TECHNICAL GURU
Lighting
in aquaculture facilities by Amy Stone*
Lighting is generally an afterthought in many facilities but it can make a pretty important impact on production.
W
hen I was first starting out in the red drum hatchery, we were just using standard fluorescent lighting. While we were successful, it’s possible we could have capitalized on better lighting options. Of course, I was doing this work in the mid to late 90’s before the availability of more efficient fixtures, so I will use that as my excuse. Over the last decade, we have seen several significant advancements in lighting. One of the most prevalent is the LED (Light Emitting Diode) technology. LED’s allow a greater variety of spectrumor color-specific lighting and offer a completely new range of lighting options previously not possible with conventional lighting technologies. This column will discuss the different types of lighting and controllers that are available for use in our industry. From traditional fluorescent lighting to the more efficient LED, there are several options that are available. Before delving into the types of lighting, it is important to review lighting in general. Lighting can be species and life phase specific. For example, brood stock lighting, in my experience, has been more about the time that the light is on than wavelength and intensity. Larval rearing has been more specific to intensity and in some research, it has been shown that wavelength can also affect fish growth.
68 »
