Sporeliner til tangproduktion. Foto: Anne Trap-Lind.

DTU opens new oyster hatchery on Mors

Fish and shellfish Food production Food technology

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

With its approx. 750 m2, the Danish Shellfish Center'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 is established.

Danish Shellfish Center is a part of DTU Aqua and is located on Mors, an island in the Limfjord sound in Jutland.

This means that DTU Aqua at Mors now has the capacity and technology to support research and development in aquaculture as the future sustainable food production. In addition, space is created for more education locally, e.g., master's and Ph.D. projects and 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. He elaborates:

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

Strengthened local cooperation

With the new hatchery, you will find all the latest technology you could wish for hatching oysters and other shellfish species and growing seaweed.

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

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

Danish Shellfish Center already has a strong collaboration with the surrounding industry and community. Since 2013, it has also been a dissemination center. Its main task is publicizing recent science to schools, tourists, associations, and companies. Also, the Danish 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 furthering collaboration and exploring new opportunities for local jobs in connection with the new hatchery.

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