Expansion of Pinfish market through Technology Transfer to Bait-And-Tackle stores

Although there is a huge retail market for live marine baitfish, less than half of all bait-and-tackle shops surveyed in Florida sell live bait.  While access to steady supply of fish was the highest ranked problem for many shops, shop owners also cited limited access to seawater and high mortality of fish.  This project utilized technology present in the marine ornamental aquarium trade, specifically artificial seawater and husbandry techniques, to increase the retail market for marine baitfish.   Pinfish, Lagodon rhomboides, the most common species to the live marine baitfish retail market in Florida was utilized as the target species for such technology transfer.

In the first stage of the project, laboratory research was completed to determine the tolerance limits of pinfish to: (1) tank shape and composition, (2) stocking density, (3) salinity,  (4) artificial seawater, and (5) holding duration, considering both fish behavior and water quality limits.  As the aim was to develop a technology any shop could readily adopt, only equipment readily available online or in national pet stores was utilized.  

The second stage of the project was to develop an easy and cheap husbandry care methods for live pinfish retail.  Considering the predetermined tolerance limits and equipment retail costs, a complete tank set up including aeration and filtration was chosen for further development; such system costing less than $150 retail.  A pictorial instruction graphic was designed for bait-and-tackle shop owners describing the equipment, its stocking limits and maintenance.

The third stage of the project was trialing this technology within bait-and-tackle shops.  Five stores were chosen that did not currently retail live marine baitfish.  The initial tank set up, artificial seawater, instructional graphic, and fish were donated to the shop for one month.  In return each store provided details including opinion of the methods provided, value of fish sales, if these sales were from new or returning customers, if these customers purchased anything else in their store, and if any fish mortalities occurred.  This data was used to calculate the socioeconomic benefit of this new technology and its transfer to marine bait-and-tackle stores.