The number of current personnel is less than adequate for the planned 1976 experimental programme. There is a critical need for three additional persons, one of whom should be at a level above the technician grade. Some shift in responsibilities of present staff may have to be planned for 1976, which will unfortunately diminish levels of activities in other phases, such as pond monitoring and growth evaluation. Ideally, all present activities should be carried out at their current level with scale-up in 1976 as related to overall increase in the scope of the programme. This is personnel-limited as noted. The hatchery/mass rearing phase (directed by H. Gordin) requires two additional people while the feed/diet development phase (directed by G. Kissil) requires at least one additional researcher.
In addition to personnel requirements, other major needs at Elat are for a scale-up in equipment and related facilities to permit the programme to proceed properly, on a normal and accelerated growth schedule. Equipment needs can be separated into various categories, namely:
Needed for existing programme:
short/long term (from 3–6 months to 1–2 years).
Other requirements :
Existing Programme
Immediate needs :
Expansion of pelleting capability using steam pretreatment of feed mixes (to condition mix for optimal pellet strength and maximal digestibility of of diet ingredients). To achieve this, a steam generator and auger-steam jacket unit is needed for existing pellet manufacturing machine. Farther equipment should include a delivery system to allow transfer of feed from the mixer to the steam conditioner unit.
To permit small-scale batch mixing capabilities, it is necessary to obtain a laboratory type shell mixing unit along with a dough (or feed) mixer.
Short term/long term needs:
Commercial milling unit - to allow thorough grinding of grow-out diets on a volume basis.
Small experimental cooking extruder - to allow production of various density (from floating to sinking) feeds with various degrees of steam/pressure conditioning.
Forced hot air drying oven - for drying of diets to prescribed moisture levels under controlled conditions.
Spray/double drum laboratory drying units - for production of small particle water-stable dietary preparations for use in larval culture and stabilization of specific low-concentration ingredients.
Centrifuge/separator - for concentration of algal material in hatchery operation.
Freeze-dryer - needed for proper preparation and storage of hatchery foods as well as in the nutritional programme for preparation of heat-labile ingredients, especially those used in hatchery/post-hatchery phases.
Coulter counter - required for particle counting and grading for live and artificial foods in hatchery phase.
Other requirements:
For the late spring/early summer grow-out experiments, 1976,there is an immediate need for a total of 16 additional fiberglass tanks to complement existing 16 units. These are required to run an adequate and statistically valid nutritional post-hatchery for grow-out experiments. Current use of asbestos and fiberglass tanks introduces internal variations in fish response that may exceed that of the treatment itself. The possibility for on-site construction of these units should be considered.
Expansion of monitoring conditions in the pond unit will require the accession of recording and remote sensoring equipment. To quantitate this essential activity, temperature, oxygen, pH, and salinity read-out units should be installed in any projection of upgrading of the technology of the Elat unit.
Facility expansion:
A feed/dietary preparation unit is needed, separate from the ingredient storage area and that concerned with batch manufacture of feed for grow-out purposes. This will become even more critical when the programme reaches a stage of nutritional evaluation and physiology/biochemistry (within two years) as related to fish/diet response. Coupled with this facility would be an analytical unit for all phases of dietary evaluation.
Grow-out expansion to semi-production scale-up is needed, from 1 to 20 m3 units to ponds of 1 000 m3 size, to expansion in the cage culture capability. Already, post-hatchery facilities are being used to their maximum.
A controlled environment hatchery unit is needed to expand spawning season for year-round fry production. Current three-month spawning season is temperature/photoperiod limited. Control of these parameters is likely to permit a doubling of actual fry production.
