Futurity.org » aquaculture

Minnows may inherit ideal temperatures

Jacob Levich-Stony Brook — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:28:08 +0000

STONY BROOK (US) — Fish can be preconditioned to grow fastest in the same water temperature their parents experienced, say researchers.

This preconditioning, known as transgenerational plasticity (TGP), occurs whenever environmental cues experienced by either parent prior to fertilization change how offspring respond to the environment.

As fish farms flourish, so does waste

Louis Bergeron-Stanford — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 15:02:33 +0000

STANFORD (US) — Aquaculture is one of the fastest-growing segments of livestock farming in the U.S. but the problem of controlling fish effluent may be growing even faster.

Simple ocean dilution may not be the answer.

Tax loophole for ‘well-tuned’ oysters

Carl Marziali-USC — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 15:11:04 +0000

USC researchers are working to identify the genes responsible for hybrid vigor: the ability of some children of crossbreeding to outgrow both parents. Most plants have hybrid vigor, but most animals do not to the same extent. That makes oysters, which do show characteristics of hybrid vigor, unusually strong candidates for aquaculture. “Their hybrids grow much faster than either of the parents. And this is like corn,” marine biologist Donal Manahan says. (Courtesy: iStockphoto)

USC (US)—In physical, as in financial growth, it’s not what you make but what you keep that counts. That’s true of oysters and other slow-growing animals that appear to waste energy in two specific ways: They make too much of some protein building blocks and expend energy disposing of the excess.

USC marine biologist Donal Manahan, senior author of a new study published this month in the Journal of Experimental Biology, calls the inefficient process “metabolic taxation.”

Donal Manahan discusses the “Blue Revolution” and proposes that expanding our ability to cultivate the ocean will be critical to sustainable human food production in the future. “We’re going to have to make future decisions as a society [on] how to provide enough food for a growing population,” he says. (Courtesy: USC)

Farming the sea to feed the world

Futurity-Jenny Leonard — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 17:53:15 +0000

An open-air “nursery” outside the main Wrigley Institute research building is where USC professor Dennis Hedgecock grows the oysters he breeds and crosses in a lab inside. Seawater is pumped into bins, which hold oyster seeds that are about the size of a shirt button. Hedgecock compares a meaty hybrid oyster at right with an inbred oyster of the same age. (Credit: Philip Channing/University of Southern California)

USC (US)—On a coastal flat in the Pacific Northwest, marine biologists from the University of Southern California are pinning their hopes on the quest for bigger and faster-growing oysters as a way to examine the pressing nutritional needs of an increasingly crowded planet.