Journal
AQUACULTURE ECONOMICS & MANAGEMENT
Volume 19, Issue 2, Pages 226-250Publisher
TAYLOR & FRANCIS INC
DOI: 10.1080/13657305.2015.1024347
Keywords
production economic analysis; black sea bass fingerlings; marine finfish hatchery
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Funding
- North Carolina Biotechnology Center Regional Development Grant Program [2009-RDG-4005]
- Marine Biotechnology in North Carolina (MARBIONC)
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A pilot-scale finfish mariculture hatchery was established at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. In 2011, research-based hatchery protocols were scaled up to produce 37,000 advanced (1-5g) black sea bass fingerlings. Based on engineering, biological, and cost data from operating the pilot hatchery, an economic analysis of a hypothetical commercial scale black sea bass hatchery operation was conducted. The financial performance of two alternative facilities that produce 97,200 5-g and 388,800 1-g fingerlings per year over a 30-year project life showed cumulative net present value (NPV) of $445,000, and $3,168,000, modified internal rates of return (MIRR) of 6.52% and 10.52%, and per unit breakeven prices of $1.67 and $0.47, respectively. Sensitivity analyses showed that final stocking density was critical to financial performance. Fingerlings were supplied to startup growers in NC and in VA, and market-size fish from these growout facilities were distributed (live or whole on ice) to premium-value markets on the eastern seaboard. This pilot hatchery is enabling new farmers to access fingerlings, establish growout technology and understand market value and demand.
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