R&D

The seafood and aquaculture industries we serve are filled with innovators looking to deliver top-quality and value-added products to the world. 

Having someone ask if X is possible is an everyday occurrence for us. 

Aqua Production Systems has never been afraid to innovate and raise-the-bar in the industry and we do not shy away from these questions.  We have brought many firsts to the industry and worked with many others from universities to customers to vendors to help our customers deliver a better quality product that they can sell for a higher margin.  We are proud to see our customers and the communities where they are located grow because they operate at the APS standard. 

 

To accelerate our innovation, we have opened our own wet lab in our main facility in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.  There are two separate systems for testing live aquatic animals for the seafood and aquaculture industries. 

Each tank is capable of operating with freshwater or seawater. 

Each system is a fully closed RAS system with oxygenation, solids filtration, ammonia filtration, and temperature control.  Both tanks have temperature control capable of running any water temperature required to a +/- 0.1°F precision.

 

The first two tests of 2023 have already been completed.  Both were done at a small scale both to 'test' the test tanks and to 'test' the potential of a couple of big ideas. 

 

The first used the proprietary iodine dosing system to depurate oysters without the conventional methods of flushing large amounts of water through the system OR high-dose UV treatment.  Dalhouse University provided access to lab equipment for this test.  The test showed that the iodine system is capable of depuration without a measurable increase in the iodine concentration in the oyster meat. 

When the tank is available again, we plan to repeat the test with oysters from a closed area at a commercial density.  

 

The second test aimed to harden four soft-shell lobsters in a holding tank environment without feeding them.  Over the course of the trial, the lobster shells did harden noticeably.  Next step in this trial is to acquire a lobster durometer and repeat the test using objective data rather than the squeeze-the-carapace-by-hand test.  The other variable to be tested is how rapidly the shells will harden. 

The timeline appears to be similar to the typical purging timeline used in commercial operations now. 

 

Industry partners interested in having a test performed here in cooperation with APS can reach out to Dana Murrin at 1-902-301-8473 for details.