The oldest commercial salmon hatchery (3/3)

In previous articles, I reported the practices of the Hunningue salmonids hatchery (articles here). From 1852 to 1870, the farm dispatched 40 million eggs to more than 30 countries. The customers, the shipment and some methods have been recorded in a series of books and gives an interesting insight on the history of aquaculture methods.

The hatchery can still be visited. A small museum about wild salmon from the river, together with an incubation room.

Picture from gallica.bnf.fr Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.

Eggs shipment

The choice of the transport box depended on the type of eggs, the species, the duration of the trip and the potential risk of negative temperature along the trip. For soft eggs, a flat box was filled with wet cloth. The eggs were gently laid on the cloth and empty spaces were filled with aquatic plants or moss.

For more resistant eggs like salmonid ones, Hunningue hatchery used layers of sand in between successive layers of eggs, extending survival to 10 days.

Nowadays, when salmon eggs leave a hatchery in Styrofoam boxes, a layer of ice is placed at the bottom to maintain 2-8°C environment and limit risk of reheating. In 19th century, the risk was the opposite and it was possible to experience negative temperature. For this reason, Hunningue manager Victor Coste, “the Napoleon of pisciculture” (Hill, 1995), developed a double compartment box to properly insulate the eggs. The intermediary compartment was filled with sand or straws to control temperature variation (see picture).

Juveniles were sometimes shipped in jars or small buckets and air was provided with a mouth pipette for the first one or a pump for large containers. In general, a large choice of container was available (see picture).

International shipment

These techniques permitted the sending of millions of eggs of various salmonids. Within 8 years (1854-1862), 1 600 shipments left the hatchery, 132 of them went abroad in 20 countries (see picture).  A batch of fish juveniles was sent to the USA in 1858, one to Brazil in 1862, another one to Mexico in 1862. In the list of Hunningue customers can be found be the Zoologic Garden of London, the Veterinary School of Munich, the University of Warsaw, the University of Giessen, the Zoologic Society of Amsterdam or restocking stakeholders in Switzerland, Italy, Portugal.

Some of these fish probably never reached their destination. However, when the shipment was successful, the customers were asked to fill a questionnaire and send it back to the Chief Engineer of Hunningue. It contains recorded data about the mode and duration of the transport, the temperature of the air at the time of delivery, the packaging, number of eggs arrived, number of healthy or altered eggs.

Some of these feed-back can be found Notice historique sur l’établissement de pisciculture d ’Hunningue:

From Italy, on the 14th of September 1861: “The hatching of your eggs has given good results. We have usually fished in Avigliana some well-developed salmons (up to 24 cm) and some others in nets. We have not started the true fishing of salmon and trout yet. We will do it next year.”

From England on the 30th of November 1861, “Last year and the year before, I have farmed salmon trout, common trout, salmon from the Rhine, big trout and Arctic charr that I have placed in ponds but I have fished anyone yet. Some salmon have been given to the London Zoo and the machine (probably the hatching machine) has been showed in receptions of the Royal Society.”

From Switzerland, on the 25th of December 1861: “In the Leman lake, the salmons reached this month 1kg. In average, the 2 years old trout presented a length of 19 cm. The results I have obtained engaged a large number of people to do restocking trials. “

 From Spain, on the 16th of October 1861: “We farmed lake trout and common salmons from Hunningue hatchery, but there is only few remaining after a large mortality after vesicle resorption… “

Howietoun

Messages of Richard Newton and Patrick Wood in comments section of previous articles (thanks for that) gave me the chance to discover the book “The History of Howietoun" by J. Maitland. A similar pisciculture adventure in Scotland, near Stirling. The hatchery benefited from the support of another major player in “piscicultural propaganda” (Hill, 1995) Frank Buckland. The hatchery reported, since 1873, multiple shipments to Melbourne, New Zealand and USA.

The hatcheries of Hunningue and Howietoun are the ancestors of experimental farms where science meets development. Mimicking farming conditions is a strong tool to transfer the knowledge from science to real farms. They are both closed today but others raised and will keep on writing history of aquaculture.

References

Administration des Ponts et Chaussées. Notice historique de l’établissement de pisciculture de Hunningue (1862).

Figuier L. La Pisciculture. In : Les merveilles de la science (1867).

Hill S.A. Sir James Maitland and the Howietoun fishery. Thesis of University of Stirling (1995).

Maitland JRG. The history of Howietoun. Published by J.R. Guy, Secretary Howietoun Fishery. Stirling N.B. (1887).