Review: Abdel Rahman El Gamal (Founder of the website)
During my contribution to the seminar on the research aquaculture needs in the region, I had the chance to visit two marine fish hatcheries – as far as I remember located in Limassol. The focus of the hatcheries during that time was to produce fingerlings of gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) and European seabass (Dicentrachus labrax). I will not be surprised if the focus continues to be the same.
The artificial reproduction of the two species seemed fully mastered during that time and even simplified. Outdoor tanks in these hatcheries are used for the spawning whereas egg ovulation and fertilization occur naturally in the tanks. Fertilized eggs float over water surface and move with the water current to a small annexed container lined by plankton net with appropriate mesh allowing an easy collection of eggs to continue the incubation, hatching and nursing in indoor facilities.
One of the hatcheries I visited (and probably the second) relied on underground water drawn from more than one well whereas water is of high quality and mostly of steady temperature. The coastal wells serving a hatchery are at different depths and salinity. This enabled the hatchery to acclimatize the produced fry/fingerlings according to the required salinity in the receiving farms. The outflow water goes through filtration and settling ponds before it is released back into the sea. My visit to the hatchery took place during the last week of October, 1991.
