Daniel Benetti: Cobia, Rachycentron canadum, Aquaculture

Full title:
The Status of Cobia, Rachycentron canadum, as a Commercially Ready Species for US Marine Aquaculture
About Aquaculture 2019:
At Aquaculture America 2019 in New Orleans, LA, aquaculture experts presented on March 10th on the “Status of Marine Finfish Species for US Aquaculture” for 18 species. This special session was hosted and organized by Florida Atlantic University Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, USDA Agricultural Research Service, USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, and NOAA Fisheries. Each expert summarized the stage of the aquaculture industry readiness for a species and the research directions necessary to remove barriers for the species to become commercialized.
Abstract:
THE STATUS OF COBIA, Rachycentron canadum, AS A COMMERCIALLY READY SPECIES FOR US MARINE AQUACULTURE
Daniel Benetti*, Ronald Hoenig, Jorge Suarez, Carlos Tudela and John Stieglitz
*University of Miami, Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science (RSMAS)
4600 Rickenbacker Causeway, Miami, FL 33149 U.S.A.
E-mail: [e-mail]
Cobia (Rachycentron canadum) is an important marine fish species for commercial aquaculture throughout their distribution range in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The technology of cobia production from egg to market has been established in the early 90’s, and continues to be perfected to this day. Technology control and good market demand and price drove the development of their aquaculture in several countries. This species exhibit extraordinary scope for growth and can reach between 4-8 kg in one year, with females growing almost twice as fast and as large as males. Basic hatchery methods led to the development of breeding programs and, recently, efforts to produce monosex, all female cobia with encouraging results. Larval rearing techniques have been mastered and survivals of 15-30% are routinely achieved, providing enough high quality fingerlings to supply commercial growout operations.
With so many favorable biological, technological and market attributes, it was anticipated that cobia aquaculture worldwide would exponentially grow from 5-10,000 MT in the 90’s to 50-100 MT in the last decade to several100’s of MT nowadays. However, these predictions have failed and those expectations from the industry are not materializing. We studied the reasons for that, and our analysis of the overall global status of cobia aquaculture show that there are as many challenges as there are advantages to raising cobia to a well established industry such as the salmon, sea bream and sea bass, for example. Cobia is not well known in most mainstream markets in (e.g. USA and Europe). Also, one of the biggest challenges remains the development of practical feeds that are ecologically and economically efficient for this species. FCRs are still very high. Progress towards developing an optimal feed for cobia at the different life stages has been slow, and still little is known about their nutritional requirements as well as the digestibility of most ingredients used for feeds formulation and manufacturing for their different life stages - particularly at near harvest stages, when &gt 80% of all feeds are used. Vaccines are still being developed to prevent diseases cobia are most susceptible to (e.g. Photobacterium), but mortalities due diseases are still relatively common, Because of its very fast growth rates, cobia demands exceedingly high environmental and nutritional conditions to thrive. It is not a coincidence that the only successful cobia farm in the Americas is Open Blue Sea Farms in Panama. It is located in an exposed, high-energy site, providing adequate environmental conditions for this species. The failure of several farms located near shore, coastal areas, as well as land-based ponds and RAS, show that cobia cannot be raised successfully under conditions other than the offshore environment, where stronger currents and greater depth increase carrying capacity. However, raising fish under these conditions require advanced technologies that are automated and expensive. Thus, cobia produced offshore must be sold at high prices to compensate high production costs, limiting its demand in a highly competitive white fish market. All these drawbacks combined limit cobia aquaculture potential and expansion of the industry.

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