Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre
The Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre (OARC), formerly called the Alma Aquaculture Research Station, provides access to aquatic rearing systems for aquaculture researchers at the University of Guelph and other institutions. Since its opening in 1993, this facility has supported more than 200 research projects. Primary areas of research at the Centre are breeding and genetics, culture methodology, fish health, welfare and behaviour, nutrition, growth and reproductive physiology and waste management. The Centre offers quarantine facilities for the controlled importation of exotic species or strains of fish and has successfully introduced Atlantic salmon, Arctic charr and a new strain of spring-spawning rainbow trout to the Ontario aquaculture industry. The facility is also a venue for education and training programs at the graduate, undergraduate, college, and high-school levels while also being used for training, equipment demonstrations and technical transfer to the private sector.
The Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre is owned by the Agricultural Research Institute of Ontario (an agency of the Government of Ontario) and is located 37 kilometres north-west of the University of Guelph, six kilometres west of the town of Alma. The facility consists of administrative offices and meeting rooms, two bench labs, three photoperiod-controlled wet labs, three large wet labs with tanks of varying sizes, three quarantine rooms using recirculating aquaculture technology, a spawning area in addition to an incubation and early rearing building. The property is supported by on-site staff housing and a standby electrical generator for after-hours emergency response, in addition to water treatment areas for incoming and effluent water systems and equipment storage areas.
More info: visit OARC website and OARC YouTube Channel
Address: Ontario Aquaculture Research Centre, 6957 8 Line W, Elora, ON N0B 1S0
Directions: long gravel laneway and called “Alma Reseach Station” on Google Maps
Hagen Aqualab
The Hagen Aqualab is a technologically advanced aquatic research facility. In 1996, the Aqualab facility was designed to accommodate research projects of moderate size involving a wide variety of aquatic-related activities such as embryology, physiology, behaviour, toxicology, parasitology, disease and genetics. The Aqualab mainly houses warm-water fish species, such as zebrafish, as well as cold-water fish, shellfish and corals.
More info: visit Hagen Aqualab
Address: Hagen Aqualab, 20 Christie Lane, Guelph, ON N1G 1Y4
Directions: enter from Gordon Street and find on Google Maps
Animal Biosciences Department – Feed & Fish Labs
Feed grinders, mixers, pelleters and dryers allow for the production of small batches of experimental diets in the Animal Science and Nutrition building on the UoG campus. Together with the Fish Nutrition Research Lab, we also have a few small-scale flow-through and recirculation systems to perform growth and feed digestibility trials on several fish species.
More info: visit Animal Biosciences
Address: Animal Science and Nutrition Building, 491 Gordon St, Guelph, ON N1G 1Y2
Directions: enter from Gordon Street and find on Google Maps