Fish Tech professor Jim Seeland, Pentair Aquatic Eco-Systems and DIPAC partnered to host a workshop to inform Alaskan fish culturists how recirculation can be used as a technique to use water more efficiently in hatcheries. DIPAC hosted the workshop and helped to facilitate the event at its headquarters in Juneau.
With only 5 percent of Earth’s water being fresh, a problem arises for Alaska salmon when they need to spawn but the amount of water decreases due to causes such as required water densities, flows, available snowpack and annual rainfall. Each hatchery’s situation is unique.
Recirculation within a hatchery allows the water to be used an infinite number of times, when water quality statistics such as pH and dissolved oxygen are regulated correctly. When hatchery managers want to rear more fish without consuming more water, they turn to recirculation.
Seeland saw a void for training in recirculation for fish culturists in the state, and worked with Pentair, a global supplier for recirculation technology, and DIPAC to develop curriculum for a workshop that would be relevant to Alaskans. He aimed to provide information relevant to all players in the hatchery workforce, from the people feeding the fish, to the overseeing managers.
