2013/737 Propagation of South Bluefin Tuna - Addressing constraints to larval rearing

By Wayne Hutchinson

Considerable progress towards propagation of SBT has been made by Clean Seas Tuna (CST) working with R&D collaborators supported by the Australian Seafood CRC (AS CRC). Recently CST has needed to focus the majority of its resources towards achieving profitable production of Yellowtail Kingfish. While this is being achieved there is a need for AS CRC to provide support to allow further progress to be made towards successful hatchery production of SBT fingerlings. Past research has made substantial progress that has demonstrated improvements attributed to tank hydrodynamics, lighting and live feed enrichment/nutrition during early stages of larval rearing. This research has also identified a number of issues that need to be overcome to increase survival and performance of SBT larvae and early stage fingerlings. Although good survival can now be achieved during the early culture period, there is a need to improve survival of SBT larvae during the period between 10-20 days post hatching. This project developed an appropriate research strategy to address this need based upon past findings and best available information and expertise. The research strategy developed will prioritise issues to be addressed and propose solutions to be investigated to improve SBT larval rearing methods to enhance the prospects for increased survival and growth of SBT past 20 days post hatch.

Project Objectives

1. Produce a revised SBT larval rearing R&D strategy for 2014
2. Conduct R&D to improve SBT larval rearing to achieve 5-10% survival at 20 days post hatch.
3. Produce a final report highlighting achievements and recommendations to improve commercialhatchery production of SBT