Project Title: Finfish Hatchery and Marine Education Center
PIs: Brandy M.M. Wilbur, MIT Sea Grant; Clifford Goudey, MIT Sea Grant
Project Website: http://web.mit.edu/seagrant/edu/hatchery/

Project Summary: Farm raising fish for consumption is not a new concept, but there are not many marine fish species that are commercially available. MIT Sea Grant recognized the need to aid in the development of aquaculture in Massachusetts and started a Boston Aquaculture Initiative Program to deal with these issues. In January of 1998, MIT Sea Grant's Marine Finfish Hatchery began operation in the Charlestown Navy Yard. In 2003, the hatchery moved north to our new aquaculture facility, located at the Gloucester Maritime Heritage Center.

Glossary

A
Artemia -- brine shrimp, or sea monkeys; minute shrimp that live in salt water

B
Bottleneck -- a situation that slows or halts free movement or progress

C
Cryopreservation -- to preserve cells or tissues by storing them at very low temperatures

E
Endogenous -- produced or growing from within

Eutrophication -- the enrichment of water with mineral and organic nutrients which promotes the growth of plant life, especially algae which reduces the dissolved oxygen content and often causes the extinction of other plants and animals.

Exogenous -- derived or developed from outside the body, originating externally

Eyespot -- a simple visual organ that will develop into the eyes of the fish

F
Finfish -- an aquatic vertebrate; what would be commonly referred to as a fish

Fingerling -- a juvenile fish that is 2-3 inches long, or as long as your finger

G
Groundfish -- a bottom dwelling fish such as flounder or cod

L
Larvae -- The newly hatched, earliest stage of any animal that undergoes metamorphosis which has a marked difference in appearance from the adult

Life cycle -- the course of developmental changes through which an organism passes from fertilization until it can reproduce

Life stage -- a position or stop in the life cycle, for example larvae, juvenile, or adult

M
Marine Finfish Species -- a species of finfish that lives in salt water

Metamorphose -- to change into a completely different form or appearance

Metamorphosis -- a change in the form and often habits of an organism during its development

O
Organism -- an individual form of life, such as a plant, animal, bacterium, or fungus

P
Phytoplankton -- minute free-floating aquatic plants

Pigmentation -- coloration of tissues

R
Rotifer -- A microscopic multicellular aquatic animal that has a wheel-like ring of cilia at one end and a tail at the other.

Roundfish -- an ordinary market fish that does not live on the bottom, for example bass or tuna

Z
Zooplankton -- small or microscopic animals that float in great quantities in fresh or salt water. Some examples are corals, rotifers, sea anemones, jellyfish, and Artemia