Aquaculture Technology

Although this comprehensive environmental biotechnology can be applied to a wide variety of agricultural, commercial and industrial situations, it was initially designed to solve the major problems facing aquaculture, and in particular, Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS).  This industry is facing expansion and profitability difficulties due to the rising costs of energy, feeds, waste and wastewater treatment, and increasing competition for clean water supplies.

The TimberFish Aquaculture System provides an economic solution to these problems and offers a major breakthrough in seafood production and safety.  This technology uses plant material from forests to generate a microbial biomass. Larger organisms consume the microbes and then become live natural food for carnivorous fish. Consequently the system can produce most or all of the feed required to raise fish, and allows aquaculture to move away from a dependence on fishmeal and fish oil.  Fish wastes produced within the system are recycled back for use by the microbes acting on the plant material.  Thus the system is its own waste and wastewater treatment system.  Production residues from the process constitute a high-energy substrate that can be used to provide renewable energy for all of the production needs.

Because the system contains such a large and diversified microbial population it has the ability to degrade or remove the wide variety of nutrient and organic constituents commonly found in aquaculture wastewaters.  This treatment effectiveness means that TimberFish Aquaculture Systems can operate with very long hydraulic retention times and therefore have minimal water requirements.  The systems promote fish health, good growth rates, low mortality, and a good tasting product.  A significant additional benefit is that the systems can be located almost anywhere because they are not dependent on the availability of large volumes of clean water.

TimberFish has recently completed a successful field trial of the TimberFish Aquaculture System with the Freshwater Institute, a program of The Conservation Fund in Shepherdstown, WV.

Copyright © 2009 - 2011 TimberFish, LLC, All Rights Reserved