MAS scales up to meet the commercial market

AN innovative fish handling system developed by Perth company McRobert Aquaculture System (MAS) is attracting growing interest around the world.

MAS is currently constructing its first commercial system in the US and hopes to win multi-million dollar contracts to build aquaculture systems in New Zealand and Malaysia.

The system has won high praise from industry experts, including US-based Professor Tom Losordo, who has 28 years’ experience in aquaculture.

“In my position as a professor in aquaculture at North Carolina State University, I have had the opportunity to travel extensively to see aquaculture production systems and to attend many aquaculture trade shows,” he said.

“About every five years I get to see something new and unique for the industry. I consider your technology in this category.”

Greg Jenkins, manager of the Aquaculture Development Unit at Fremantle’s Challenger TAFE, believes the system “is widely applicable throughout the aqua-culture industry and will be accepted throughout the world”.

The system had an unusual genesis, being based on a swimming pool cover that company founder Ian McRobert developed five years ago.

Mr McRobert still plans to commercialise the swimming pool concept but in the meantime has focused on applying the system to aquaculture.

With the help of a concessional loan and a grant from Aus-Industry, MAS contracted the Aquaculture Development Unit three years ago to build and refine a pilot system.

MAS won its first commercial contrast last year and is close to completing stage one of that system.

It is currently bidding to build a $9 million aquaculture system for New Zealand company Aqua-culture Ventures, for the farming of yellowtail kingfish, and an $11 million system in Malaysia that would integrate aquaculture with a teak plantation.

The MAS system offers multiple benefits, including improved growth rates for fish, better quality control and lower labour costs.

The key element is the use of low-pressure air to invert a liner in each fish tank. This automatically pushes the water and the fish into a channel for transferring to other tanks.

It means that grading, transferring and harvesting of fish can be achieved simply by opening and closing of valves.

Time consuming and labour intensive processes such as netting and handling of the fish are no longer required.

The system is less stressful for fish, resulting in higher growth, lower mortality and reduced potential for disease outbreaks.

Cleaning of the tanks is also much more efficient and thorough, since the inverted liners can easily be wiped down.

Mr McRobert believes the future of aquaculture lies with in-tensive recirculating systems, since they use substantially less water and enable greater control over water quality.

The MAS system has a filtration system that automatically removes waste before it affects water quality.