GLOBAL AQUATICS
"Learn from the mistakes of others, you can't afford to repeat them"
WHO AM I?
Doug Burdette
The bad thing about getting older is, after you spend a life time of learning things about your work, you retire and seldom use that information and knowledge any more.
The good thing about being a consultant in a specialized field is, you can semi-retire and then pass all you life's experiences along to others.
And so it is with me.
They say that everyone was born at a certain place in time to take advantage of some new technology. For me it was aquaculture. I graduated from High School in 1961, just as modern fish farming was starting to take shape.
After leaving high school I went on to get degrees in engineering and biology. Along the way I was one day introduced to fish farming in Arkansas and Mississippi and from that day on I was hooked. I knew that somehow I could use my education to explore this very new science.
Today, I am happy to announce that I have been referred to as one of the "Pioneers" of modern aquaculture. Starting out with simple fish farm ponds I quickly realized that if the farming of fish was going to be able to provide the volumes of seafood the world would in time require, we must learn to do it using less land and water.
The time for intensive fish culture was at hand and I was fortunate enough to be right there with the other early pioneers experimenting with many different ways of growing fish indoors under controlled conditions.
Now, as I sit here and reflect on almost 40 years of tinkering and making big mistakes by doing little dumb things, I realize just how far we have come in the business of modern day aquaculture. One little step at a time.
When I started out the best a fish farmer could count on was about 1500 pounds of fish per acre of pond water. Today fish farmers in the southern US produce 3 times that number per acre in ponds and high tech indoor production systems can put out 1,000 times that per water volume.
My first indoor system was built in a barn in 1972. The computer (PC) was not even in the average person's vocabulary. We filled the tanks with water and catfish , did some simple daily tests and fed the fish anything we could think of that they might like since there were few commercial feeds available to us. In the beginning we could be certain of only one thing. Most of the fish were going to die long before they got to market size. But we continued on, learning from mistakes and improving the system to get better and better environments for the fish.
It's impossible to say what time or date things began to turn around. We just keep experimenting and in time either the fish got tougher or we got better at it or perhaps it was a combination of the two. By 1992 I had developed one of the best intensive systems going, the S-92. This system had the ability to produce up to 2 pounds per gallon on an annual average. It was one of the very first systems in the world to be computerized thanks to a lot of work from the Department of Food Resource Economics at the University of Delaware who kept technicians at my farm 24/7. From these early research projects much of the data used in aquaculture studies around the world today was formulated.
Although I am also the developer of the now popular S-99 self contained system, the S-92 is still the main line design for larger volume systems. Over the years it has been modified on an almost daily basis as newer technology comes along or when I discover some new way to do things. Sometimes the newer better way of doing things can be as simple as better tank layouts for easier management and harvesting. Sometimes these little things may not seem important in the great scheme of things, but add them all up and the difference can be immense when it comes to profit and loss statements.
As I settle into my semi-retirement and spend more time being a consultant to those interested in this fabulous industry, I hope you will consider contacting me about your thoughts and plans. Perhaps I can help you to realize your dreams.
Listed below are some of my accomplishments.
1976 Founded Maryland Pride Farms, Aberdeen, Maryland. Maryland Pride Farms operating as an independently owned applied research and development Aquaculture facility in conjunction with the Department of Food Resource Economics of the University of Delaware.
1990 Merged Maryland Pride Farms with Townsends, Inc. Became Townsends Director of Aquaculture
Director of Aquaculture Research and Development Townsend Farms
1992 Repurchased Maryland Pride Farms from Townsends
Aquaculture systems design, engineering and consulting Aquaculture Research and Development including pond culture, intensive culture, hydroponic culture, aquaculture energy resources, aquaculture resource economics.
Personal research and studies on alternative heat and energy sources as applied to aquaculture including solar, bacterial digestion, geothermal, and co generation devises
1994 Created Global Aquatics, USA. A company formed to expand the scope of the original Maryland Pride Farms Co. Global Aquatics, Ltd. is a global consulting firm specializing in the development of high tech intensive aquaculture systems.
1995- Consulted for the United Nations Food and Agriculture Resources for feasibility study for the South Pacific Rim with primary focus on Papua New Guinea.
Current Projects include the implementation of vertical integration for aquaculture and several fish farms in North and Central America
Accomplishments-
Designer and inventor of Sequential Series aquaculture intensive system.
Designer and inventor of S-99 steel core systems.
Designer and inventor of aquaponic/micro organisms aquaculture filtration.
Developed Maryland Pride Brand name for aquaculture products.
Authored/co authored approximately 30 published scientific research papers concerning aquaculture for universities such as The University of Delaware, The university of Texas, The university of North Dakota and others.
Developed computerization, and water quality parameter criteria in conjunction with the Department of Food Resource Economics, University of Delaware
Co researcher and co author of "Strategic Study of Aquaculture Production and Marketing in North Dakota" for The Northwest Area Foundation and The University of North Dakota.
Field research co ordinator for aquaculture economics study for The University of Delaware
Member of The Seafood Marketing Advisory commission, for The Governor of the State of Maryland.
Advisor to the Office of Technology and Assessment, US Government. Washington DC.
Past chairman of the Maryland Aquaculture Advisory Committee for the Governor of the State of Maryland.
Currently working with several international groups to develop college level curriculum for the teaching of aquaculture and formulating the criteria for degrees in aquaculture science.
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