December 14, 2007

US company to research cod and halibut aquaculture in Maine

A New Hampshire aquaculture company working jointly with a mussel farm, is attempting to raise cod and halibut in floating net pens.

The project would be conducted on a 2-acre leased area within a mussel farm near Frenchman Bay in Maine.

Great Bay began as a hatchery and nursery producing summer flounder to commercial and research sites in the 1990s.

The company is now culturing juvenile cod and juvenile black sea bass and cobia.

In June, the company and the mussel farmer have both submitted a proposal to the Maine Department of Marine Resources (DMR) for permission to moor four 70-metre circular net pens.

Each pen would hold a net up to 40 feet deep, surrounded by a predator net about 45 feet deep. A bird net would cover each pen.

The pens would be stocked with 100,000 juvenile cod next spring, if the lease is granted.

Other than a change in water temperature, a DMR inspection in November found no substantial changes to the environmental conditions at the site.

About one-third of the cod would be raised to 3-pound size for sale into the live market, which would take about one year. The rest of the fish would be raised to about 6 pounds, which would take up to another year.

Great Bay also applied to include halibut last month. The company would conduct research in conjunction with the University of Maine for the species.