Aquacultural Engineering 36 (2007) 8196 www.elsevier.

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Design of a pilot-scale tropical marine nsh hatchery n, Mexico for a research center at Mazatla
` re a,*, M.A. Reina Can ez a, L. Alvarez-Lajonche a ndez , S. Kraul b M.A. Camacho Herna
a

n en Alimentacio n y Desarrollo, A.C., Avenida Sa balo Cerritos S/N, Centro de Investigacio n C.P. 82010, A.P. 711, Sinaloa, Mexico Mazatla b Pacic Planktonics, 73-998 Ahikawa St., Kailua-Kona, HI 96740-9407, USA Received 10 July 2006; accepted 25 July 2006

Abstract A multispecies, 2668 m2 pilot-scale tropical marine nsh hatchery was designed to fulll the requirements of nsh juvenile n, Me xico. The main goals of the research and development (R&D) at the Research Center for Food and Development, in Mazatla facility were (1) scale-up and study experimental results at a pre-commercial-scale; (2) assess technical and nancial feasibility and improve these technologies before transfer to commercial-scale; (3) adapt technology to other sh species. In the hatchery, a semiintensive, green water strategy is used for larval rearing, and rotifers are produced using a high density, intensive production technique. An intensive, tank-based nursery is used to study juvenile husbandry. Although the main objective of the facility is to package technology, the annual production capacity for juvenile to supply to industrial partners is about 160,000200,000 one-gram juveniles produced in three or four rearing cycles. Seawater intake is based on a sand and gravel preltered system and two 30 hp seawater radial pumps, each with the capacity to fulll the whole system requirements (500 gpm, 31 L/s, sustained owrate). Most of the water is delivered directly to the broodstock and nursery areas after sand and cartridge ltration and a UV lamp ( 60,000 mW s/cm2), and the rest is used to ll four 25 m3 high density polyethylene (HDPE) storage tanks. From the storage tanks, the seawater is directed through three pressurized sand lters and a series of high capacity cartridge lters (16 mm). For live feed production and larval rearing, water is further ltered using line cartridge lters (as small as 0.22 mm) and a continuous-ow UV lamp ( 60,000 mW s/cm2). There is a freshwater system for 60 m3/day and an air distribution system that includes three 10 hp blowers, each with the required capacity for the entire facility. The broodstock areas have 40 tanks (0.650 m3) with a total capacity of 410 m3. Initially there are six 3 m3 larval rearing tanks and in a second stage a 40 m3 mesocosms tank facility will be added. The indoor (160 m2) live food culture facility is capable of a daily production of about 8 m3 of four microalgae species (1 40 106 cells/ml, depending on the species), 2.5 109 enriched rotifers, 6 108 enriched Artemia metanauplii and 4 107 copepods. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Pilot-scale; Hatchery; Design; Marine shes; Mexico

1. Introduction
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +52 669 9898700; fax: +52 669 9898701. E-mail addresses: alvarezl@victoria.ciad.mx, ` re). Lajonchere@yahoo.com (L. Alvarez-Lajonche 0144-8609/$ see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.aquaeng.2006.07.003

Production of required quantities of high quality nsh juveniles at the right time and at reasonable cost is the main goal that marine sh culture has to achieve before commercial sh cultivation can be established

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and extended at any site. Comparing aquaculture with agriculture, its terrestrial analogue, the juveniles are the seeds for the farmers and no matter how good is the soil preparation or the fertilizers or the irrigation system prepared, if there is any failure to obtain the right seed in quantity and quality at the right time, the production plans will not be attained. Thus, it has long been internationally recognized that a good source of juveniles is the most important prerequisite for sh ` re and Herfarming (Tucker, 1998; Alvarez-Lajonche ndez Molejo n, 2001). But marine sh juveniles are na costly. Most of the valuable species are the equivalent of US$0.50 and 1.50 each, plus transportation costs, which may often double the price of juveniles (Alvarez` re, 2003). For example, one of the most Lajonche important species in recent years, cobia (Rachycentron canadum), is being sold in Southern USA, at about US$ 2.002.75/ngerling (ACFK, 2006; Craig et al., 2006). Commercial applications need technologies that are feasible in a technical, economic, marketing, social and political environment (Huguenin and Webber, 1981). Research that produces such technologies must be carried out in pilot-scale facilities where results can be extrapolated to commercial size. Research that has been done in very small laboratory experiments are open to question, while technical performance on a large scale can be determined with reasonable condence by the use of pilot plant facilities (Huguenin, 1975). Replicating many small units is not as valid as working with larger production units that can be managed like those used in commercial operations. Appropriate organization and working procedures for those facilities also need to recognize the effects of scale. As Huguenin and Webber (1981) pointed out, most failures can be attributed partially to the assumption that the scale-up of laboratory experiments to commercial size is a low-risk, straight-forward linear process. Those results, although acceptable for publication in scientic journals, are not enough to ensure success in large-scale production. Many biological and behavioral processes are scale dependent, and there are many engineering designs, management procedures and economic parameters that will need to be changed according to the working scale. One of the best examples is the technological changes involved with semi-intensive (green-water) technology larval rearing tanks, which are usually 50 1000 L in capacity in experimental-scale facilities (Cerqueira et al., 1995; Riley et al., 1995; Davis et al., 2000; Turano et al., 2000; Ogle et al., 2001; Ogle and Lotz, 2006). Common commercial units are at least 10 times larger (620 m3) (Leung et al., 1993; Barlow et al., 1996; Lee et al., 1997; Moretti et al., 1999, 2005;

Fisheries Western Australia, 2001; Lee and Ostrowski, 2001; Pomery et al., 2004). Pilot-scale hatcheries with tank volumes of 310 m3 are used in prestigious marine sh research hatcheries, i.e. Oceanic Institute (Nash and Shehadeh, 1980; Kraul, 1983; Eda et al., 1990; Kam et al., 2002), Thailand National Institute of Coastal Aquaculture (NICA, 1986), Tigbauan Research Station of SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department (Duray et al., 1996, 1997), Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution (Tucker, 1998), Mote Marine Laboratory (Sering, 1998), Marine Fish Culture Laboratory, University of ` re et al., Santa Catarina, Brazil (Alvarez-Lajonche 2002), research institutes in Taiwan (Leu et al., 2003), and have been shown to give acceptable results when scaling up to commercial size. The denition of a pilot scale hatchery is that on which methods and consistent results obtained can be extrapolated to a commercial size facility after nancial feasibility is proved. Thus marine sh pilot-scale hatchery larval rearing tanks with the semi-intensive green water (with microalgae) technology should be about 35 m3 for several reasons: (a) smaller tanks usually do not give good results, mostly on survival and harvest densities; (b) bigger tanks need too much resources for their management and especially for their live food production supply; (c) in the experience of many authors, the methods used to rear larvae in pilot-scale tanks are similar to those in 1035 m3 larviculture tanks with ` re, equivalent results (Kraul and Alvarez-Lajonche personal results). Another important criterion is that production technologies cannot be transferred to other situations without trials and adaptations to local conditions (Davy, 1991). This is another of objectives of a pilot-scale facility, in addition to being a production-oriented test facility. The pilot-scale stage is still the weak link in aquaculture development, due to the current lack of nancial support for the construction of such facilities and the high risks and insufcient incentives for private industry (Huguenin, 1975). There is a lack of knowledge in the literature on the subject of pilot- and large-scale applications, and very few published design studies. Most of the knowledge is gained by trial and error, but there are very few reports that mention failed systems, and most of the gained knowledge is kept in the memories of the participants, or as commercial rm property. Most of the commercial rms have their own detailed manuals on the subject, but with very limited distribution, most of the time only to clients. Perhaps the main exception is Huguenin and Colt (2002), chapters in some recently published books, and articles in international journals (Huguenin, 1975;

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Colt and Huguenin, 1992; Tucker, 1998; Moretti et al., ` re and Herna ndez Molejo n, 1999; Alvarez-Lajonche 2001; Huguenin et al., 2003). During the course of two FAO Technical Cooperation Projects (TCP/CUB/0052 and TCP/CUB/0051) on marine sh spawning and larval rearing, and live food cultivation, respectively, with consultancies of Servici Tecnici in Maricultura (STM AQUATRADE Srl, Italy), an experimental and pilot-scale research hatchery was designed and its description, together with its operation guide and research possibilities were described in Alvarez` re and Herna ndez Molejo n (1994), but the Lajonche document had limited distribution. Thus, the objective of this report is to describe a pilot-scale marine nsh hatchery being built in Mazatlan suburbs, in Estero del Yugo, 3 km from the nearest residence, Sinaloa, west xico. coast of Me Mazatlan is near the limit between the tropic and the subtropical zones (23.167 North latitude and 106.267 xico. The East longitude) on the Pacic coast of Me annual temperature range at this site is 1834 8C, making ambient local conditions suitable for a broad range of sh species. Although the site is totally exposed, the storm frequency is very low, only one in every 50 years, according to the city records. 2. Hatchery planning and dimensioning general criteria The hatchery was designed to fulll the requirements of a tropical marine sh R&D center and to add a pilotn scale facility at the Reproduction Laboratory, Mazatla Unit of the Research Center for Food and Development (CIAD). The main hatchery goal is to develop and/or adapt marine sh juvenile production technologies to make them ready for transfer to commercial-scale, after successful technical and nancial assessments. Initially we will scale-up results obtained on the experimentalscale projects with bullseye puffer Sphoeroides annunez-Palacios et al., latus in progress since 1997 (Mart 2002; Duncan and Abdo de la Parra, 2002) and with amingo snapper Lutjanus guttatus since 2003 (Ibarra et al., 2004). Both species have seen recent improve` re et al., 2005). Also, the pilotments (Alvarez-Lajonche scale facility will be used to continue improving the technology for better yields, lowering costs and increasing economic efciency of the developed technologies, and to assess the location and the facilitys capabilities to carry out technological transfer procedures and adapt the developed technologies to other ` re, 2003) important marine species (Alvarez-Lajonche like Pacic snooks Centropomus viridis and C.

nigrescens, almaco jack Seriola rivoliana and another red snapper L. aratus, in the near future. This work is based on various design criteria, dimensioning indexes, and equipment and construction specications developed in many sites, some of them described by Huguenin and Colt (2002), and others adopted by Servici Tecnici in Maricultura (STM AQUATRADE Srl, Italy) for seabass Dicentrarchus labrax and seabream Sparus aurata at several Mediterranean hatcheries (Moretti et al., 1999, 2005). These criteria were transmitted to the senior author (L.A.-L.) during two Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects by G. Cittolin and R. Guidastri, and applied in several Latin American countries ` re and Herna ndez Molejo n, 2001). (Alvarez-Lajonche Other design standards that were considered and eventually adopted were those of Thailand (National Institute of Coastal Aquaculture, 1986; Kungvankij, 1989) and Japanese hatcheries (Fukusho, 1991; Imaizumi, 1993; Morizane, 1993; Tsujigado and Lee, 1993), as well as those of the Oceanic Institute of Hawaii (Nash and Shehadeh, 1980; Lee and Tamaru, 1993; Leung et al., 1993; Tamaru et al., 1993), and several authors cited in the CRC Handbook of Mariculture, Volume II (McVey, 1991). The research strategy adopted was to carry out three or four larval rearing cycles and juvenile production batches during the year, with several species, each with different spawning seasons, one or two as main species and one or two considered as secondary species. The multispecies strategy has several major benets: (1) it raises the success probabilities over a one-species strategy; (2) it allows induced spawning and larval rearing research during natural spawning season of each species, which is the best period for highest egg and larval quantity and quality, with higher survival and better growth rates than those from delayed or anticipated spawning; (3) it increases the probabilities of voluntary spawning, which is better than hormone induced spawning in terms of larval viability; (4) it would probably suffer fewer disease outbreaks when the species are changed after a few months of work, varying the hatchery bacterial composition. The multispecies strategy is applied in many hatcheries in Asia and the Mediterranean, due to the higher productive efciency in the best season of each species. This gives better return on investment, lower biological and marketing risks and higher performance results in general at the commercial-scale. This strategy was recently applied in an Australian grouper research project (Rimmer et al., 2003). One of the major factors determining the size of a hatchery and the dimensions of each sector is the

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quantity and size of the juveniles to be produced (Nash and Shehadeh, 1980; Huguenin and Colt, 2002). The main objective of the designed hatchery in the present study is to work on pilot-scale research projects with different nsh species. The general principles for planning and dimensioning (design process chart) of the hatchery were based on the minimum required volume and number of larval rearing units to give results that could be extrapolated to a commercial-scale. From the established total larval rearing volume, all other calculations were carried out, including carrying capacities, time intervals, stocking and harvesting densities, and survival rates for each rearing unit and step. The number and volume/area of the required rearing units, as well as the water quality and ow rates (maximum, minimum and mean requirements for lling, ushing and cleaning practices for each reservoir) provided a base line for the rest of the hatchery. Six 3 m3 tanks were the base line and the live food production was sized to supply the live organisms required for that larval rearing volume. Nursery sector dimensions (size and number of rearing units) were designed to accommodate the number of transformed and weaned juveniles that could be produced per rearing cycle. The broodstock sector characteristics and dimensions were calculated to exceed production of the required eggs to supply the capacity of the larval rearing facility, and to assure conditions to maintain, mature and eventually spawn one or more spawners cohorts and generations of three different nsh species of medium and big size adults with different inducement techniques. The broodstock tanks have the capacity for more than 100 effective spawners to minimize inbreeding, as recommended by international standards (Tave, 1999). The semi-intensive green-water larviculture technological strategy was selected because it is in accordance with country developmental level, as well as being one of the most successful larval rearing technologies with ` re and Hertropical nsh species (Alvarez-Lajonche ndez Molejo n, 2001). In the future, a mesocosms na technology facility will also be built to apply and test recent successes in this method. Mesocosms are a rather recent larval rearing technology that combines extensive with semi-intensive characteristics for tank volumes of 30100 m3 (Dhert et al., 1998; Schipp et al., 2001; Papandroulakis et al., 2005). Some Japanese marine sh larval rearing techniques are also based on the use of mesocosms. A high technology/high density strategy was selected for production of rotifers and for juvenile (12 g) sh, and in both cases, total volume and surface area was signicantly reduced. In rotifer production, the use of

Culture Selco Plus1 (INVE Aquaculture) for the last culture volume step allowed a 50% reduction in microalgae production. In the nursery, intensive rearing methods made it possible to increase juvenile sh production, increasing the hatchery attractiveness to nancial supporters. One general and important design criteria followed was to have maximum exibility in the experimental treatments that could be applied, which is mandatory in a R&D facility in spite of the cost implications, including salinity, temperature, light intensity, size and shape of culture units, live food organisms and feeding regimes, cleaning and disinfection treatments for most of the facility areas and distribution systems, maintenance procedures, and schedules having suitable free time to carry out routine rearing. Other general design criteria included the use of construction methods, equipment and materials suitable for use with seawater and/or corrosive environments, and the use of materials not toxic to organisms, easy to clean, and capable of surviving strong disinfection methods. A sanitation and maintenance stop of at least 1 month during the winter months at the end of the year is planned for cleaning, strong disinfection, maintenance and general repairs of all hatchery sectors and equipment, following Mediterranean management and operation procedures (Moretti et al., 1999). The annual design capacity for supplying juvenile sh to industrial partners will be about 160,000 onegram juveniles produced in four rearing cycles (40,000 sh per cycle), when technologies are fully developed and ready to be transferred to commercial enterprises. 3. Site The hatchery is located at a beach area outside the n, Sinaloa State, Me xico. The intake city of Mazatla water system (Fig. 1) is located at Playa Bruja, 600 m distant from the rest of the facility, near a costal lagoon locally known as Estero del Yugo. The hatchery site will be an improvement of the existing experimental hatchery facility and general CIAD laboratory facilities at Estero del Yugo, which has a subsand seawater intake system with poor water quality, and has limited surface area available at the moment, although this is potentially expandable in the future with nearby privateowned land. The rst seawater supply system tried was a seawater well, but it was not possible to drill below 20 m because a very hard and broad granite layer was found and the water above the granite was always lower than 25 ppt salinity. A direct seawater intake with pipes laid on the bottom extending seaward from the

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Fig. 1. General facility schematic diagram planview.

shoreline, together with already 600 m far from the hatchery site, together with the appropriate anchor system, was evaluated to be too costly. Thus, our decision was to design a sub-sand abstraction system. The seawater for this site is coastal seawater with suspended and dissolved solids, including organic matter, and has a fairly constant salinity of 3436 ppt. To achieve suitable water quality, we tried to strictly apply the principles dened by Cansdale (1981) followed by a complete treatment of sedimentation, coarse to ne and ultra-ne ltration, and UV lamp radiation, according to our biological and water ow requirements. The opportunity to use existing facilities for the hatchery was an advantage, mainly because two main aspects were already partly covered: the major part of the small spawners outdoor area, and the larval rearing room, although this room needed major modications. Also, as the pilot scale hatchery is part of a research institution, it can be used by many general research laboratories that can do whatever research analyses and determinations they need. Further advantages for using the existing facility include the presence of all of our required services, such as the administration section (purchasing, maintenance, etc.), energy, freshwater, telephone, Internet lines, workshop, feed processing and storing facility, etc., which are already functional. 4. Main sectors: descriptions and dimensions There are six main sectors: (1) engineering and life support; (2) acclimation and quarantine; (3) live food

production; (4) egg production; (5) larviculture and weaning; (6) nursery. The different sector locations follow a functional production ow chart, and take into account the temperature gradients between many of the live feed and laboratory rooms. The hatchery has a total surface area of 2668 m2: 514 m2 of indoor areas, and 2154 m2 of outdoor areas. Geographic exposition was planned to make best use of direct sun light, particularly in the live food indoor and outdoor areas and the biggest broodstock tanks. A 70% absorbance shade cloth covers most of the outdoor areas. The general facility surface area was minimized to t in the available site without the need of buying or renting the adjacent land, which can be used for future expansion. Surface areas of each sector were dimensioned according to the number and size of water reservoirs, equipment and wet/dry laboratory furniture, as well as space requirements for operation, cleaning and maintenance. Future expansions were taken into consideration whenever possible, as long as they were nancially practical. Pipe diameters, pump house surface for an extra pump, and 2533% additional main equipment dimensions were designed to allow relatively efcient increases in water and air ows, as needed. 4.1. Engineering and life support sector This sector can be divided in four main systems: (a) sea water intake and treatments; (b) fresh water intake and treatments; (c) gases: compressed air production and treatment, and oxygenation and CO2 supply

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systems; (d) electricity supply system. All distribution systems are exposed either hung within the drainage channels, from the walls or from the ceiling or in very few occasions lying on the concrete oor. 4.1.1. Seawater intake, treatment and distribution system The site, a sandy coastline, has about a 1.16 m (3.8 ft) mean tidal range, and the nominal elevation in the storage tanks over the centerline of the pump impeller is 11.89 m (39 ft). The seawater intake is based on a pre-ltered subsand abstraction system, adopting the design principles of Cansdale (1981). The system was designed considering site topography, the mean sea level at the place, the design high (+1.00 m) and low tides (1.07 m), and

hydraulic conductivity (15.0 m/day). The design low and high tides were calculated following procedures recommended by Huguenin and Colt (2002), using C = 2 for critical elevations related to pump stations. The hydraulic conductivity was also determined following Huguenin and Colt (2002), with an undisturbed sand sample of the site equal to 20 m/day, typical of a coarse sand site with good possibilities to establish a pre-ltered system. The designed hatchery system is based on two 50 m 150 mm diameter PVC pipes, with about 40% of their surface having 2.5 mm wide slots (Fig. 2a). These two pipes run parallel to and about 6 m inland from the beach annual-mean-high tide-water line out of the breaking wave area, 4 m from each other, with seven equidistant connecting non-slotted 150 mm diameter PVC pipes. A

Fig. 2. Seawater intake system: (A) schematic drawing of aerial view; (B) schematic diagram of lateral view.

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third non-slotted 150 mm PVC pipe parallel to the other two and 2 m distant from the second slotted pipe and 8 m from the beach line, collects the water and is connected to two perpendicular pipes that run 3 m from each other, at the same depth level as the slotted pipes, to the pumping house 20 m distant (Fig. 2a). The entire system, including pump shafts, is horizontal and located 60 cm below the design low tide level. The sub-sand abstraction portion of the slotted 150 mm PVC pipes will be inside an 80 cm deep small gravel (0.51 cm) box, 8 m wide and 50 m length (Fig. 2b). The ow-through system was adopted, except for two breeder tanks, because it is much simpler and less likely to fail (Huguenin et al., 2003). For many marine sh larvae, ow-through water quality is required for high survivals (R. Guidastri, S.T.M. personal communication to L.A.-L.), and is recommended for seabass and seabream (Moretti et al., 2005). The seawater requirements during the whole day were estimated for each of the hatchery sectors, and as there was not an important difference from the lower to the higher water demands, it was decided that the requirements could be adequately covered by one pump. The pumping station of the hatchery has two 30 hp 3500 rpm radial pumps (Gold SSH 22SH-G), each with the capacity to fulll the whole system requirements. These pumps are located at the same level as the sub-sand slotted and water-collection pipes, so there is no suction lift and minor suction head, thus it is a dry pumping station below sea level as classied by Moretti et al. (2005). Mountings and pipe connections for a third pump were also included for future expansion, and as a fast solution to any difculty that could be faced with either of the two other pumps. The pumps were selected according to the sustained water ow rate required (500 gpm, 31 L/s), the total dynamic head of the system (120 ft, 36.6 m) as well as the net positive suction head (NPSH available) of 7.56 m (24.8 ft). The NPSH required by the pumps chosen is 4.58 m (15 ft), based on the pumps performance curves. The pump house has a surface area of 42 m2 and a height of about 6 m (2.5 m above ground level). Valves, ttings, pressure gauges, and pump disposition are similar to the system described by Huguenin and Colt (2002) (see their Fig. 7.2), but designed for three pumps installed in parallel and connected to two main intake and the two main delivery 150 mm PVC pipes. There is an appropriate lifting device to remove and change the pumps inside the pump house. The two main delivery pipe lines will run 600 m within a protection channel 0.75 m wide and 0.45 m depth, with inspection and maintenance pits

(1 m 3 m 2 m) every 2040 m and also in each turn, and will join 5 m before their rst delivery point, where a digital ow-meter will be installed. The valves and connections make it possible to pump seawater with either pump though either of the two intake lines and either of the two main distribution pipes or back through each of the two intake pipes for a backwash operation. Useful anges are located at appropriate places for easy dismantling, maintenance or repair operations for the pumps, pipes and ttings. The two main delivery 150 mm diameter pipes are crossconnected at the pump house for maximum exibility and will be used on an alternate fortnight schedule, leaving one of the pipes almost dry, under anaerobic conditions, for cleaning purposes. These pipes can also be dismantled by anges at 60 cm length connections within 12 inspection and cleaning points (3.3 m 1.2 m 2 m) strategically located at each turn, and/or every 40 m along the 600 m length for strong cleaning and disinfection during the hatchery maintenance and sanitary annual stop. Immediately after entering the outdoor tank area, and before serving any distribution system, each of the main delivery pipes has the possibility to discharge the rst 1520 m3 pumped water after the preceding dry fortnight period, into the stabilizing pond, to clean the pipe from the debris that could have accumulated in its inner surface. The seawater pumping station serves two different distribution systems (Fig. 3) after entering the outdoor tank area: (1) a pipeline of pre-ltered seawater will use its head to pass through two parallel sand lters (850 Lpm each) with a relative ltration retention capability of 100 mm and cartridge lters (3 m 9.3 m cartridge lters, 5 mm relative retention) before entering a continuous-ow UV lamp with a minimum UC-C germicidal radiation of 60,000 mW s/cm2 with a nominal water ow of 28 L/s, this pipe will supply the broodstock (24 L/s) and the nursery sectors (4 L/s); (2) a second pipeline will deliver the pre-ltered water to four 25 m3 high density polyethylene (HDPE) head/ sedimentation tanks (4 m 15 m), which can be worked individually. From the head tanks, the seawater is pumped through a double parallel ltration system consisting of a pressured Jacuzzi sand-lter (265 Lpm, 100 mm relative particle retention) and multiple cartridge lters (four 9.3 m2 cartridge lters, 16 mm relative retention) within a lter room (3 m 5 m), where a third set of the two lter systems is installed as stand-by equipment. All the installed sand lters are capable of manual backwashes, which are carried out for 2030 min every 12 h, or at shorter intervals according to pressure demands. From the lter room,

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Fig. 3. Simplied diagram ow-chart of seawater distribution and treatment system.

one circuit delivers the ltered seawater to the acclimatization and quarantine sector (1 L/s), and another circuit supplies the live food (1 L/s) and larviculture (1 L/s) sectors. At the entrance of the live food indoor facility, the seawater from the lter house is subject to an additional or secondary water treatment of a ne triple cartridge ltration of 5 and 1 mm relative and 1 mm absolute particle retention, followed by a continuous-ow UV lamp with a minimum UC-C germicidal radiation of 60,000 mW s/cm2 with a maximum water ow of 2 L/s. The UV lamps were selected following procedures described by Alvarez` re and Herna ndez Molejo n (2001). In brief, Lajonche are based on: (a) differences between total lamp power and its short wave UV-C radiation component with higher germicidal action ($60% reduction); (b) most effective wave length about 265 nm versus 254 nm available in low intensity lamps with 2080 W bulbs

($10% reduction); (c) temperature effect ($15% reduction for temperatures !30 8C); (d) losses at the end of the 800010,000 h of life span ($60% reduction), as well as other reductions such as transmittance factor (water transparency), water ow rate, etc. The most dangerous and resistant microorganisms that are required to be signicantly reduced (i.e. 99.99% kill rate) are Amyloodinium ocellatum, for which Aarts (1985) reported an effective radiation dose ` re and Herof 60,000 mW s/cm2. Alvarez-Lajonche ndez Molejo n (2001) recommended a radiation of na 4060,000 mW s/cm2 at the system extreme conditions, while Moretti et al. considered 40,000 mW s/cm2 at the end of the UV lamp life span, as a safe output. Finally each day the live food strain and inocula production room will use about 300 L of seawater ltered by an additional 0.22 mm absolute retention cartridge lter.

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PVC pipe sizes were preliminarily calculated with a nomograph and frictional loss tables based on the Darcy-Weisbach equation, with an extra 2533% ow capacity allowance for future expansion and biofouling, using the desired velocity of 23 m/s in the main lines and 11.5 m/s in the rest, as well as the required water ow capacity for each pipe length. Pipes can be cleaned with plastic pigs entering through ball valves in the ending points of the main straight lengths. 4.1.2. Fresh water intake and treatment system The freshwater system is based on the public aqueduct supply line to one general storage reservoir, from which it is pumped to two 25 m3 storage tanks (30 m2). From there the water is distributed by hydraulic PVC lines to the different hatchery sectors. Freshwater storage tank connections allow maintenance to any of them individually, while working with the other two, and all three have an air supply for dechlorination of water before distribution through a common outlet pipe, passing through granular activated carbon lters. Freshwater will be used for cleaning practices and to lower salinity in live food and larviculture sectors. Before entering those two sectors, fresh water will be treated in the same way and extent as seawater, ltering it to 1 mm absolute particle retention size, followed by a continuous-ow UV lamp with a minimum of 60,000 mW s/cm2 of UV-C germicidal radiation at its maximum ow. There will be a very short freshwater circuit of hot water, heated by a small gas-boiler, to supply hot water to the rotifer and Artemia rooms, to clean the tanks and auxiliary equipment that will be used on the oilenrichment treatments, and for general cleaning practices in the hatchery, especially after each rearing cycle and at the general-maintenance stop at the end of the year. 4.1.3. Compressed air production, treatment and other gas supplies Compressed oil-free air production will be carried out by two 10 hp capacity blowers (Sweetwater model S73) with 317 cm of water (at 300 mbar = 3.0 104 Pa) as maximum working pressure and a production of about 500 m3/h at a pressure of about 178 cm of water (at 175 mbar = 1.75 104 Pa). Either of the two blowers can supply the estimated air requirements, and will work on an alternate fortnight schedule, leaving the other as a stand-by emergency unit. In the blower room (2 m 2.5 m) there is a third blower of the same capacity as the other two, installed as a stand-by (backup) and ready to start by a pressure switch valve. Each blower is well

secured to its base with anti-vibratory assemblies, elevated 1 m above ground level, and tted with the factory recommended air lters, external steel mufers, bleed valve assemblies, check valve assemblies, and pressure relief valves. Blowers were selected by the air requirements, which were estimated in several steps: (1) the highest pressure needed to determine the maximum discharge pressure of the blowers, i.e. 229 cm of water (at 225 mbar = 2.25 104 Pa); (2) the general air requirement, calculated as the sum of the requirements for every tank/vessel. Flows are expressed in m3/h at the required pressure (in mbar or Pa) in each case. All air requirements are expressed in m3/h at the highest working blower discharge pressure needed, using the formula P1V1 = P2V2, the sum of which was considered as the blower air capacity required, with an extra 25% ow added for contingency needs. The air distribution lines start with stainless steel pipe and connections, to join the blowers to the hydraulic PVC pipe lines. The high temperature air that comes out of the blowers is capable of lowering the strength of PVC pipes, and producing toxic compounds from the plastic pipes (Huguenin and Colt, 2002). This phenomenon has caused important problems at this laboratory in the past. Additionally, two other gas supplies are available at the hatchery: pure oxygen and carbon dioxide. A pure oxygen distribution system starting with stainless steel pipe for the rst 20 m and followed by PVC schedule 80 pipes has been installed to supply the intensive rotifer culture tanks, and it is also available as an emergency supply to the nursery tanks. A carbon dioxide distribution line is available for small microalgae inocula production, enriching the air supply with 12% CO2 (v/v) to increase productivity. Several CO2 bottles (commercial grade) are connected in series to the PVC pipe that supplies air to the microalgae small inocula room. An electric solenoid valve will stop the CO2 supply in the event of an electric power failure. An appropriate pressure gauge and gas owmeter are also added. To assure a good mixture of the CO2 with the air, a U-shape joint is prepared with four 908 PVC elbows (Moretti et al., 2005). 4.1.4. Electricity supply system The electricity supply system is based on the public electrical service to a 225 kVA general transformer for the pilot plant, and a 115 kVA transformer for the pump house. All the electric installations were designed by electrical engineers and fulll the plant requirements and all the national and international security regulations. The entire electrical framework is aerial, water proof,

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well protected and grounded. Electric boards and conduits are of auto-extinguishable plastic. Electric equipment is protected with thermal switches. Control of main seawater pumps and sand lter pumps is done by an automatic switching system. There are several alarm systems, mostly on the pumps, blowers and sand lters, connected to the general security guard ofce. Power points at the tank areas and rooms are water and weatherproof switched sockets type IP-56, 1.5 m above the oor level to reduce exposure to splashing. Care was taken not to install electric cables and connections above tanks, and not to install electric equipment below water lines. The uorescent lamps for the live food production areas were installed with common switches for groups of

four or six lamps. A 100 kW, 220/127 V automatic auxiliary electric generator was calculated to be able to provide power to the critical electric equipment (blowers, seawater pumps, sand lters, UV lamps, and the re-use equipment). 4.1.5. Discharge system The outdoor and indoor facilities have a drainage channel net system (Fig. 4) with a maximum distance of 3 m from any point to the nearest drainage channel. The oors have smooth surfaces with a 1% slope toward the nearest drainage channel and all the drainage channels have a 2% slope toward a 300 m2 (10 m 30 m and 2.5 m of depth) stabilizing pond. Using the Manning

Fig. 4. General plant schematic upper view with all main outdoor and indoor areas: (1) main supply pipes; (2) seawater storage 25-tonne tanks; (3) sand and big cartridge lter house; (4) blower house; (5) water treatment area for broostock and nursery areas; (6) acclimation and quarantine sector; (7) 50 m3 broodstock tanks; (8) broodstock tank area; (9) larval rearing room; (10) live food indoor building; (11) microalgae stock room; (12) microalgae small inocule room; (13) live food 80 and 700 L culture room; (14) zooplankton inocules and rotifer intensive culture room; (15) glass ware washing and sterilization room; (16) general dry laboratory; (17) Artemia cysts decapsulating area; (18) Artemia incubation and enrichment room; (19) microalgae outdoor large scale culture area; (20) zooplankton outdoor large scale culture area; (21) articial diet experimental tank area; (22) intensive nursery area; (23) stabilizing pond; (24) drainage trench.

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equation for open channels without lateral slope, the drainage channels were sized to be capable of handling maximum ow rates as well as emergency drainage and/ or cleaning of half the nearby tank capacity (more than 10 times the normal ow rate), as well as the strongest rains in the site 50-year records in the outside areas. Depth was then doubled to accommodate some of the outdoor pipe distribution network (mostly seawater, freshwater and air pipes). All the drainage channels are covered by heavy weight and easily dismantled gratings or plates, for frequent inspection and maintenance. The stabilization pond was built several years ago with a highly permeable soil material. Efuent resident time in the pond will be a minimum of 5 h before being drained to a general drainage trench that delivers the efuent to the mangrove area of a nearby coastal lagoon (Fig. 1). Most of the efuent water will drain through the permeable bottom and dikes, and due to its long normal detention time, the pond can be expected to settle virtually all of the settleable solids and the majority of the suspended materials. 4.1.6. Reliability Constant attention through all the design process has been given to the system reliability, trying to predict most of the common marine hatchery failure points and considering solutions to solve or mitigate the problems before their appearance. One of the usual problems is electric power failures. Thus the facility has a backup diesel generator with sufcient capacity to operate simultaneously most of the essential equipment. The key equipment, as in the case of seawater pumps, blowers, sand and multiple cartridge lters will alternate on fortnight cycles with another set, and there is a third set installed and ready to work in case it is needed, because there are situations when one of the two rst sets must be out of service for several days or weeks and there is a need for another set to alternate with the rst one. Also, some times there is an increased demand and the backup equipment must be brought online and then the third equipment set will work as the backup for any failure of the rst two. Double equipment and double storage and sedimentation tanks, main delivery pipes, etc., allows a servicing and preventive maintenance program with down time for individual components, without interrupting the life support system ow. Equipment that is not properly maintained will fail, and adequate nancing must be provided for maintenance (Colt and Huguenin, 1992). Also, most of the piping distribution systems are exposed or placed inside the discharge channels covered by removable planking, providing easy access for

servicing. Most of the 10 different circuits are housed in extensive distribution frames and thus accessible in most locations, and can be modied easily at others to solve any unpredicted difculty. The materials selected for the hatchery were those resistant to corrosion by water vapor and direct seawater action, such as titanium, 316 stainless steel, ber glass, high density polyethylene, PVC, etc. These materials are also resistant to strong cleaning and disinfection practices with strong chemical products such as diluted acids and sodium hypochlorite. All materials will be leached in running sea water for about 2 weeks before use and all of them can be in contact with the water, the air or directly with the cultured organisms without harming them. Flexibility is another of the systems main characteristics, and the hatchery is designed to solve difculties in capacities, such as changing oor conguration, as there are very few xed objects in outdoor or indoor areas. Additional capacity was also considered in the pipe dimensions for a 25% extra increase in water, air ow rates or in some areas in oor space. The system is mostly manually operated, because in n), the tropics with high humidity (>85%, as in Mazatla automatic systems that are efciently used in dry climates frequently work only for a few months and later generally fail in critical circumstances when they are most needed, no matter the maintenance given. For this reason, the security of the system is mostly reliant on human monitoring and control. In cases of commercial ventures, high automation and better monitoring and control systems should be evaluated on cost and reliability in areas requiring continual presence or high labor demands (J. Huguenin, personal communication to L.A.-L.). Future hatchery maintenance personnel have been working since the construction started, and will be working together with the hatchery director during the whole start-up process, preparing the operational procedures to be followed in each operation, sector, part of the system, personnel, and season, as well as responsibilities and decision-making procedures for emergencies. Together with the servicing and preventive maintenance programs, monitoring and control routines will be established. These controls will include 24 h vigilance of trained personnel checking visual and sound changes in the system. Another important feature that will signicantly contribute to the reliability of the hatchery is that the design has taken into consideration that most of the maintenance, cleaning and disinfection routines need to be taken care of on a daily, weekly, monthly, cyclical or yearly basis, considering equipment, walls, tanks, pipes,

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instruments, etc., by sector, areas, rooms, etc. For example, for every pipe straight run there is an inlet and outlet point for cleaning devices and available freshwater. In almost every room there is a sodium hypochlorite disinfection tank. There is good access to piping, to drains, electric conducts, etc. 4.2. Acclimation and quarantine sector This is an outdoor area (140 m2) which the new sh must go through before entering the hatchery facilities. The design is very simple: a concrete oor with 2% slope to two drainage channels and a chlorine treatment system for the efuent water with a chlorine residual of 0.5 ppm when sh are kept in the sector. There are no walls and only a 70% absorbance shade cloth is tted over the whole area. Four 2 m3 cylindrical berglass tanks will make possible the rst general examination and initial acute prophylactic treatments, and four 7 m3 cylindrical berglass tanks will be used for quarantine and chronic prophylactic or curative treatments. The size and material of the tanks are in agreement with recommendations by Moretti et al. (2005). This sector is located in one corner of the site, as far and isolated as possible from the other facilities. 4.3. Egg production unit: broodstock sector The hatchery is capable of working with four captive nsh species simultaneously, two of them with bigsize spawners. The egg production approach was to provide sexual maturation facilities in semi-natural outdoor conditions for captive broodstocks, and to use recently caught mature wild spawners. Chronic and acute induced spawning treatments with or without environmental control and/or slow release hormone delivery systems for voluntary/natural spawning or articial fertilization stripping operations will be possible. Articial fertilization techniques are used with bullseye puffer because they have adhesive eggs which need articial fertilization followed by special treatments to remove their stickiness. Thus, this sector could supply good quality eggs to a much bigger hatchery when the technologies are ready to be transferred to a nearby commercial unit. These and other design considerations will allow successive enlargement with lower costs. The incubation of eggs of most species will take place in the larval rearing tanks. Bullseye puffer eggs, which are incubated in special tanks similar to those of cyprinid sh, will be located in the induced spawning room because they need more than 24 h to

hatch and because they are demersal eggs, requiring special conditions for incubation and collection of their larvae. Broodstocks will be kept in two outdoor tank areas (an old area of 500 m2 and a new one of 80 m2) according to the species, cohort, sex and/or purposes. There are 26 maturation tanks (750 m3 each) with an overall volume of 410 m3. In particular, two or the 50 m3 tanks will be reinforced concrete and two will be berglass. These tanks will be 6 m diameter and 2 m water depth with 2% slope toward a screened 100 mm diameter central drain. In addition there are two indoor facilities for spawners: a 120 m2 environmental control re-use system (two 18 m3, 3.5 m diameter and 2 m water depth tanks) for chronic environmental and/or hormone maturation/spawning treatments; and another one (48 m2) for acute/chronic induced spawning treatments with several 0.67 m3 tanks, with an overall volume of 40 m3. The re-use system consists of: (a) one 110,000 BTU titanium heat pump to control the temperature; (b) a 170 Lpm pressure sand lter; (c) a 186 m2 RBC biological lter; (d) a foam fractionator with 25 mm inlet and 75 mm outlet for 114155 Lpm ow rate; (e) four 300 W halogen lamps with dimmers and timers to regulate light intensity and photoperiod, capable of mimicking sun-rise and sun-set events. The broodstock areas have a 300 W halogen lamp illumination system (sufcient to help night guards to do their vigilance), with not more than 200 lx at the water surface. Dimmers will be used to mimic sun-set and sun-rise if lamps are to be switched on after it is already dark. All broodstock tanks will have a shade cloth cover to keep them calmed and protected from possible bird attacks. With the exception of the puffer-sh, the broodstock maturation and/or spawning tanks should be large enough, in diameter (!5 m) and in water depth (!1.5 m), especially for species that need lots of room to perform courtship. 4.4. Live food sector In the live food sector, four microalgae species (Nannochloropsis oculata, Isochrysis sp. (T-ISO), elleri and Tetraselmis chuii), two Chaetoceros mu rotifers species (Brachionus rotundiformis and B. plicatilis) and two copepod species (one pelagic and one benthic) will be cultured in several batch production chains of increasing volume steps. Back-up cultures to be used in possible culture collapses will be scaled-up from 20 mL test tubes to nal volumes of 700 L, 1.2 m3 or 7 m3 tanks depending on the species.

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There are two main areas, one indoors and one outdoors. The indoor facility is a 160 m2 building (Fig. 4) with most of the exterior walls having glass-windows for direct sun light benecial effects. The oor and walls are covered with a broad synthetic reinforced cover that assures a smooth surface for easy cleaning and disinfection practices. The design and operation guarantee the required strict hygienic conditions. General features of the different rooms are:  A 5 m2 microalgae duplicating room with sterile conditions (two 30 W ambient UV lamps, a window air conditioner for 18 8C, and a gas burner).  An air-conditioned 20 8C 17 m2 room for microalgae pure strains and glassware small inocula production (2 and 6 L culture asks and 18 L carboys) in four light stands (1.3 m long, 0.8 m wide and 1.80 m height) with three-glass-shelves, and a fourth of hard wood at the top for the pure strains in Petri dishes and 250 mL culture asks that only receive indirect light. Cultures are lighted by 30 uorescent day light tube lamps (ballasts in the ceiling), and aerated with a CO2 (12%) enriched air distribution system.  An air-conditioned 2224 8C 70 m2 intermediate inocula culture room for microalgae and zooplankton. Culture vessels include 50 semi-transparent 87 L capacity cylindrical berglass tanks (0.30 m diameter), each with three daylight uorescent tube lamps (about 40,000 lx), and 20 semi-transparent 700 L capacity cylindrical berglass tanks (0.75 m in diameter), each with three daylight uorescent lamps. This room is equipped with air, seawater and freshwater supplies. Due to the absence of proper polyethylene bags (tubular, hot extruded, with a thickness of about 0.3 mm) in local markets and the possibility of recycling them, the decision for intermediate live culture tubular vessels was in favor of semi-transparent berglass tanks.  An ambient temperature 28.5 m2 room for production of zooplankton small inocula (rotifer and copepods species) up to 18 L carboys in another light stand with the same dimensions as described before, as well as for intensive rotifer production with formula feeds in four 0.5 m3 and four 1.2 m3 cylindroconical berglass tanks. The room is supplied with air, pure oxygen, seawater, freshwater, and hot tap water. In this room the rotifers will be also enriched with microalgae (N. oculata + Isochrysis sp.) or oil enrichment formulas in one or two 1.2 m3 cylindroconical berglass tanks (inner walls white gel coated), and half the daily harvest will be cold stored to be used during the day in

one 300 L cylindroconical berglass tanks. Stored culture will be cooled with 1 L plastic bottles containing frozen seawater. Titanium 3 kW immersion heaters are required to keep temperature around 2830 8C inside the B. rotundiformis tanks.  A 7.5 m2 room for glassware washing, as well as water and glassware sterilization in two autoclaves.  An 11.25 m2 room for incubation and enrichment of Artemia cysts, which will be decapsulated in an adjacent outdoor small facility (5 m2) in two 1.2 m3 cylindroconical berglass tanks. One half the daily harvest will be chilled by 1 L plastic bottles containing frozen seawater, and stored to be used during the day in one or two 300 L cylindroconical berglass tanks. Air, seawater, freshwater and hot tap water are supplied. Waterproof sockets IP-56 are used for the titanium 3 kW immersion heaters for incubation and enrichment tanks. The uorescent lamps (with transparent waterproof covers) over each tank deliver 2000 lx at the water surface of the incubation tanks.  A 14.25 m2 general dry laboratory room for precise weighing and microscopic work, with two dehumiers. There are two outdoor areas, each of 91 m2, divided by a wall 2.5 m in height: one for microalgae N. oculata and T. chuii cultures in eight 1.2 m3 and seven 7 m3 berglass tanks; and another one for copepod production in eight 1.2 m3 and seven 7 m3 berglass tanks. Each side of the wall has a wash basin with a disinfection tank. The microalgae outdoor area will be under direct sun light and N. oculata will be the species produced in the 7 m3 tanks. The estimated live food sector production capacity is about 8 m3 of four microalgae species (140 106 cells/ml, depending on the species) to be used for zooplankton inocula, copepod culture, zooplankton enrichment, and the larval rearing tanks. The estimated zooplankton production capacity is 2.5 109 enriched rotifers/day, 6 108 enriched Artemia metanauplii/day and around 4 107 copepods/day. 4.5. Larviculture and nursery sectors Usually eggs will be incubated within the larval rearing tanks, as most of the species have a short embryonic period of around 24 h. Puffer sh eggs are an exception, and will be incubated, after eliminating their stickiness, in McDonald transparent hatching jars located in the same room as the larval tanks, according to the research now in progress.

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The green-water traditional larval facility is indoors, and consists of six 2 m diameter and 1 m depth (3 m3) cylindrical ber glass tanks with non-reective black walls and a non-reective white bottom with a 1:12 slope toward the central 100 mm diameter drain. White bottoms allow easier debris detection and lets the observer see larvae to study their behaviors and avoid disturbing them when cleaning. Black walls provide maximum visual contrast to assist the larvae to detect their preys and increase feeding efciency. These tanks are in a 64 m2 room, next to the live food sector, with the oor and walls covered with a broad synthetic reinforced cover that assures a smooth surface for easy cleaning and disinfection practices. The tank water is ushed out through laterally installed 100 mm perforated drain pipes covered with a ne mesh screen sized according to the larval stage. Drain screens are easily disassembled for cleaning between rearing cycles, as ` re and Herna ndez described by Alvarez-Lajonche n (2001). The light intensity at the water surface Molejo of the larval rearing tanks is around 2000 lx at midday due to a translucent ber glass roof. In addition, each tank has a 500 W halogen lamp installed over the tank centre capable of varying height over the tank surface water to give a light intensity of at least 25003000 lx. Each lamp is provided with a manual 600 W dimmer to mimic sun-rise and sun-set during switching on and off, to avoid larval stress. There are four 3 m diameter tanks in the copepod culture outdoor area with a design similar to the larval rearing tanks describe above, so that they can be used for larval rearing if needed. There are three different distribution circuits: owthrough seawater, ow-through freshwater, and an air system. Each larval tank has two opposed seawater entrances with ball valves, two opposed air valves, each with four evenly distributed transparent polyethylene lines with their diffusers and a line to a surface skimmer, and one freshwater line. The larval rearing design production capacity, when technologies are fully developed, will be about three to four weaned juveniles/L, with a total of 50,00070,000 juveniles per rearing cycle, and four 1.5-month cycles per year. In the future, with the new working species of snappers, amberjacks and snooks, it should be possible to shorten the production cycles to 1 month each and to carry out a fth rearing cycle at the end of the year. Facilities for mesocosms larval rearing technology will be added in the near future. The facility (600 m2) will be located outdoors, with four 20 m3 berglass tanks: two for intensive microalgae culture (with a paddle wheel system); two 40 m3 berglass tanks for rotifer and copepod production, and another two 40 m3 tanks for the

larvae. Each tank will be provided with seawater, freshwater and compressed air supply systems. The larval tanks will be covered by 70% absorbance shade cloth. There are twelve 5 m3 tanks in the nursery sector, in a 222 m2 outdoor area covered by 70% absorbance shade cloth. The tanks are a modication of a Foster-Lucas ` re and Herna ndez model described by Alvarez-Lajonche n (2001). Dimensions are 4 m 2 m 0.7 m Molejo with a 1.6 m longitudinal bafe that allows an annular water ow-pattern. Each tank will have seawater and air supplies. The design production capacity of the nursery sector can reach around 40,00050,000 one-gram juveniles per cycle when the technologies are ready for commercial application. Finally, the facility also has a 100 m2 outdoor experimental area under 70% absorbance shade cloth for articial food studies. Twelve 3 m3 cylindrical berglass tanks are equipped with ltered seawater, freshwater and an air distribution system. 5. Hatchery staff The pilot-scale hatchery will work with two kinds of workers, full time and part time workers. The part time workers will be researchers of the Reproduction and Nutrition Laboratories of CIAD, and the full time workers will be professional and technical staff that will carry out day-to-day operating tasks in their particular hatchery sectors. There is a hatchery director appointed, and a full time general facility plant manager responsible for maintenance, repairs and keeping the seawater system and physical plant operating efciently and safely so that the aquatic life is secure. Each of the main organism sectors will have a biologist in charge and some assistants: (a) one biologist will be in charge of the reproduction as well as the acclimation and quarantine sectors, working with an assistant technician and a qualied worker; he will also work in the nursery sector with another assistant technician; (b) one biologist will be in charge of the live food sector, working with another biologist: one of them will work with the microalgae and the other with the zooplankton production area, and each of them will have one assistant technician; (c) one biologist will be in charge of the larval rearing sector with one assistant technician. Finally, there will be one technician working at nights, who will do different tasks in the live food, larval rearing and nursery sectors, as well as the night security duty. All professionals and technicians working in the plant must have complete technical knowledge and show maximum conscientious attention for their work

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because it is with very sensitive organisms that need special attention 24 h a day, 7 days per week. Due to the low mechanization and automatization levels, marine sh hatchery efciency depends greatly on the efcacy of their personnel, their dedication and unwavering attention to their work. Thus, the importance of the human factor is essential. A good working and rotation plan including rest days and vacations, and adequate attention and incentive policies are mandatory. Acknowledgements We wish express thanks to many engineers and architects that shared invaluable information on design rez Franco, and operation principles, particularly to D. Pe guez, F. Alonso and J.L. Marrero. Especial N.Y. Rodr thanks are given to G. Cittolin and R. Guidastri from STM AQUATRADE Srl, who transmitted their knowledge and experience on marine sh hatchery design and operation to the senior author (L.A.-L.) during two Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations projects. a Cristina Cha vez and Authors are indebted to Dr. Mar M.A. Sonia Osuna as Director and Administrative Chief n and their staff for their constant of CIAD Mazatla support and interest. Particularly important were the collaboration and contribution of Eng. Mariana Trujillo aor of Gr. Pelicano S.A., the construction and Arq. C. Pen enterprise. Authors are grateful to the CIAD Marine Fish Culture Program members for their assistance and permanent interest. Thanks are also due to Drs. J.E. Huguenin, C. Nash and N. King for their review and very useful comments and recommendations on the manuscript. This study was partially supported by project SAGARPACONACyT 378. References
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