Northbay's historic involvement with
lobster hatcheries
the History of Lobster hatcheries
The first lobster hatchery in the UK goes back to 1947 at the – then MAFF – facility at Conway in North Wales. which produced the first larvae through to metamorphosed stage IV.
Dennis Gowland and Richard Land first met at the Orkney lobster hatchery more than two decades ago, where our story starts. Prior to the year 2000, no hatchery in the UK had managed to produce significant amounts of lobsters apart from the small facility in Orkney (set up in 1995) which had managed to produce around 26,000 in its best season – mostly stages IV and V. This changed when Gowland and Land combined their different backgrounds (biology and engineering) to undertake a revamp of the hatchery, but still using existing technology, to produce 60,000 stage V + juveniles for the first time in 2003. This presented another problem – each lobster had to be fed by hand in the single-layer tray and pot system (based on a ‘tidal system’ in each tray). There was also a problem in that the extra production in the larval incubators caused a log-jam in the tray system as the trays took up a large space in the building (the ‘footprint’) so that once these were full, any further outputs from the incubators had to be put into the sea before they were ready or the juveniles in the trays had to be put out at an earlier stage than was optimal.
There needed to be a new solution.
Several prototypes were created, all small-scale, which led to the invention of an up-welling multi-layer system for rearing post-larvae (after stage IV) which was called ‘Aquahive’. This turned out to be a game-changer.
the creation of the aquahive
How ‘Aquahive’ changed the industry.
Northbay’s (then known as Northbay Shellfish Ltd) invention commercialised the production of juvenile lobsters enabling fisher’s associations and community groups to produce juvenile lobsters for as little as 50p where before it cost £s to produce an individual.
Three prototype Aquahive cylinders were installed and these revolutionised the Orkney hatchery. The year the prototypes where installed (season 2008) the hatchery produced 100,000 lobsters to stage 6-7. The prototypes themselves produced 50,000 in the season from a footprint of 4.5 m² with the remainder from the original tray and pot system (footprint of 75 m²).
After the system had been operated for a number of seasons it became apparent that several elements could be improved upon. During the feeding cycle, it was observed that oxygen levels were lowered, which was not critical if feed cycle periods were adhered to, but could be a problem if operators got distracted and left the cycle running.
The Aquahive tray is circular and based on a hexagonal geometry of internal cells, which meant that only about 85% of the cells were large enough for a juvenile lobster. Another drawback with the system was that the diameter of the holes in the base of the trays was about 0.2mm too large and stage III and stage IV could push their tails through the holes and get nipped by the juvenile below.
Despite this the survival was better far better than the old tray and pot system and the speed of growth was twice as good.
The revolutionary impact of the Aquahive system enabled the industry to take off, with nearly 100 cylinders installed in seven countries between 2009 -2018
the cube
Since 2019 Northbay has been working very hard to create new equipment with the potential for, both, higher production and survival and also to make it easier for the operators of the system.
The Lobster Cube – The newly invented Lobster Cubes solve particular issues:
The trays in the Lobster Cube are square and all cells can be utilised and easier to fill – including by mechanical means. The grid structure enables much easier counting (again this can more easily be done electronically). The standard Lobster Cubes contain 20 stacked trays each of 100 juveniles. Adapters have been developed to increase the capacity of standard cubes to 3000 and 4000 where daily outputs from the Larval Incubators warrant this.
The Lobster Cube, thus, offers much greater flexibility to handle varying batch sizes of stage IV (post-larvae) moving daily from the Larval Incubators and to enable more frequent cycles to juveniles release to the sea (for fishery support) or to the next system for further on-growing.
The Lobster Cubes feature a unique return water system that allows for the exchange of gases during the feed cycle and a unique pump and valve configuration which means, for instance, that for a group of six lobster cubes, only two valve operations are needed with no alteration to the flow and no rebalancing of the system. Water flows have been subject to dynamic modelling which has enabled the Cubes to operate with three different tray versions for different size juveniles from stage IV up to 10g +. The Lobster Cubes are more easily maintained day to day as now the system can be lifted apart and cleaned without undoing screws or bolts.
The Lobster Cubes have utilised upwelling principles to take lobster rearing to a new level – for the next generation of Lobster culture
the Old Larval incubators
Incubators which are used during the lobster’s larval phase come in all shapes and sizes but they all tend to have one thing in common. That is the need to move the larvae around in the vessel to minimise encounters which can lead to damage, as lobster larvae are encounter feeders. Two methods have been utilised historically:
a) Using water jets or flow to move the larvae in the same direction
b) Using air to agitate the water column thus moving the larvae continuously in random directions.
The water method is optimal for larvae of Spiny Lobsters (Palinuridae) and Norway Lobster (Nephrops), whilst air agitation tends to work well with the larvae of European (Homarus gammarus) and American (Homarus americanus).It has been common for proprietary tanks, made for other products, to be used as incubators with some adaptations. Northbay has completely redesigned the Larval Incubator specifically around the biology and behaviour of Lobster larvae through to metamorphosis to stage IV (Post-larvae).
the new Torus incubator
The innovative Torus Incubator is specially designed for the task in hand to serve several crustacean species. For Homarus (Clawed Lobster) larvae, an air bar is fitted to generate micro-vortexes and water movement but for other larval species such as Nephrops (Langoustines) or Palinurids (Spiny Lobsters), this bar can be changed to water jet making it one of the most versatile incubators on the market. The system can also be used for shrimp and crab species.
One problem is at the start and towards the end of a season – or where the supply of berried hens can be intermittent. In these cases, hatches of larvae may vary with numbers fewer than 1500 or 3000 per day. Given the fact that larval batches from 1 day should not be mixed with those from a previous day in the same incubator – a fixed capacity incubator (as those currently available) can be a disadvantage.
This is solved in the new Torus Incubator which has three separate filter positions enabling 1500-2000 and 3000-4000 and 5000-6000 larval capacity maximising production throughout the year.
The Torus Incubator features a new concept in the screen outlet which has been designed to minimise interaction and thus potential damage to the larvae and to switch between the 3 positions easily.
It also is extremely compact as it is floor standing and utilises all the space.
