Aquaponics in the New York Times

There's an article in the New York Times Home section today about aquaponics. From the article:

Aquaponic gardens use fish, water and no soil — and may be the future of food growing.

Well, that's what Martine Schreibmand has been saying for quite a while now. Under his direction, AREAC has been raising tilapia in the basement of the Ingersoll Hall Extension for years. Soon, the greenhouse on the roof of the building will be complete, and hopefully, a full blown aquaponics operation will begin there. Right now, Martin and Rob Dickie are expanding their aquaponics operation downstairs. AREAC is ready, willing and able to lead the aquaponics and sustainable food production charge in Brooklyn and the other boroughs.

More Seahorses

A few weeks ago, AREAC received some new captive-bred seahorses from a breeding facility in Hawaii. Under the careful watch of Rob Dickie, we hope to eventually produce our own offspring from the breeding pairs as part of the ornamental aquaculture research program.



Above is a juvenile seahorse and below is an adult female. We now have a total of 3 breeding pairs (captive-bred) and one wild caught seahorse from the Hudson River.

Fish Rescue in Prospect Park Lake

AREAC to the rescue! Paul Forlano, Brett Branco and Rob Dickie joined the staff of the Prospect Park Alliance and some volunteers last Wednesday to rescue fish from behind a temporary dam in Prospect Park Lake. Some major shoreline construction will be going on at the lake as the outflow drain is rebuilt and the shoreline is reconfigured.

The AREAC crew arrived with their 50 foot seine net and some waders. The mud was thick and deep and the going was tough. At one point, Rob began a slow descent into the muck and had to be rescued. After a couple of passes, with the seine net, everyone pitched in with hand nets to scoop the fish hiding in the shelter of the dam.

While we were there, hundreds of small sunfish were captured along with a catfish and a large mouth bass. Paul spotted an American eel slithering in the mud, but it made an escape. The Alliance and the volunteers continued on after our departure and we're still waiting to find out what the final fish tally was. Next week, a much larger section of the lake will be dammed and drained and we will pitch in to rescue more fish, turtles and whatever else we find.

Seahorses have arrived!

Thanks to Rich Levy and Rob Dickie, the saltwater facility now has two seahorses!

These are adult females of the local species of Lined seahorse, or Hippocampus erectus. H. erectus occurs in local waters, and has an overall range from Nova Scotia to Argentina. In nature, seahorses feed on copepods, and right now, Rob is feeding them brine shrimp. He would like to shift them to frozen mysids.

Here's an image of the second seahorse. Note that this female H. erectus has longer 'cirri', the filaments on the upper dorsal area. And it is hanging on to the support using its prehensile tail.

Watch this space for more news!