Commercialising the production of Cobia in Australia

Funded Activity Summary

There is a need to build on the work conducted under the auspices of the Seafood CRC and address the issues that have arisen in commercialising cobia. A number of unforeseen circumstances, in both seed supply and grow-out of cobia, arose during the Seafood CRC project,that limited the commercial development of this species.

Cobia is typically regarded as a gonochoristic species. However, a relatively high incidence of intersex individuals in captive-reared broodstock populations has occurred in recent years. This appears to have reduced reproductive output and therefore the regularity and quantity of seed supply. The mechanism behind the intersex individuals, early identification of the anomaly and the potential impact on reproductive output
and commercial hatchery production warrant further investigation. There is a need to capture and maintain wild cobia to provide contingency for the occurrence of reproductive abnormalities in captive-reared fish and to facilitate comparative developmental trials. There may also be a need to provide wild fish for the
development of a broodstock facility at PRF’s hatchery.

PRF has faced a number of challenges in commercialising cobia production. Predation and fish health have had major impacts on productivity over earlier production seasons. Whilst a number of innovative techniques have been implemented to reduce these impacts, there remains a need to improve and refine these further

There are currently no commercial hatcheries producing cobia; as such there remains a need for support from DAFF to supply juvenile fish for on-growing. Small-scale hatchery production at PRF was successful in producing juvenile cobia; however, there is a need to increase this to a commercial scale over the course of this project. DAFF will also supply larvae to continue the development of hatchery capability at PRF and to support PRF’s anticipated development of broodstock holding and maturation facilities.



Objectives:
1. Transitioning to independent commercial productiona. Provide juvenile cobia for commercial grow out to further develop commercialisation of the speciesb. Further develop commercial larval rearing capacity through seed supply, technology transfer and staff exchange c. Technology transfer and staff exchange to develop capacity to maintain and spawn broodstock cobia
2. Expand cobia production to the wider industry
3. Improve production efficienciesa. Refine stocking rates and production densitiesb. Improved health management through routine sampling and early diagnosis, disease investigation and health trainingc. Implement methods to reduce predation
4. Analysis and identification of reproductive disorders in broodstock

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-10-2014

End Date: 30-06-2016

Funding Scheme: Funding Scheme not available

Funding Amount: $308,990.00

Funder: Fisheries Research and Development Corporation

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

There are no FoR codes available for this funding activity

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Aquaculture | Disease | Habitat | Mortality | Reproduction | Toxin

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