Báo cáo nghiên cứu khoa học " DEVELOPMENT OF IN-POND FLOATING RACEWAY TECHNOLOGY FOR INTENSIVE FARMING OF MARINE FINFISH " potx

Collaboration for Agriculture and Rural Development
(CARD)
Program
72
DEVELOPMENT OF IN
-
POND FLOATING RACEWAY
TECHNOLOGY FOR INTENSIVE FARMING OF MARINE FINFISH
Project title:
Intensive
in
-
pond floating raceway production of marine finfish
Project code
:
CARD 062/04 VIE
Author:
Hoang Tung, School of Biotechnology, International University,
Vietnam National University
Ho
Chi
Minh
City, Email:
htun

Project Implementing organisations:
Vietnamese organisation
:
Nha Trang University, Khanh Hoa
Vietnamese Project Team Leader
:

Dr. Hoang Tung
Australian Organisation
:
Queensland Department of Primary Industries & Fisheries
Australian Personn
el
:
Mr Michael Burke
SUMMARY
CARD project 062/04 VIE entitled ‘Intensive in
-
pond floating raceway production of marine finfish’
was conducted from August 2005 through August 2007 aiming to develop the larval rearing and
nursery capacity of marine finfish
production in Vietnam through the use of accessible, cost effective
and environmentally sustainable technologies. After two year of implementation, both components of
the project are all successful, achieving the expected outputs, including trial of in po
nd floating
raceways with systems management, water quality management and waste remediation to grow
-
out
marine finfish to market size; and capacity building for Nha Trang University.
The final production trial at BIARC (Australian component) was to evalua
te the suitability of
raceways for extended grow
-
out of fish to 1.5 kg that confirmed fish husbandry (feeding, monitoring,
harvesting) is easily managed in raceways either as a nursery system, as an intermediate grow
-
out

system, or as an on
-
growing system.
At the same time, research into water remediation strategies was
also completed. Bio
-
flock
technology was found to be the most promising technology to progress
towards zero water discharge under Australian conditions.
For the Vietnamese component the tria
l on zero
-
discharge system and trials on cobia and groupers
were all conducted successfully. Growth performance and survival of the Malaba grouper in the
floating raceways were outperformed that in any other nursing system. Mortality was, however, still
hi
gh with cobia due to parasite infection in previous nursing stage. Dissemination of technology to
farmers has been conducted various manners, including organization of workshops and exhibition
booth, scientific publications, oral presentations at national
and international conferences, temporary
provision of floating raceways to local farmers for testing, provision of free
-
of
-
charge consultation for
interested companies or individuals, incorporation of project outcomes into lecture notes for graduate
and un
dergraduate aquaculture programs at Nha Trang University and production of a technical
guideline and movie clip. These activities have brought the project results to the users.
1.

Introduction
According to FAO (2009) Vietnam ranks No.3
worldwide in term
of aquaculture production.
Thus, Vietnam should further develop its
aquaculture industry to meet the increasing
seafood demand of both domestic and export
markets, and to improve the economics of
coastal communities. Recent evaluation
showed that the produ
ction of farmed marine
fish reached only 5% of the target of 20,000
metric tons by 2010 set by the government for
the
2001
-
2010 national aquaculture
development program (Dr Ph
ạ
m Anh Tu
ấ
n,
personal communication). The shortage of
CARD 062/04 VIE
–
In
-
pond floating raceways
73
quality fingerlings at large sizes has been

considered as one of the major barriers for
marine fish farming in Vietnam, not to
mention signific
ant reduction of purchasing
power due to the recent global economy crisis.
During 2000
-
2005 many projects were
conducted on the development of technologies
for artificial propagation of high
-
value marine
fish species such as barramundi (Lates
calcarifer),
groupers (Epinephelus spp.) and
cobia (Rachycentron canadum), resulting in
some remarkable successes (Le Xan 2005,
Nguyen Van Su 2005). As a result the
production of marine fish fingerlings increased
significantly, meeting partially the demand of
local fis
h farmers. Fingerling size was,
however, not large enough for direct stocking
for grow
-
out in sea cages or coastal ponds.
Low survival in the early stages of farming
was typically reported. Advanced nursing of
fish fingerlings to 10 to 12 cm total body
len

gth in indoor facilities is costly and
cannot
produce huge numbers of fish due to
limitations of both nursing area and capital
investment. Meanwhile, advanced nursing of
fish in earthen ponds was not effective and
associated with many difficulties in feedi
ng,
husbandry and health management.
To address these constraints our CARD project
062/04 VIE entitled ‘Intensive in
-
pond floating
raceway production of marine finfish’ was
conducted between 2005
-
2007. The project
was financially and technically supported
by
the Collaboration for Agriculture and
Development Program (CARD), Bribie Island
Aquaculture Research Center
–
QDPI&F
(Australia), Nha Trang University (Khanh
Hoa, Vietnam), Grobest Imei Vietnam, and
Khanh Hoa Fisheries Promotion Center. The
CARD VIE062/
04 project adopted the
operational

principles
of in
-
pond floating
raceway which have been successfully tested
in the USA (Masser & Lazur, 1997), Germany
(Gottschalk et al. 2005) and Australia (Collins
& Hoang Tung, unpublished) in order to (i)
design and c
onstruct in
-
pond floating raceways
using local materials, (ii) conduct
farming/nursing trials on high value species
and (iii) develop and introduce the established
technology to the local aquaculture industries.
In
-
pond floating raceways are basically sim
ilar
to elongated rectangular tanks which can be
made of different materials such as
aluminium
,
molded plastic or wooden frame and HDPE
plastic sheet. They are either self
-
floating or
supported by a pontoon installed in the
reservoir pond. Water is continu

ously
circulated through the raceway by airlifts. This
type of pumping has been considered as an
effective means for moving water when
pumping head is low. In addition, incoming
water is enriched with oxygen in the airlifts.
Together with high water exchan
ge rate it
allows high densities of farmed fish in the
raceway, e.g. 70
-
100 kg/m3. In
-
pond floating
raceway is also convenient for the farmers to
handle and manage. Observation on feeding,
health and behavior of the farmed fish, grading
and harvesting ar
e all easily conducted as fish
are concentrated in a small volume of water.
Thus, labor cost can be reduced by 50%.
Predation is effectively excluded since the
inlet, outlet and surface of the raceway are
covered with net. If treatments are needed for
the
farmed fish, farmers can turn the raceway
into a ‘close’ tank by temporarily ceasing the
operation of airlifts and blocking the outlet.
Thank to this remarkable advantage,
prophylactic treatment for fish is highly

effective and economical. Previous trials
in the
USA, Germany and Australia also showed that
feed efficiency of fish cultured in floating
raceways is significantly improved compared
with other farming systems. Feed cost and
waste from the system are reduced by
approximately 30%.
Generally, floatin
g raceways have many
advantage over the traditional nursing systems
and should be introduced extensively.
However, the application of this technology is
limited by unreliable electricity supply and
high electricity cost in the developing
countries. Thus, t
he focus of our CARD
VIE062/04 was different for Australia and
Vietnam. The Australian component aimed to
develop grow
-
out technology using in
-
pond
floating raceways to improve overall
management and reduce labor cost. The
Vietnamese component focused on a
dvanced
nursing of marine finfish fingerling in order to
meet the urgent demand for large fingerlings

and to overcome the limitations of high capital
Hoang Tung
74
investment and high operation costs by fast
turn
-
over rate that is usually achievable in
fingerling produc
tion.
After two years of implementation (August
2005
-
August 2007) both components of the
project are all successful, achieving the
expected outputs, including capacity building
for Nha Trang University. This report presents
the obtained results of the pr
oject with more
emphasis on the SMART floating raceway
system and the advanced nursing technology
developed by the Vietnam component.
2.
Research contents and methods
The CARD project 062/04 VIE ‘Intensive in
-
pond floating raceway production of marine
fis
h’ is considered as an R&D project rather
than a pure research one with the following
specific activities

2.1
Design in
-
pond floating raceway for
grow
-
out of marine finfish in Australia,
trial operation and evaluation
Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicus)
and
wh
iting (Sillago ciliata) were used as the
model species for trials in Australia from 2005
–
2006. Based on the biology of these species
and production targets, two types of floating
raceways were designed and constructed: 3.6
m3 for nursing grow
-
out of whit
ing to the size
of 60 g/individual and 20 m3 for grow
-
out of
Mulloway to the size of 2,000 g/individual. Six
raceways were made by wooden frame and 2
-
mm HDPE canvas. The raceways were placed
in a grow
-

out pond of 1600 m2 (40*40 m), 2 m
deep and lined with
2
-
mm HDPE. The
duration of trials was up to 18 months.
Ridley’s Aqua
-
Feed Native Fish Diet (low
sinking, granular size of 1
-
3 mm and 4
-
6
mm) was used to culture whiting. Mulloway
were fed with the floating and sinking Ridley’s
Aqua
-
Feed Barramundi Diet
feed with granule
size of 4
–
10 mm. Feeding rate was adjusted
daily depending on the recorded actual
consumption by fish, weather condition and
water quality. Regular recording of the
important data on water quality, feeding
amount, growth rate and survi
val was
conducted to evaluate the efficiency of system

(see the milestone reports 2 & 4, Burke &
Tung 2006 for more details).
2.2
Design in
-
pond floating raceway for
advanced nursing of marine finfish in
Vietnam, trial operation and evaluation
The component c
onducted in Vietnam focused
on advanced nursing of marine finfish
fingerlings from 2
–
4 cm to 10
–
15 cm body
length. Abandoned shrimp ponds due to
virulent diseases along the central coast of
Vietnam were targeted. Fiberglass was
selected as the material
to build floating
raceway. This material makes the raceway
light, solid and more durable thus enhancing
its mobility, convenience for transportation
and installation, ease in cleaning. The
raceways are named SMART, an abbreviation
of Sustainable Maricultu
re Technology. Based
on the biology of the model species;
requirement for water exchange rate and waste

discharge, hydraulic dynamic principles and
the results of previous studies the CARD
VIE062/04 has designed and tested a system
consisted to six SMART
-
1
raceways 3
-
m3
working volume each in the first year (2005
–
2006). The tested species included red tilapia
(Oreochromis sp.), barramundi (Lates
calcarifer) and mangrove jack (Lutjanus
argentimacus). The SMART
-
1 raceways were
attached on a pontoon constructe
d with
wooden frame and 200
-
L plastic drums. All
were placed in a reservoir pond of 2000 m2,
1.7 m deep. The duration of each trial was
about three to four weeks (Lu The Phuong
2006). Water in the pond was circulated by
portioning the pond with plastic sh
eet in the
middle and using a 2
-

hp paddle wheel. No
water exchange was conducted during eleven
months of different trials. Water quality, feed
amount, growth rate and survival of fish were
periodically monitored for evaluation (for
more details see Burke &
Tung 2006). Based
on the analysis of SMART
-
1 performance, the
second version SMART
-
2 (6 m3, self
-
floating)
was designed, manufactured and tested in the
second year of the project. This was to
improve productivity up to commercial scale.
In the second year
more trials on nursing
barramundi (Lates calcarifer), Malaba grouper
(Epinephelus malabaricus) and cobia
(Rachycentron canadum) were conducted
simultaneously with the trial on zero
-
exchange
water system (for more details Burke et al.
2007).
CARD 062/04 VIE
–

In
-
pond floating raceways
75
2.3
Investigate
on the potential of building
the zero
-
exchange in
-
pond floating
raceway system for nursing marine
finfish
The trials were conducted at Bribie Island
Aquaculture Research Centre in Australia and
at Khanh Hoa Fisheries Promotion Center in
Vietnam during the
second year of the project.
In Australia fish were cultured in floating
raceways placed in a reservoir pond.
Discharged water was treated by biofloc
technology and seaweed. In Vietnam marine
fish fingerlings were nursed in SMART
floating raceways placed i
n a reservoir pond
stocked with giant tiger prawn (Penaeus
monodon) and red tilapia (Oreochromis sp.).
No water exchange was conducted during the
trial period (for more details see Burke et al.

2007).
2.4
Dissemination of technology to farmers
The disseminati
on of research outcomes and
technology was conducted in various manners,
including organization of workshops and
exhibition booth, scientific publications, oral
presentations at national and international
conferences, temporary provision of floating
racewa
ys to local farmers for testing, provision
of free
-
of
-
charge consultation for interested
companies or individuals, incorporation of
project outcomes into lecture notes for
graduate and undergraduate aquaculture
programs at Nha Trang University and
producti
on of a technical guideline and movie
clip.
2.5
Capacity building for Vietnamese staff
This activity was conducted by sending one
junior lecturer to Australia for short
-
term

training, supporting and supervising two MSc
students, organizing relevant seminars
for staff
of the Faculty of Aquaculture
–
Nha Trang
University and Khanh Hoa Fisheries
Promotion Center and get them involved in
project activities where appropriate.
3.
Research results and discussions
3.1
Design in
-
pond floating raceway for
grow
-
out of ma
rine finfish in Australia,
trial operation and evaluation
The structure of floating raceway used in
BIARC is relatively simple (see Burke & Tung
2006). The supporting frame is made by
waterproof treated wood and is floated by 200
-
L plastic drums. The body
of the raceway is
made of 2 mm thick HDPE, hung on the
pontoon by rust
-

proof pins. The airlift system
installed for the 20m3 grow
-
out raceway
consists of eighteen Ø90
-
mm PVC pipes that
results in a pumping rate of more than 1500
L/min. It takes circa 13 m
inutes to completely
exchange the raceways with new water. For
the nursing raceways the airlift system consists
of four Ø90
-
mm PVC pipes. Pumping rate is
350 L/min or 14.5 minutes to complete 100%
water exchange. The air compressor system is
operated autom
atically by a Center
Management System (CMS) that can control
temperature, pressure and air flow. The
standard pressure is maintained at 36 Kpa.
Automatic feeding machines are used.
Fig
. 1.
Floating raceway 20 m
3
for grow
-
out marine

finfish in Austra
lia and the harvested whiting
Trial on grow
-
out of whiting was successful at
a density of 70 kg/m3 (see Burke & Tung
2006). After 9.5 months the farmed fish
reached 88.9 g from 5.5 g at stocking. Standing
biomass increased from 26 kg/m3 to 70 kg/m3
in
nearly eleven weeks. Food conversion ratio
was estimated at 1.8. The harvested whiting
were well accepted by customers when placed
in local supermarkets. Retail price for whiting
as whole or fillet was $ 10/kg and $ 24/kg,
respectively. Trial on Mulloway s
howed that
this species can be reared at densities up to 100
kg/m
3
or two metric tons per a 20 m3 raceway.
Standing biomass increased from 15 kg to 100
kg/m3 in eleven months of culture. Fish weight
was 500 g/individual and 1000 g/individual
Hoang Tung
76
after 9 months
and 14 months, respectively.
FCR was 1.6 on average. More importantly,
the trials demonstrated that husbandry

(feeding, observation, grading, health care) and
harvesting in raceway were highly convenient
for all culture stages from nursing to grow
-
out.
3.2
D
esign in
-
pond floating raceway for
advanced nursing of marine finfish in
Vietnam, trial operation and evaluation
The raceways were designed and tested
successfully with two versions SMART
-
1 and
SMART
-
2. They were placed in a 2000
-
m2
reservoir pond. The po
nd was partitioned by a
plastic wall right in the middle of the pond.
This helped directing water to flow around the
pond with the aid of a 2
-
hp paddle wheel
(Figure 2). Detailed design of the system is
presented in the Milestone of the project 2&4

(Burke
& Tung 2006) and in the publications
of Phuong (2006), Tung et al. (2007). The
operational volume of SMART
-
1 is 3 m3
(Figure 2). Water flow through the raceway is
circa of 350 L/min, equivalent to 700% water
exchange in one hour. SMART
-
1 design
helped circ
ulate water within the raceway as
expected, facilitating waste collection and
allowing high densities of nursed fish (up to 80
kg/m
3
at harvest).
Fig
.
2
.
System arrangement
Fig
.
3
.
SMART
-
1 floating raceway

A few drawbacks were, however, id
entified
with the design of SMART
-
1 version. The
raceways were attached to the supporting
pontoon thus reducing its mobility and making
cleaning difficult. The buoyancy of the
pontoon remarkably depended on the numbers
of workers working on it, causing neg
ative
impact on efficiency of the airlift system.
There was no waste collector for SMART
-
1
although the accumulated wastes at the end of
the raceway could be easily siphoned out once
a day (Burke & Tung 2006; Tung et al. 2007).
These drawbacks were well ad
dressed in the
second version SMART
-
2 (Hoang Tung &
Khanh 2008). The operational volume of
SMART
-
2 is six m3, double that of SMART
-
1.
It is self

-
floating, i.e. requires no supporting
structure. Its light weight (400 kg) allows easy
transportation and insta
llation. The raceway
could be put immediately in operation after
placing in a reservoir pond (Figure 4). The
airlift system can be easily installed and
removed for cleaning. Surface water of the
reservoir pond is used to exchange with the
raceway rather fr
om lower layers as for
SMART
-
1. Hence, SMART
-
2 can be placed in
relatively shallow ponds, i.e. with water depths
between 100 and 120 cm, without no
contamination of the dirt from the pond
bottom. SMART
-
2 also has a simple waste
collector at the end of the
raceway, making it
more convenient and effective in cleaning than
SMART
-
1.
Fig

.
4
.
Floating raceway version SMART
-
2
Paddle wheel
Partitioned wall
Floating raceways
Monk
Air compressors
Air line
Walkway
CARD 062/04 VIE
–
In
-
pond floating raceways
77
The nursing trials using SMART
-
1 and
SMART
-
2 floating raceways both obtained
good results. In addition a protocol of using
Grobest sh
rimp pellets manually coated with
vitamin mix and squid oil was successfully
developed and applied. This improved

profitability significantly while ensuring the
quality of nursed fish. If applied properly the
nursing protocols recommended by Tung et al.
(2
009) can result in 85%, 90
-
95%, 60%
survival after 40
-
45 days of nursing for
barramundi, grouper and cobia, respectively.
In addition, production cost is significantly
lower than that for advanced nursing in tanks,
ponds or cages (Tung et al. 2008).
Tab
le 2
.
Fingerling size and production cost of marine fish nursed in SMART floating raceway
(at the market price in 2008)
Barramundi
Malaba grouper
Cobia
Harvest size (mm long)
100
120
200
Production cost (VND)
1551
7391
9596

Market price (VND)
7000
160
00
20000
Profit return
2.82
1.16
1.08
3.3
Investigation on the potential of
developing a zero
-
exchange system for
growing/nursing marine finfish
The trials on water treatment using biological
methods was conducted in Australia with three
elements (a) eva
luating the waste collector
installed in raceway; (b) using seaweed
Asparagopsis armata to remove nutrients from
discharged water and (c) applying biofloc
technology for pH control and waste treatment.
Results showed that the tested waste collector
i
mproved waste collection by 16% compared to
the conventional method that allows discharged
water overflow through the raceway outlet. This
solution made it possible to direct discharged
water from the raceway to the treatment pond. It

also found out that t
he concentration of
phytoplankton and suspended solids should be
reduced to promote the development of
Asparagopsis armata in the waste treatment
system. Organic waste should also transformed
into inorganic nutrients for the seaweed. Biofloc
technology app
lied for treatment of discharged
water was demonstrated to be a highly promising
solution for development of a zero
-
exchange
culture system (Burke et al. 2007). The associated
bacteria eliminated most of dissolved organic
nutrients after 12 hours when 30 g
of C/l was
added. A zero
-
exchange culture model was then
proposed and needs to be further studied for
practical application (Figure 6
)
.
Fig
.
5. Design of the waste collector. A plastic
screen will be used to prevent fi
sh from escaping.
Hoang Tung

78
Fig
.
6. Outline of the zero
-
exchanged system with a separated bio
-
flocs module
In V
ietnam the attempt to integrate advanced
nursing of marine fish in floating raceways
with farming tiger prawn (5 prawns/m2) and
red tilapia (0.25 fish/m2) was conducted.
Growth rate and survival of Malaba grouper
nursed in this raceway system was
significa
ntly higher than every nursing models
at the experimentation time. However, lower
survival rate was recorded for cobia in raceway
due to parasite infection in hatchery (Burke et
al. 2007). Water quality in the integrated pond
was good and stably maintained
during the
four months of trial with no water exchange.
During that period of time, seven batches of
fish were nursed including barramundi,
grouper and cobia. All trials had good results
with relatively high profitability. Growth rate
and survival of Mal
aba grouper nursed in

raceway at a density up to 1,700 fish/m3 were
high (Table 3). The nursed fish accepted
Grobest prawn pellets coated with squid oil
very well. Thus, feed cost was reduced by 80%
compared to the popularly used pellet supplied
by INVE. R
esult on cobia was not as good as
for barramundi and Malaba grouper. Survival
was quite low. Examination showed that fish
might be infected with the so
-
called “spring
parasites” (Nguyen Quang Huy
-
RIA1) in the
hatcheries before stocking in the raceways.
Table 3. Results on nursing barramundi and grouper Malaba in the in
-
pond floating raceway
Parameters
Barramundi
Malaba grouper
Batch 1
Batch 2
Batch 1
Batch 2
Fingerling size at release(cm)
2.0 ± 0.1
2.3 ± 0.8
5.2 ± 0.4

6.3 ± 0.5
Fingerling size at
harvest (cm)
6.2 ± 1.1
8.4 ± 1.0
11.0 ± 0.7
6.9 ± 0.4
Duration (days)
23
41
41
10
Growth rate (cm.day
-
1
)
0.182
0.149
0.141
0.086
Number of fish released
30,000
20,000
2,000
5,000
Number of fish harvested
23,400
10,202
1,921
4,960*

Survival (%)
78.0
51.0
96.0
99.2*
*
Data obtained on the 7
th
day of the batch, 2 days before fish death due to unexpected failure of the
airlift system on Ausgust 5
th
, 2007
The cultured prawns reached 30 g or more at
harvest. Survival, however, was relatively low
due
to heavy predation by barramundi escaped
from the raceways. Another drawback of this
trial was that the inoculated Artemia to graze
algae and provide additional
live food
for fish
fingerlings did not develop as expected.
Nevertheless, this primary trial p
repared the
Screen
Air jet to provide
oxygen and to mix
water
Periodically
removing

accumulated
sludge
Banana prawn
stocked at low
density with no
feeding
–
prawns
will feed on flocs
Clean supernatant
back
to culture
pond
Paddle
wheel
Grow
-
out pond
Bio
-
floc
Pond
Discharged water rich in
nutrients pumped to the
treatment pond
Floating
raceways
Added water
to
compensate

evaporation
CARD 062/04 VIE
–
In
-
pond floating raceways
79
ground for further development of a more
sustainable integrated culture system that
requires no water exchange and imposes
minimal impact on the environment (for more
details see Burke et al. 2007).
Fig
.
7
.
Clockwise, from above to
below (a) feeding cobia (b) good feeding activity, (c) cobia and
(d) Malaba grouper at harvest
3.4
Dissemination of technology to farmers
In collaboration with Khanh Hoa Fisheries
Promotion Center, CARD VIE062/04 Project
had organized three workshops for lo
cal
farmers, one exhibition booth at the Asian
Pacific Aquaculture 2007 Conference in Hanoi
which attracted special attention of many
participants in Vietnam and abroad. The results
the project were published as technical and

milestone reports, several pre
sentations at
international conferences in the US and
Vietnam, one article in the Advocate magazine
and two scientific papers in the Fisheries
Science & Technology Journal (2007, 2009);
two scientific papers proceedings of local
workshops; two MSc theses o
f Luu The
Phuong and Ngo Van Manh, and some
undergraduate theses. After the completion of
the project information dissemination has been
continually conducted via the ViFINET
Aquaculture Conference in December, 2008
and Best Aquaculture Practices Workshop
organized by CARD in July, 2009 in Nha
Trang. With additional support from the
CARD program the project will publish a
technical manual (in Vietnamese and English)
in 2010 and establish a floating raceway model
at the International University
–
VNUHCM for
training students and interested farmers. These
activities altogether have resulted in the
application of this newly developed technology
to a number of interested companies in Phu
Yen, Khanh Hoa, Ba Ria Vung Tau, Ben Tre
provinces and other countries such
as

Malaysia, the USA, Singapore and Australia.
The research team in Vietnam had been
awarded the Second Prize in the Science &
Technology Innovation Competition in 2007
by the Khanh Hoa People Committees.
3.5
Capacity building for Vietnamese staff
Through t
he CARD VIE062/04 the project
staff of Nha Trang University have had
opportunities to collaborate with Australian
colleagues to study and successfully develop
an advanced nursing system for marine finfish.
During the project, one junior lecturer was sent
t
o Australia for a 3
-
month training course; one
Hoang Tung
80
technical staff of the Khanh Hoa Fisheries
Promotion was get involved in research;
several training courses and information
exchange were organized; two MSc students
were sponsored and supervised to conduct
th
esis research related to in
-
pond floating
raceway. At the present both of them are

serving the fisheries sector in Vietnam: one is
a lecturer of Nha Trang University, Faculty of
Aquaculture and the other is an officer of
Quang Ninh Department of Agricultur
e and
Rural Development. V.L.I.R. program in
Belgium awarded the project secretary, Ms.
Banh Thi Quyen Quyen a scholarship to
undertake MSc study in aquaculture thank to
her academic performance and research
experience. Ms. Quyen obtained her MSc
degree w
ith distinction in 2009 and is now
serving Nha Trang University as a lecturer.
4.
Conclusions and recommendation

The CARD VIE062/04 project has been
successful in developing a cost
-
effective
technology for growing and for advanced
nursing of marine finfi
sh using in
-
pond
floating raceways. This innovative
technology allows the production of large
number of quality fingerlings at relatively
low costs and is considered adoptable by

farmers in both Australia and Vietnam. Its
achievements in network creation,
scientific publication and capacity
building for Vietnamese staff are
considered remarkable.

The results of CARD 062/04 VIE Project
should be further promoted with support
from the Ministry of Agriculture and
Rural Development of Vietnam. It is
important
that this advanced technology is
transferred to companies and farmers in
different parts of Vietnam helping
develop mariculture.

As the labor cost and thus production cost
is generally low in Vietnam the
fiberglass
-
made SMART raceways should
be further imp
roved in design and
manufacture that could eventually result
in a module
-
based commercial products
for export.

Floating raceway has great potential for

application to the farming of other
important aquaculture species such as
including the spiny rock lobst
ers, marine
finfish, ornamental fish or incorporating
into an integrated farming system that
requires no water exchange. R&D works
related to these potentials should be
strongly endorsed and supported by
relevant agencies.
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