THE STATUS OF OLIVE FLOUNDER Paralichthys olivaceus AS A COMMERCIALLY READY SPECIES FOR U.S. MARINE AQUACULTURE

The olive flounder is highly regarded throughout the world as a commercial aquaculture species. Also marketed as "hirame" and "Japanese flounder" in seafood markets in the United States and abroad, this species is a prime commercial candidate for land-based commercial culture in RAS and flow-through seawater and brackish water systems. Decades of aquaculture research have been conducted on this species, leading to improvements in a variety of aspects of its aquaculture performance, including nutrition, all-female mono-sex production, and live transport.  Additionally, the genome and transcriptome of this species have recently been sequenced, providing important insights and informing future directions of research. Native to the northwest Pacific Ocean and typically found in waters of 21° - 24° C, most of the global aquaculture production of olive flounder occurs in the Republic of Korea, with FAO reporting nearly 44,000 metric tons of global aquaculture production of the species in 2016.  While much of this production is consumed in regional markets throughout eastern Asia, an estimated 700 metric tons of the production is exported to the United States each year.  Market size for this species is typically ~ 1 kg, and much of the production is sold as live fish throughout the world. Given the well-established aquaculture production protocols, the high value of the species, and the existing global market, the olive flounder is a strong candidate species for commercial land-based production in the United States.  Currently there are no known commercial producers of this species in the United States, and the University of Miami (UM) Aquaculture Program is the only known producer of olive flounder, albeit in pilot-scale, in the country.  Broodstock have been conditioned to spawn year-round and survival of larvae through the juvenile stage has been consistently high ranging from 30 - 60%.  Moreover, pilot-scale preliminary nursery and growout trails have yielded survival rates > 90%, with fish growing to about 800 grams in one year.  It is anticipated that, in the near future, small-scale commercial aquaculture production of this species will occur in the United States to service the growing demand for high-quality domestically-produced marine fish.