State-of-the-art oyster hatchery on Mors offers new opportunities for education, research and business collaboration.

With its approx. 750 m2, Dansk Skaldyrcenter's new oyster hatchery is 10 times larger than the small oyster hatchery that exists today. In addition, an oyster kindergarten of approx. 450 m2.

This means that DTU Aqua at Mors, of which the Danish Shellfish Center is a part, now has both the capacity and technology to support research and development in aquaculture as the sustainable food production of the future. In addition, space is created for more education locally, e.g. in the form of master's and PhD projects, as well as an expansion of collaboration with the local business community.

"The opening of our new hatchery is the largest that has happened since the Danish Shellfish Center was established in 2003. The hatchery is state of the art - there is nothing similar in Denmark," says Jens Kjerulf Petersen, head of the Danish Shellfish Center and professor at DTU Aqua and elaborates:

"In the new facilities, we focus on flat oysters and seaweed species such as spills and sugar seaweed. Precisely in seaweed production, there has been a bottleneck in the development of the cost-effective track lines on which the seaweed grows due to lack of technology."

Strengthened local cooperation

With the new hatchery, you will find new technology according to all the rules of the art for hatching both oysters and other shellfish species and growing seaweed.

According to the researchers, shellfish farming and seaweed cultivation can both serve as the sustainable food of the future and benefit the aquatic environment and biodiversity in the sea. Seaweed and oysters absorb nutrients and purify seawater.

Therefore, the upscaling of the hatchery has also been put in the lake to help change society's food production to a more sustainable business development. In addition, these species have a very low or even negative CO2 footprint.

The shellfish center already has a strong collaboration with the surrounding industry and community.

On the one hand, the Danish Shellfish Center has since 2013 functioned as a dissemination center, whose main task is to disseminate the latest knowledge in the field to primary and secondary school students, tourists, associations and companies. In part, the Shellfish Center collaborates primarily with local companies in the North Jutland Region, but in recent years also with companies elsewhere in the country.

Leader Jens Kjerulf Petersen is looking forward to even more new collaboration opportunities and new opportunities for local jobs in connection with the new hatchery.

The new oyster hatchery will be inaugurated on 1 October with a visit by Minister of Fisheries Rasmus Prehn and Morso Municipality's Mayor Hans Ejner Bertelsen.

Reference Link:https://www.dtu.dk/nyheder/pressemeddelelser/Nyhed?id={9A8263A7-FE32-4644-BEBE-69F82357190A}