The Rural Voice, 2019-07, Page 27manage the day-to day fish farm
operations. It’s a nice balance,”
Brady says of the pairing. Indeed, on
the basis of interviews with them
both, their relationship seems like a
marriage made in aquaculture
heaven.
The hatchery, which itself is
nestled in a verdant forest setting on
the edge of the property’s serene,
languid pond, is quaint and
unassuming. Its centrepiece is a one-
storey frame building painted forest
green and looking very much like its
1960s vintage. It houses 10
rectangular stainless-steel tanks in
which eggs are hatched and fry
reared, and three round concrete
tanks housing fingerlings that are
grown to a size where they can be
transferred to outdoor raceways. In
the external raceways and an
additional two metal tanks, the fish
are reared to a size when they are
ready for market. Regular customers
include restaurants, small (100,000
sq. ft.) grocery stores and chains, and
ponds and streams stocked by private
landowners, Anglers Clubs, and
others.
Brady and Green market their fish
as sustainably and ethically-grown
and harvested and say the hatchery
causes little adverse environmental
impact, a principle to which they are
committed. The continuous flow of
pristine escarpment spring water
makes it possible to rear high-density
cultures of fish that are relatively free
of the various disorders associated
with some other fish farms, in
particular, diseases requiring regular
doses of antibiotics to control.
Gravity compels the continuous
flow of water downwards
from the Kolapore uplands to
the hatchery. Two spring-fed streams
run under the forest floor and
converge about 500 metres uphill
from the hatchery site. The streams,
averaging at around seven degrees C,
are considerably colder than water at
most commercial fish farms, and are
optimum for rearing trout. This
results in a healthier, firmer-fleshed
animal, Green says.
In the hatchery the water passes
through a series of troughs, tanks and
raceways before it exits into the
nearby pond “at almost the same
temperature it enters the hatchery,”
Ten stainless steel tanks are
where rainbow trout eggs are
hatched and fry reared before they
are transferred into three round
concrete tanks (above). Once the
fingerlings (left) reach the right
size, they move into the outdoor
raceways (below) and are fed
pellets made of fish by-products.
The trout also eat the “fairy
shrimp” found in the spring water
coming off the escarpment.
July 2019 23