WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • SEPTEMBER 2017 25 Pacific white snook Centropomus viridis belongs to the family Centropomidae and is the geminate species of the common snook C. undecimalis. In the Americas, the Centropomidae family consists of six species each on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Centropomids are known by the common name of snook in English and robalo in Spanish. They are euryhaline predatory carnivores. There is a high demand in the market associated with their desirable flesh quality, so the fish is highly prized by traditional and sport fishers. Therefore, in several countries along the Pacific coast, there is great interest in developing Pacific snook culture in controlled conditions. Many natural populations of snook have been overexploited. An example is common snook in Florida (USA) and a species similar to snook — barramundi in Australia — where commercial and sports fisheries have required many regulations for sustainable exploitation. Government programs have been implemented to release juveniles to restock and augment natural populations. However, the principal restriction on grow-out remains mass production of juveniles, mainly due to the absence of a reliable and stable juvenile mass production technology. Beginning in 2011, a series of projects supported by CONAPESCA (National Aquaculture and Fisheries Commission) have been implemented at the pilot fish hatchery of CIAD Hatchery Production of Pacific White Snook at CIAD-Unity Mazatlan, Mexico Leonardo Ibarra-Castro, Jaime Navarro-Flores, Juan L. Sánchez-Téllez, Juan M. Martínez-Brown, Luis A. Ochoa-Bojórquez and Ángel H. Rojo-Cebreros Mazatlan. These projects have focused on refinement and expansion of technology for the pilot production of juveniles of marine and estuarine fishes previously developed (Lajonchère et al. 2012) and complete modification of the facilities of the pilot hatchery (Lajonchère et al. 2007). Figure 1 shows the current infrastructure with the broodstock area of the pilot marine finfish hatchery of CIAD Mazatlan Unit. From 2011 to 2014, we achieved the necessary maturity of hatchery technology for the production of high-value marine fish species such as Lutjanus guttatus, L. colorado, L. aratus, L. peru, Sphoeroides annulatus (working at CIAD AC) and Totoaba macdonaldi (working with the Aquaculture Institute of Sonora State) on the Pacific coast of Mexico. A similar approach was taken with species like Cynoscion nebulosus, Ocyurus chrysurus and Centropomus undecimalis (working in UNAM-Sisal, Yucatan State) from the Gulf of Mexico. On both sides, 1.5 million juveniles of all species were produced. This demonstrated the value of a production technology that can be applied to new species. The progress achieved at a pilot level with the species listed above allowed us to determine the technical feasibility of technologies developed for mass production of juveniles in Mexico. These technological advances are a starting FIGURE 1. Broodstock area of the pilot hatchery at CIAD-Unity Mazatlan, Mexico. FIGURE 2. Pacific white snook broostock captured near the coast of Sinaloa state, Mexico. From 2011 to 2014, we achieved the necessary maturity of hatchery technology for the production of high-value marine fish species These technological advances are a starting point in the development of production technologies for other marine finfish species with commercial potential, such as Pacific white snook. (CONTINUED ON PAGE 26)
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