Jean Ko Din, in the latest edition of RASTECH (Vol 7. No.3 Fall 2024) refers to the fact that bad news associated with the use and operation of RAS systems has much more impact than good news, and good news is much more important than bad news, and it is necessary to tell good success stories.
After a year of intense activity in which we have reinvented ourselves, we have come to the conclusion, as a result of interaction with our main clients: scientists and technicians responsible for public and private research centres, that RAS technology is the main choice for managing their activity in the field of aquaculture research.
However, more and more people are asking us for simple systems that are complemented by a high management capacity that makes their daily work less complicated. A return to basics but supported by a great capacity for data collection, safe management and a high level of flexibility when designing complex experiments.
This reduction in complexity of use is essential to be able to respond to the challenges that really matter: are fish raised in RAS systems really less robust? Can we improve culture conditions by controlling salinity, temperature or photoperiod? Is it possible to improve fish welfare by actions associated with feeding patterns and improve their well-being? What if suspended particles and water turbidity were more of a benefit than a problem? Are current diets the best? What happens if we subject fish raised in RAS to the alterations in environmental conditions that they might encounter in open systems such as ponds or cages? Will their immune response improve, will they become more resistant to pathogens? Can we understand how their homeostasis works to predict how we can improve their fitness? Can we take RAS beyond their conventional use by integrating new functionalities and combining them with other practices?
We have faced most of these questions at some point, either through a research project or as a result of a functional improvement in RAS systems.
Obviously we do not have all the answers to the challenges and many more studies will surely be necessary, most of which will require high complexity and effort. What we do do is provide the tools so that the experimental design is as robust as possible and that it enables a transfer of the results to the industry with high chances of success.
For this to be so, the most important thing is to address the day-to-day problems faced by users of RAS systems (industry or academia), which is nothing other than advancing knowledge of the elementary biology of fish.
