Centre for Aquaculture and Seafood
Development
CASD offers a complete range of fish and shellfish health services
with state-of-the-art facilities for biotechnology research and
product development. The Centre offers core expertise in product
testing, fish and shellfish health assessment and innovative
species research and development. The focus of this research and
development is in support of sustainable aquaculture and fisheries.
The Centre serves as a reference facility for the aquaculture and
fishing industries, academia, federal and provincial regulatory
agencies and other aquatic health centres in the Atlantic
Provinces.
CASD offers its clients one of the largest and most comprehensive
aquaculture and fisheries training and applied research facilities
in Atlantic Canada. CASD's national and international research
collaborations have provided industry, government and academia with
access to modern aquaculture research facilities, in-house
expertise and quality assurance that comes with the Institute's
ISO-9001™ (2000 standards) registration. CASD is seeking GLP
(Good Laboratory Practices) compliance for its diagnostic services.
Aquaculture Research and Development
Facility
The ARDF provides modern facilities are
designed to support research, training, pre-commercial
production, and small-scale commercial trials on alternative
species for marine aquaculture. A critical component of the
1,400m2 facility is a seawater system designed to
deliver high quality, temperature controlled, flow-through and
re-circulating water. Separate tanks and rooms are available
for broodstock conditioning, hatchery and nursery operation,
first feeding, and grow-out. Live food production can deliver
1,000 litres of algae, two billion rotifers, and 500 million
artemia daily.
The ARDF collaborates with industry partners on a variety of
research projects. They are currently evaluating the potential of
various finfish species for aquaculture by studying broodstock
biology and the development of larval rearing techniques. Atlantic
halibut, Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon and steelhead are now under
investigation.
Freshwater
Recirculation and Seawater Systems
- Independent systems for freshwater or seawater research, complete with temperature control, ultraviolet disinfection, filtration capabilities and 24-hr alarm system monitoring
Quarantine Facility
- Newly renovated, artesian-well supplied, fresh water flow-through quarantine facility
- can accomodate recirculating water assays
Histology Laboratory
- Equipped to process complete molluscan bivalve and invertebrate tissue samples
- Equipped to process tissue (heart, brain, liver, spleen, caeca, kidney and gonads) samples
- Image analysis capabilities
Bacteriology Laboratory
- Equipped to cultivate pathogens, isolate pure colonies and conduct tests for motility, oxidative-fermentation, cytochrome oxidase, indole and antibiotic sensitivity, as well as conduct vibriostatic and biochemical tests
- Media for bacterial species made on site
Broodstock Facility
- Currently houses Atlantic cod, Atlantic salmon, Steelhead trout and Atlantic halibut broodstock
Seawater System Pump House
- Three - 850 US GPM pumps
- Wet-well design
Mechanical Room
- 16 sand filters (20 µm media)
- Thermal heating elements
- 100 tonne chilling capacity (Delta T 4.5°C)
Filtration Room
- Computer and telephone alarm system for air and water
- Five UV-sterilization units with flow capacities of 150 gpm (US) @ 120,000 mw/s per cm2
- Degassing units
- Low head oxygen generators
- Va
rious header tanks equipped with low water and temperature alarms - Water and temperature controlled systems with heat recovery
- Computerized systems including digital flow meters and monitors
Research Cage Site
- Industrial research with a focus on commercialization, production capacity, growth assessments, quality assurance guidelines for fish and shellfish, site identification, recirculation technology and aquaculture engineering
Liquid Oxygen System
- Liquid oxygen available to all tanks via water and stand-alone backup
Microbiology and Chemistry Laboratories
- High-performance liquid chromatograph, ion analyzer, atomic absorption spectrophotometer and gas chromatograph mass spectrophotometer
Oceanographic Instrumentation
- Environmental monitoring for salinity, temperature, pH, chlorophyll, total suspended matter, light intensity, and current velocity
