LEFT: Lee Brothers, owner of Carolina Fisheries in Aurora, scoops up fingerings from a raceway. RIGHT: Nancy Sugg Bright, manager at Castle 

 Hayne Fisheries, uses an automated feeder to disperse fish meal pellets into hybrid striped bass ponds. 



different hybrid striped bass farms, but only two 

 farms in the area have been documented by the 

 state as "contributing to water quality violation 

 standards." 



"The water is green coming out of these 

 ponds — it is easy to see," says Harry Daniels, 

 a Sea Grant aquaculture researcher from North 

 Carolina State University. "People associate 

 algae with water that kills fish, but sometimes 

 the water isn't so bad." 



Hybrid farmers have been exchanging 

 water in their ponds for years, according to 

 Daniels. If farmers saw water quality in their 

 ponds deteriorating, they would simply drain off 

 some of the water into nearby streams, known 

 as "receiving waters," and replace it with clean 

 well water. 



"But these places are no longer just fanning 

 communities," says Daniels, who, along with 

 North Carolina Sea Grant Director Ronald 

 Hodson, is interested in researching farming 

 practices to help mitigate the effect of effluent. 



Public pressure may be the impetus for 

 hybrid striped bass farmers to change some of 

 their practices, Hodson says. 



PRESSED FOR PROGRESS 



Unlike other fish farming industries 

 in North Carolina, such as catfish or trout, 

 economic pressures have not forced the hybrid 

 striped bass industry to develop more efficient 

 strategies for dealing with effluent. 



"Because the price of hybrids is still good 



compared to the cost of production, fanners 

 have been able to use more water to raise more 

 fish," explains Hodson, who has organized 

 meetings with aquaculture operators in efforts 

 to improve water quality issues on farms. 



Profit margins in the competitive catfish 

 industry are relatively low, Hodson explains. 

 Thus, farmers must minimize costs wherever 

 possible — and that means conserving water. 



During the last several years, 

 Beaufort County has experienced noticeable 

 growth and development. From 1990 to 

 2004, the county's population rose more 

 than 8 percent, according to the U.S. Census 

 Bureau. That may not sound like a lot, 

 but for an area with only 54 people per 

 square mile, new faces don't go unnoticed. 



Another way the catfish industry reduced 

 costs was by developing a more efficient feed. 

 Instead of relying exclusively on fish meal, 

 an expensive source of protein, the new feed 

 contains vegetable-like material that is more 

 digestible by catfish, Daniels says, hi addition 

 to being more economical, the new feed also 

 reduces waste produced by the fish — and that 

 helps catfish farmers maintain adequate water 

 quality in their ponds. 



Western North Carolina's trout industry 

 has introduced low-phosphorous feed to help 

 maintain water quality. Trout are raised in long 

 troughs, and wastewater is discharged into re- 



ceiving waters. This practice forced the industry 

 to develop a new feed that would decrease phos- 

 phorous content in fish waste, thus decreasing 

 pollutants released into natural waters. 



Despite advances in other industries, 

 developing a more efficient, less polluting feed 

 for hybrid striped bass has proved difficult, says 

 Hodson. 



First, hybrids are strictly carnivores, so 

 taking fish meal out of their diet is a problem. 

 And raising fish exclusively for fish meal 

 doesn't make economic sense. Second, there are 

 no low-phosphorous feeds for hybrids on the 

 market because scientists have yet to determine 

 the species' phosphorous demands, Daniels 

 says. "They are simply different fish." 



Raising hybrid striped bass in recirculating 

 or tank systems is another option, but such 

 sophisticated technology costs money and 

 uses a lot of energy. Few growers across the 

 country are raising hybrids using recirculating 

 technology, according to Hodson. 



"Right now, the technology cannot 

 produce hybrid striped bass cost-effectively to 

 compete with other sources of fish," he explains. 



Recirculating tanks still are seen by many 

 as a research technology for raising hybrid 

 striped bass. "But it is a technology that we 

 want to continue to look at," Hodson adds. 



"If the demand for fish goes up and 

 production costs go down, recirculating 

 technology will be used by more producers." 



Continued 



Coastwatch I Winter 2006 I www.ncseagrant.org 11 



