New technology developed to breed marine fish popular for its meat quality

The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI), one of India’s premier research organisations has developed hatchery technology for Picnic Seabream ( Acanthopagrus berda ), a commercially important marine food fish.

The breakthrough will help in the diversification of the country’s mariculture activities as the fish - Black Seabream and Goldsilk Seabream - is known for their excellent meat quality and high economic value. It has high demand in the domestic market with a price of around ₹450-500 per kg.

Locally called

Karutha Yeri , the fish is an excellent species for mariculture owing to its faster growth rate, strong resistance to diseases and ability to cope up with wide variations in environmental parameters such as salinity and temperature.

The breeding technology, developed by the Karwar Research Centre of CMFRI, is expected to open up enormous scope for the country’s mariculture ventures in near future through species diversification, said Director of CMFRI A Gopalakrishnan.

Increase in breeding

With the development of hatchery technology for Picnic Seabream, there could be a new surge in an exponential increase in marine finfish production, he said.

The next task of the institute is to standardise the farming protocol of the fish, as no record of breeding and aquaculture of this fish is available in the country.

Considering the characteristics of the fish, the mariculture of Picnic Seabream is expected to be highly prospective in terms of attracting commercial benefits and meeting growing seafood demand in the near future, he said.

According to Gopalakrishnan, India targets to produce 4-5 million tonnes of fish in the next 10 years through mariculture. Species diversification for mariculture is primarily aimed at achieving this target by enhancing the marine cage farming system across the coastal states of the country.

This is the seventh marine food fish for which breeding technology was developed by the CMFRI. It took around three years for the CMFRI scientists to develop the seed production technology for this fish.

Earlier, the institute had succeeded in brood stock development of fishes like Cobia, Silver Pompano, Indian Pompano, Orange-spotted Grouper, Pink Ear Emperor and John’s Snapper. CMFRI would transfer these technologies to those interested in the commercial production of the seeds, he said.