World Aquaculture December 2019

WWW.WA S.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2019 21 to anyone considering aquaculture in the region (see ctsa.org) . The regional and state- wide extension efforts suffered significant setbacks during the Great Recession of 2008 and its funding impacts, including the downsizing and mission change of the Aquaculture Development Program, and the collapse of the state-wide extension network. This has had a negative impact on the growth of aquaculture yet past successes established an excellent model for the new, multi-agency efforts to revive and increase aquaculture education and extension. Joint efforts are underway to increase opportunities for aquaculture education and extension to support sustainable aquaculture development. The University of Hawaiʻi System plans to increase opportunities for participation in aquaculture education throughout the nine- campus system. Currently UH Hilo is the only campus which offers a four-year program in aquaculture but other campuses integrate aquaculture education into their programs in Animal Science, Zoology, Biology and Marine Science. Many of the community colleges have some form of aquaculture education, with aquaponics being one of the most common. A positive indicator is the State legislature recently approved funding to revive the Aquaculture Development Program and fund the newHATCHAquaculture Accelerator and follow-on fund. Hawaiʻi also has developed several “home-grown” business assistance/accelerator programs including the Hawaiʻi Island Business Plan Competition (HIplan) founded by shrimp culture expert Dr. Jim Wyban. Finfish In the 1960s, Oceanic Institute (OI) began efforts to close the life cycle of grey mullet and other marine fish which led to the development of moi in conjunction with partners such as Pacific Planktonics’ Syd Kraul and other researchers (Fig. 10). Pacific Planktonics is a small company at the HOST park that has played major role in much of the original research on moi, tuna, giant grouper and other pelagic species due to the expertise of owner Syd Kraul. Moi and mullet were highly esteemed by Hawaiians and the latter was one of the principal crops produced in the ancient Hawaiian fishponds. The success in developing these native species set the pattern for later efforts to develop other species with unique characteristics and high value. OI was also instrumental in developing hatchery methods for milkfish, which were later transferred to Indonesia and other countries (Sumirasa et al. 2019), again an illustration of how R&D in Hawaiʻi has had global benefits. The first open-ocean cage culture farm for moi, Cates International Inc., is reported to have harvested over 1 million lb of this species. Almaco jack is the third native species currently cultured. Other marine species have been extensively researched to the point where commercial aquaculture is now possible, given sufficient investment and patience with the lengthy permitting process. Others are still in the process of being developed. These include species such as mahimahi Coryphaena hippurus , bluefin trevally Caranx melampygus , milkfish Chanos chanos , red snapper Lutjanus campenchanus , giant grouper Epinephelus lanceolatus , tunas ( Katsuwonus pelamis, Thunnus obesus, Thunnus albacares ), aholehole Kuhlia xenura , nenue Kyphosus spp. and opakapaka Pristipomoides filamentosus . In addition, OI scientists are working with research partners in the Republic of Palau to culture coral grouper Plectropomus leopardus and in Saipan (part of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands) to culture fork-tail rabbitfish Siganus argenteus . MERIP in partnership with the PACRC is developing capture-based methods for several species of rabbitfish Siganus spp., where larval fishes are captured during settlement and used to stock net pens (Fig. 11). Collection of marine ornamental fish has been a long-standing practice in Hawaiʻi. Some community members oppose this practice even though monitoring by the Division of Aquatic Resources did not find significant impacts (DAR 2015). New restrictions on collection gear types have also been imposed to limit catch. Thus, new opportunities to culture native ornamental species have arisen. OI has a long record of working with such species as flame angelfish Centropyge loriculus , clownfish Amphiprion spp., and dottybacks Pseudochromis spp. In 2015, OI scientists reported the first-ever successful cultivation of captive-bred yellow tang Zebrasoma ( C O N T I N U E D O N P A G E 2 2 ) FIGURE 10. Syd Kraul, owner of Pacific Planktonics, the site of much of the early research on pelagic fish species and ornamental marine species. FIGURE 11. Cages culture trials for rabbitfish in Pohnpei at the MERIP, funded by the NOAA Saltonstall-Kennedy Program. The cages are stocked with juvenile fish harvested in small numbers after massive spawning events in coastal areas.