Farming in a changing climate: Increased resilience for sustainable Arctic char farming (ResiChar)

Background

Actic char farming is mainly conducted in open cages in cold water areas in northern Sweden. A Actic char breeding programme has been ongoing since the 1980s for commercial production of char, focusing on faster growth traits. Selection for stress tolerance in char has been slow and does not keep up with the rapid climate changes, which threatens the farmed char.

Aims and objectives

The primary aim of this project is to strengthen Swedish Actic char farming and secure it against climate change, and also to strengthen the national Swedish char breeding programme at the research facility in Kälarne (Vattenbrukscentrum Norr AB).

Actic char is one of the dominant farmed species in Sweden (11% of all farmed fish) with a production of over 1200 tonnes per year. The national breeding programme for Arctic char in Sweden aims to improve the growth rate, feed efficiency and other desirable characteristics of the fish. The aim is also to produce a more robust and sustainable stock of char that is better suited to the challenges we face, especially linked to climate change. The breeding programme is a long-term and labour-intensive process, and the ResiChar project aims to improve Artic char characteristics related to stress tolerance using methods that have the potential to produce results faster and more efficiently. Improved stress tolerance is crucial for sustainable Swedish char farming in the context of climate change.

To ensure the sustainability of the Arctic char aquaculture industry both in the short and long term, the aim of the ResiChar project is to develop/validate three environmentally friendly innovations

• a nutraceutical formulation to improve the robustness of Arctic char during early life stages - when they are sensitive to environmental stresses;
• a product to improve the reproductive performance of Arctic char, which remains a major barrier to a sufficient supply of high-quality substrate for sustainable expansion of the industry; and
• identify genetic and epigenetic biomarkers associated with temperature-tolerant traits and incorporate them into the ongoing breeding programme.

The stress management strategy proposed in this project has great potential to benefit Swedish fish farmers, resulting in higher survival and productivity. It may also lead to greater availability of Swedish-produced char for the Swedish consumer.

Project group and external partners

Project Coordinator: Kartik Baruah, Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Animal Science and Animal Welfare, SLU.

Internal partners:

Hanna Carlberg, Researcher at the Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, SLU

Christos Palaiokostas, Associate Professor at the Department of Animal Genetics and Breeding, SLU

Parisa Norouzitallab, Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Animal Science and Welfare, SLU

External partners: 

Vattenbrukscentrum Norr AB, Svensk Fiskhälsa and Sepantech AB

and is co-financed by the European Union.