SEA 



SCIENCE 



J^n one of the first aquaculture 

 efforts of its kind, a North Carolina Sea 

 Grant researcher and a Cedar Island 

 flounder farmer are fattening wild-caught 

 fish to a more desirable market size. 



The North Carolina Fishery Resource 

 Grant project is testing a theory that pound- 

 net fishers in the Albemarle and Pamlico 

 sounds have pondered for years, says Sea 

 Grant researcher Harry Daniels. 



"The fishermen called me up with 

 this idea," says Daniels, a warm-water 

 aquaculture specialist at NC State 

 University's Vernon James Research and 

 Extension Center in Plymouth. "They 

 called it flounder fattening." 



The price per pound of flounder often 

 rises when the short season ends in early 

 winter, hence the interest in simply keeping 

 the catch alive until its value increases. 

 Because larger flounder draw higher prices, 

 nurturing them to increase weight during 

 the holding period makes sense. 



Daniels, who has done extensive 

 research on spawning and culturing 

 flounder, started a two-year flounder- 

 fattening trial in 1997. The grant has been 

 extended a few months to refine and 

 analyze growth rates and economics. The 

 Fishery Resource Grant program is funded 

 by the General Assembly and administered 

 by North Carolina Sea Grant. 



The grant financed the construction of 

 a holding tank operation at the Pamlico 

 Aquaculture Field Laboratory in Aurora. 

 There, Daniels monitors how the fish — 

 mostly southern flounder — react to 

 captivity and variations in the tank 

 environment. 



"We wanted to learn what people 

 would have to do to raise this fish," Daniels 

 says. Wild broodstock used in spawning 

 experiments had already revealed that 

 flounder don't like to be alone. 



"They've got to be stocked densely to 

 get them to eat," Daniels says. No matter 

 how few the flounder or how large the tank, 

 "they'll pile on top of each other," he says. 

 Daniels theorizes it's "a comfort thing," 

 similar to how cats like to snuggle together. 

 The tendency for togetherness also might 



28 AUTUMN 1999 



Fatter Flounder 



Down on the Farm 



