As part of larger efforts to increase steelhead trout supply stability, Pacific Aquaculture — a division of Pacific Seafood — is planning to construct its own trout hatchery in Washington State.
In July the company submitted a land use and development application for a construction permit to build a land-based broodstock hatchery that will rear steelhead trout neat the company’s existing sites in Nesplelem, located in north central Washington State on the Columbia River
According to John Bielka, general manager of Pacific Aquaculture, the new addition to the company is part of a larger move to have more supply security.
Currently the company buys most of its eggs and fingerlings from external companies, but Bielka told Undercurrent News that the company hopes to be able to supply about half of its own eggs from its own broodstock in the next few years.
Bielka said that the fish “will be more adaptable to the Columbia River, more disease resistant and will grow better”.
“I think it’s a natural evolution for the company to produce some of its own eggs for security of long term supply, you can’t always count of external suppliers to provide you with all of your requirements, so we thought we should have the ability to supply half of our own eggs,” he said.
The approval process could take several months or as long as a year, but Bielka said he is confident that it will be approved.
The full benefits of using eggs that are more adaptable and disease resistant to the Columbia River won’t be seen for about a decade, Bielka said, but the company will be able to start supply half its eggs and fingerlings in the next four to five years.
The proposed broodstock facility will use a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) technology that is already being used in Europe.
“It’s functioning well and it’s a very viable system, a lot of [RAS} that you might be familiar with, they get very complicated, and there’s a lot of things that tend to go wrong with them. This is a very simple design,” he said. “I first saw it in the facility and I said yes, this is the system for us. I’ve seen a lot of research systems but they’re just too complicated and too expensive.”
By using RAS, securing water rights in the area will likely be easier since it uses significantly less water than other aquaculture methods, he said.
In April 2015 the company constructed its third farming site in Nesplelem. At the time Bielka told Undercurrent the company was planning to expand its steelhead trout production by 50% that summer with the additional of another farming site.
The expansion was meant to provide trout supply security to the company, Bielka said, in light of a drop in Chilean trout production.
Pacific Aquaculture first expanded its steelhead farming operations into Nesplelem in 2008 and currently has three net pen sites in place which grow steelhead trout.
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