MH invests in Dorset lumpfish scheme
While still at an early stage, especially compared to the company's wrasse farming trials, which have proved to be very successful and have yielded good results in sea cages, the project has already shown promising signs – not least because it’s in the capable hands of one of the UK’s most experienced farmers of marine species.
Richard Prickett, who previously managed Marine Farms cod hatchery, diversified to wrasse in the wake of the No Catch cod collapse and is now concerning himself primarily with producing lumpfish in a project that is likely to be a joint venture between Marine Harvest and the NMC.
Richard established a hatchery and nursery in Portland Port following the successful spawning of wild-caught lumpfish during 2013 and the facility now boasts 14 7-tonne tanks, which should allow it to expand.
The NMC’s first batch of 13,000 fish was sent to Scotland in 2014, while Richard is planning on sending 200-250,000 5-6 gram fish north within six months.
“Marine Harvest have been very happy, with the results so far and Ronnie Hawkins, MH’s Cage Manager for Cleaner Fish, is impressed with the results to date,” Richard explains.
Currently the lumpsuckers are allowed to breed naturally in the facility (see image above): “We allow them to spawn naturally in 3-4m depth. We tried stripping but found it difficult to get the milt from the males,” he explains.
The lumpfish eggs are about 2mm each, hatch within 30 days and are fed Artemia for the first two weeks.
“We also use the Otohime diet, but given that lumpfish aren’t very fussy, we’re likely to look into using cheaper foods,” Richard points out.
“I’m sure there will be disease issues, but we’ll be vaccinating against pasturellosis, furunculosis and vibriosis,” he adds.
While the location of the lumpfish hatchery might seem a little distant, given that all Marine Harvest’s salmon sites are in northwest Scotland, Richard is quick to point to its key advantage – its vicinity to the lumpfish fishery.
“We’re close to the UK’s biggest lumpfish fishery and the NMC, which is managed by Mike Webb, has good fishermen at its disposal. However, we’re looking for a Scottish source but the problem might be that most of Scotland’s inshore fishermen use pots to catch lobster and crab – while pots are good for catching wrasse, we need fishermen used to using inshore nets to catch the lumpfish, so we’ll be sending some up from the Southwest.”
It’s likely that MH will use more than one hatchery, as this will help them to prolong the production season, especially if they bring in lumpfish from different populations that spawn at different times, and it’s likely that there will be another hatchery at Otter Ferry, as well as one in Wales too.
“We can never satisfy their demand for lumpfish, but it’ll be a few years before we have our own domesticated broodstock,” Richard reflects.
