TOFU-TOLERANT MARICULTURE: GENOMICS-ASSISTED BREEDING OF A HIGH QUALITY MARINE FINFISH FOR ENHANCED PERFORMANCE ON SUSTAINABLE, SCALABLE, SOY-BASED FEEDS

 Lisa Vollbrecht *, Neil A. Sims, Jason Stannard, Tiago Hori, Helen Meigs
 
Kampachi Farms, LLC
PO Box 4239
Kailua-Kona, HI
96745
 
lisa@kampachifarm.com
(808)-343-5327
 
 

Reliance on fishmeal and fish oil is a significant constraint to the future expansion of finfish aquaculture to meet global needs. As U.S. marine fish farming expands, genetic improvements could increase economic performance and decrease ecological footprint.

Thus far, no extensive selective breeding has been accomplished with Seriola or similar high-quality marine fish. However, as the U.S. marine finfish aquaculture industry transitions from a niche role to providing a significant portion of the nation's seafood supply, genetic improvement of farmed strains to increase economic performance and decrease ecological footprint will be of critical importance to the scalability of the industry and attracting the capital investment required to expand.

Kampachi Farms, in partnership with the Center for Aquaculture Technologies, are connecting SNP markers with traits we have identified as important to commercial Seriola culture. Results suggest that markers may exist for predicting growth performance on soy-based diets. Markers for performance on standard fishmeal-based diets, sex, fillet thickness and tissue lipid-content are currently being analyzed. Additional trials will examine marker associations with broodstock fecundity, deformities, and ectoparasite resistance. These results can be immediately applied to commercial culture of Cabo Kampachi™ at our operations under development in La Paz, in Baja California, and - with appropriate biosecurity precautions - globally.