Oyster seed will be available in April, May and June 2009 from Summer Breeze Aquaculture Products. Will supply on first come, first served basis. Contact Cory at (250) 335 3078 / Cell (250) 334 7902 / (250) 702 0715 or email candtoysters@shaw.ca
The BCSGA has been participating in one of a series of ‘aquaculture dialogues’ being conducted by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) – one of the world’s largest and most repsected independent conservation organizations. Specifically, the Mollusc Aquaculture Dialogues has been ongoing for a couple years now and a recent meeting took place in Victoria, BC back in December 2008.
Today, WWF released a significant announcement on a leap forward towards comprehensive certification for sustainable aquaculture (all sectors) products, globally.
WWF plans to co-found the Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) to take eventual possession of the global standards for responsible aquaculture – in our case, currently being developed by the WWF-supported Mollusc Aquaculture Dialogue round tables. A comparable entity is the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certifying ’sustainable’ wild-caught seafood.
For more information and to read the WWF Press Release, click here.
Thanks to Joy Wade (CSR) for this update:
In 2008, DFO’s Aquaculture Innovation and Market Access Program (AIMAP) funded a project to develop new raft designs for the BC shellfish industry. Vancouver Island University’s Centre for Shellfish Research and the BCSGA together with industry members are working with UVic based engineering firm Dynamic Systems Analysis (DSA) to develop new improved designs. Through computer simulations, Ryan Nicoll of DSA can anticipate problems and identify successes with different raft design components and materials. Once suitable designs have been selected, the CSR will fabricate and test prototypes at the Deep Bay Field Station. A final report including plans drawn up for the industry to use will be prepared.
This image (below) is an example of the preliminary stages of development of the simulations. Here, Ryan has taken the information provided to him by industry based on the current most typical raft and developed a computer generated simulation of how it performs in the natural environment. Each string in the image represents the mass and estimated drag of an oyster tray stack. Once the simulation is constructed, DSA can then change stresses (waves, currents etc…), loadings and construction materials to see how the raft performs. The next phase of the process is to develop optimum types of design and then test various construction materials to develop the optimum cost benefit.
Further updates will be made here as the project progresses. If you would like specific information please feel free to contact David McCallum, Joy Wade, or Brian Kingzett.
