary sea based lobster trials conducted by The Notional Lobster Hatchery (NLH) using containers designed for rearing oyster spat have already shown good short term survival and growth of lobsters in individual containers. Despite initial success, the preliminary trials have highlighted some deficiencies in container designs that have resulted in variation in growth and survival, as well as high number of man hours required to deploy, monitor, retrieve and maintain containers. The trial identified that the economic viability was limited and that the mean survival rate varied directly with flow. Animals in containers with the greatest exchange of seawater demonstrated survival rates of up to 90% compared with approximate 30% in containers allowing lower flow rates. A re-design of the system in term of shape, material, surface area of culture containers enabling necessary fluid flows and technical production processes, which will allow the economical farming of the European lobster. This early stage development project is designed to address the deficiencies identified in this preliminary study through a scientific assessment of specific designs. In order to inform about necessary growing and survival criteria that will allow the farming of the European Lobster the expertise from bioscience and fluid dynamic technologies will be combined. Whilst the biological context will provide growth and survival criteria, flow pattern for Sea Based Container Culture (SBCC) systems that provide necessary growth and survival rates will be investigated experimentally. A special hydrodynamic test facility based at the University of Exeter' Cornwall Campus will be used to investigate if SBCC designs provide the necessary flow patterns. In order to measure and visualise the flow around and within SBCC superstructures and inner container designs non-intrusive or part-intrusive 2D or 3D point measurement of velocity and turbulence distribution in both free flows and internal flow techniques will be used, such as LDA-LDV and hot wire anemometry methods. It is intended to test four superstructures, which will have different stiffness, access, shape and consequently flow characteristics. The inner containers will be tested individually to understand the change in flow as a consequence of i) different shape designs and ii) blockage criteria caused e.g. through marine growth. Four different inner container designs will be initially investigated and the most suitable design will be further investigated regarding the impact through blockage by blocking a quantified percentage of the holes. Finally the full CBSS system will be investigated as a combination of superstructure and inner containers. The outcomes will be assessed based on scientific findings and used to provide the necessary evidence to develop a final prototype that can be tested at sea trials at later stage.

Impact Summary

In the joint policy paper published on the 22nd of July 2013 by the Department for Business Innovation & Skills, the Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs and the Department for International Development, it is identified that agricultural science and technology is rapidly becoming one of the world's fastest growing and exciting markets. It is also stated that the UK's food export in 2012 was in the order of £18 billion and that the entire agri-food contributes £96 billion or 7% of gross value to the UK, with an employment value to agriculture and fishing being of the order of £3.8 million. In order for the UK to hold its position as a strong producer and supplier of agriculture products and services it is essential to pursue the technology revolution within the sector, which has been described within the policy paper to be driven by global changes such as i) a rising population, ii) a rapid development of emerging economies with western lifestyle aspirations and iii) a growing geopolitical instability around shortages of land, water and energy. This project seeks to address primary livestock production and food security issues, taking steps towards introducing a novel candidate species for aquaculture, the European lobster. It has the potential to generate a new UK-led industry sector that will help support the ever increasing protein demands brought about by rising global populations, whilst having a significant economical impact. The European lobster is a high value species that is not currently exploited in the aquaculture sector: fisheries are limited and therefore demand exceeds supply. In 2004 it was predicted that only 4.3% of the estimated demand for the European lobster was being met and the estimated market for the European lobster was around 70,000 ton per year. Supply is limited to approximately 3,000 ton per year. Thus there is a clear market opportunity for aquaculture to fill the demand supply deficit. The proposed project aims to tackle social challenges such as primary livestock production and food security, by implementing the foundation required to make available a novel candidate aquaculture species, the European Lobster. Currently technical and economical challenges prohibit the species from being farmed. Overcoming these challenges will enable the growth of a new agricultural sector within the UK, providing a valuable human protein source at minimal unit cost and creating wealth and jobs in vulnerable coastal communities. A number of fundamental topics will be addressed during the project that will have an academic impact in the area of food security. The research outcomes will be knowledge transferable into the fluid dynamics and bioscience field and are expected to be widely publicised. It is likely that this project could be followed by an industry scale project, generating potentially future R&D projects that would allow to continue on this research work at UoE and could lead potentially to PhD studentships.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Animal Health, Animal Welfare
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Agri-Tech Catalyst (ATC) [2013-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

Associated awards:

BB/M005194/1 13TSB_ACT: Lobster Grower - Develop the technology to fast track the aquaculture potential for the European Lobster

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