AE 2015 rotterdam special session diversify
During the Aquaculture Europe 2015 conference, DIVERSIFY project had a special session day, Thursday 22th October. Major achivements in greater ambejack culture obtained during 2014 and 2015 were presented by the species leader Nikos Papandrulakis, (HCMR), with results from the work of M. Izquierdo, M. C. Hernández-Cruz, H. Fernández-Palacios, A. Corriero, S. Jerez, C. Rodriguez, C. J. Secombes, P. Katharios, C. C. Mylonas.
Justification for the selection of greater amberjack
This is a cosmopolitan species (Andaloro & Pipitone, 1997; Cummings et al., 1999; Thompson et al., 1999) of great interest to the aquaculture sector due to its excellent flesh quality, worldwide market availability and high consumer acceptability (Nakada, 2000). Its rapid growth (i.e., short time to market size) and large size makes this species very suitable for product diversification and development of value added products. In the Mediterranean (Lovatelli & Holthus, 2008), farming started with capture-based activities using wild juveniles (Crespo et al., 1994). Fish of ~90 g reached ~1 kg in a year, and 6 kg in a period of 2.5 years (Jover et al., 1999; Mazzola et al., 2000). The high growth rate of cultured greater amberjack and its feeding on fish of low commercial value made the activity profitable. More recently, using standard dry feeds, wild caught individuals of 50-100 g exhibited great growth performance of 1.8, 4 and 7.5 kg body weight in 1, 2, and 3 years, respectively (Jover et al., 1999; Mazzola et al., 2000). Still, the Mediterranean production in 2012 was only ~2 t, while market price –mainly for capture fisheries catches-- reached values >14 € kg-1. Today, a very limited commercial activity with hatchery-produced individuals exists in Malta, though interest exists and efforts have been made by various aquaculture companies in Spain, Greece, Italy and Cyprus.
The major bottlenecks for the incorporation of greater amberjack in the EU aquaculture industry include lack of (a) reliable reproduction and (b) production of adequate numbers of juveniles. In captivity, reproduction has been problematic (Kozul et al., 2001), but recently captive-reared broodstocks have reproduced after hormonal treatments (Mylonas et al., 2004), and in some cases also spontaneously (Jerez et al., 2006). Also, some knowledge has been acquired on the nutritional requirements of reproduction (Rodríguez-Barreto et al., 2012). DIVERSIFY will study the reproduction in captivity and in the wild, and develop spawning induction methods, as well as appropriate broodstock diets.
Larval rearing of greater amberjack was done initially using semi-intensive methods (Papandroulakis et al., 2005). Survival was limited (3%), but recently it has been improved with adaptations in feeding regime and diet quality (Anonymous, 2008; Roo, et al., 2012). Since both the greater amberjack (Matsunari et al., 2012) and its congeners the yellowtail (S. quinqueradiata) (Nakada, 2000), yellowtail kingfish (S. lalandi) (Ma et al., 2012) and almaco jack (S. rivoliana) (Roo et al., 2012) have been produced in hatcheries in other areas of the world, once the bottleneck of egg availability is surpassed, the available information on these congeners can hasten the development of larval rearing protocols for the greater amberjack.
Another area of concern for the commercial production of greater amberjack is fish health. Bacterial pathogens cited in the literature as potential threats include Photobacterium damsella (Crespo et al., 1994) and epitheliocystis (Rigos and Katharios, 2010) and Cryptocaryon irritans has caused severe losses in broodstock (Rigos et al., 2001). During grow out, monogenean parasites cause occasional mass mortalities in farmed fish (Grau et al., 2003; Montero et al., 2004), while Neobenedenia spp was identified in a major outbreak causing losses in both in juveniles and broodstock. Therefore, DIVERSIFY will study the potential pathologies that will occur in the course of the project in an effort to develop early diagnosis tools, veterinary solutions and preventive veterinary protocols that will be available and will support the sustainable rearing of the species.
The major bottlenecks for the incorporation of greater amberjack in the EU aquaculture industry include lack of (a) reliable reproduction and (b) production of adequate numbers of juveniles. In captivity, reproduction has been problematic (Kozul et al., 2001), but recently captive-reared broodstocks have reproduced after hormonal treatments (Mylonas et al., 2004), and in some cases also spontaneously (Jerez et al., 2006). Also, some knowledge has been acquired on the nutritional requirements of reproduction (Rodríguez-Barreto et al., 2012). DIVERSIFY will study the reproduction in captivity and in the wild, and develop spawning induction methods, as well as appropriate broodstock diets.
Larval rearing of greater amberjack was done initially using semi-intensive methods (Papandroulakis et al., 2005). Survival was limited (3%), but recently it has been improved with adaptations in feeding regime and diet quality (Anonymous, 2008; Roo, et al., 2012). Since both the greater amberjack (Matsunari et al., 2012) and its congeners the yellowtail (S. quinqueradiata) (Nakada, 2000), yellowtail kingfish (S. lalandi) (Ma et al., 2012) and almaco jack (S. rivoliana) (Roo et al., 2012) have been produced in hatcheries in other areas of the world, once the bottleneck of egg availability is surpassed, the available information on these congeners can hasten the development of larval rearing protocols for the greater amberjack.
Another area of concern for the commercial production of greater amberjack is fish health. Bacterial pathogens cited in the literature as potential threats include Photobacterium damsella (Crespo et al., 1994) and epitheliocystis (Rigos and Katharios, 2010) and Cryptocaryon irritans has caused severe losses in broodstock (Rigos et al., 2001). During grow out, monogenean parasites cause occasional mass mortalities in farmed fish (Grau et al., 2003; Montero et al., 2004), while Neobenedenia spp was identified in a major outbreak causing losses in both in juveniles and broodstock. Therefore, DIVERSIFY will study the potential pathologies that will occur in the course of the project in an effort to develop early diagnosis tools, veterinary solutions and preventive veterinary protocols that will be available and will support the sustainable rearing of the species.