Mexico-based striped bass farmer Pacifico Aquaculture has hired aquaculture technology company Billund Aquaculture to design and implement a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) for its new land-based hatchery and nursery.
This project will allow us to build a state-of-the-art hatchery and nursery facility and unlock 20,000 metric tons of annual production capacity to meet the world’s growing demand for healthy, nutritious seafood.
The facility will be the first in the world to produce striped bass (morone saxatilis) at scale, according to Denmark-based Billund Aquaculture.
Construction of the project is slated to begin in January, and the facility should be fully operational by the end of 2025, the company said.
The RAS farm will be built in the Ensenada Bay area of Baja California, Mexico, and produce 8 million 80-gram juvenile fish annually that will be transferred to the company’s growout sites about 20 kilometers off the Pacific Ocean coast.
Although there have been several experiences worldwide of farming hybrid striped bass (a cross between morone chrysops and morone axatilis) in freshwater RAS, this will be a first for striped bass.
This is Billund Aquaculture’s first RAS design project in Mexico and the first RAS hatchery for striped bass in the world, the company said.
“This is the before and after for Pacifico Aquaculture in its growth as a company and in a start of creating a new industry in Baja California Mexico," said Pacifico Aquaculture CEO, Per-Roar Gjerde.
"This project will allow us to build a state-of-the-art hatchery and nursery facility and unlock 20,000 metric tons of annual production capacity to meet the world’s growing demand for healthy, nutritious seafood.”
This new site will include 17 independent intensive-RAS units using fix-bed biofilter technology, and contain 10 broodstock systems, two larval systems, two weaning systems and three nursery systems.
“This is a very important contract for Billund Aquaculture because it represents a major step towards diversifying the number of species farmed using RAS," said Marcelo Varela, CEO of Billund Aquaculture Chile.
"Also, Mexico is a completely new market for us with huge potential, due to the diversity of new species that can be farmed, and due to its proximity to such an important market as the United States."
The facility will be built near the "Playa Tres Emes" beach, 14 kilometers north of Ensenada, and provides access to sea water, which will be used to supply the RAS systems.
