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COBIA
Welcome to Expert Topic. Each issue will take an in-depth look
at a particular species and how its feed is managed.
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Cobia: is it the
next big thing?
by Roy Palmer, Aquaculture Without
Frontiers, Australia
The success of salmon has people dreaming of the new discovery that will be salmons
white fish competitor. There is a definite
demand for this. There are a number of species that have potential and one of them is
cobia (Rachycentron canadum).
In the wild, cobia is a highly valued seafood species - a very popular game fish well
regarded because of its fighting abilities and
the delicious taste. Wild cobia are rarely seen
in large groups, so only a small quantity is wildcaught and, generally speaking, professional
fishermen do not specifically target cobia; they
only harvest them incidentally when fishing for
other species.
Quality harvested aquaculture cobia
doesn't taste fishy. It's white and firm like
swordfish. It can be grilled, sauted or served
as sashimi or in a bouillabaisse.
The FAO says worldwide farmed cobia production was less than 2,500 metric tons 10 years
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THE INTERNATIONAL
PLATFORM FROM
FEED TO FOOD
WWW.VIV.NET
Images courtesy of Rotterdam Marketing, the Dutch Mussel Promotion Board and Holland Aqua B.V.
Brazil
easonline.org
Organised by the European Aquaculture Society in cooperation
with IMARES Wageningen UR
AE2015 Gold
Sponsor
The difficulty in Brazil with cobia farming was that it was not well
recognised as a high-quality food fish in some regions, particularly in
the South. However, this scenario is changing, and first farmed cobia
productions have been well accepted by local consumers, restaurants
and fresh fish markets. The increasing demand for high quality fresh
food fish and seafood, combined with the lack of local fish production,
has driven up the price of farmed cobia. Currently, the emerging
cobia production in Southern Brazil is being sold for US$18-20/kg for
whole gutted fish.
With an increasing demand for fresh fish, an increasing production
of cobia is expected and for that reason, this promising market has
attracted the interest of medium and large entrepreneurs for cobia
cage culture. One issue holding these farmers back at present is the
lack of high quality commercial diets for marine fish. This continues to
be the biggest obstacle to development of cobia aquaculture in Brazil.
In Brazil, there are several promising marine fish species with great
aquaculture potential. In the last seven years there has been a strong
interest from the government through the Ministry of Fisheries and
Aquaculture to promote marine fish culture starting with key species
such as cobia. This native species was chosen for several reasons
including fast growth rates, good flesh quality, and well-developed
husbandry protocol that could easily be adapted to local culture
conditions. Therefore, research programs, partnerships and regional
hatcheries were created to promote marine fish culture.
Wild cobia is mainly captured on the northeast coast of Brazil,
where it is appreciated by consumers in many restaurants. The high
water temperatures in this region throughout the year allow a cer-
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Wheat proteins
for aquafeed
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cobia, is holding back the opportunity but effort is going into research
and development.
Farmed cobia has several characteristics that lead to a consistent
promising market, including freshness and high-quality flesh being a
good source of health-promoting omega 3 fatty acids. To establish
a niche market, it requires demand for a specific product, and more
importantly a consistent supply of high quality product. Aquaculture
exhibits the benefits of controlling the production cycle to meet consumer demands in terms of forecasting production and consistency in
size and quality of the final product. In this context, farmed cobia is a
potential candidate for a niche market; however, it is important to highlight the necessity of industry support and sustained marketing effort.
Whilst the increasing demand for fresh seafood and marine fish is
expected to continue into the future in Brazil, there is still much to be
done regarding feeds and farming techniques.
Lus Andr Sampaio from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande is
involved in a current study on the performance of juvenile cobia reared
in low salinities (three and six percent), with or without alkalinity correction in a RAS. He is presenting at WA2015 in Jeju and will highlight
that the survival rate was 100 percent at all treatments, but growth
parameters (final weight, weight gain, SRG and feed intake) decreased
significantly at salinities of six and three percent when compared with
the control. Results suggest that cobia has a limited euryhaline capacity, but they can be reared in low salinity (three and six percent) for
six weeks with no mortality. However, when reared in three percent
salinity, juvenile cobia can benefit from alkalinity supplementation and
the higher pH associated with this, in order to sustain better growth
than those reared in the low alkalinity treatment.
Australia
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even higher, at 2.8 million eggs per spawning cycle, with the spawning
frequency assessed to be around seven to eight days.
Due to their high energy needs associated with their fast growth,
they were not considered prissy feeders. In the wild, dietary studies
showed that they are bottom feeders, seemingly enjoying crustaceans,
especially crabs.
The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) created a project on cobia, which aimed to build on previous research
by Queensland aquaculture producer Pacific Reef Fisheries and the
Department for Employment, Economic Development and Innovation
(DEEDI).
During this research they discovered that the financial potential for
fish farmers is very significant, primarily because cobia can grow up to
10 kilograms within their first year - this is double the speed of barramundi and triple the speed of Atlantic salmon.
Although cobia are not fussy eaters in the wild, things are not the
same in captivity, and it was important, just like with any new farmed
species, to ensure the diet mix is right.
Other problems thwarted Pacific Reef in the early days. Heavy stock
losses due to bird predation caused some angst but this was resolved
by installing anti-predator cages for the fish to live in as fingerlings.
Additional issues were created as the fish were being grown in prawn
ponds, which was not ideal due to their shallow depth.
The CRC work also planned on developing reliable and robust
controlled spawning methods for cobia, utilising hormonal, social and/
or environmental manipulation; production of sufficient fingerlings
to enable the on-grow commercial quantities of cobia for market;
developing pilot scale cobia fingerling production by the hatchery; formulating diets designed to meet the specific nutritional and energetic
requirements of cobia and developing and field testing new farmed
cobia product(s) with high market acceptance.
Pacific Reef have shown they have the technical capability and
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Panama
References
Brazil information thanks to Artur N. Rombenso (Centre for Fisheries,
Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences and Department of Zoology, Southern
Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA), Andre
Arajo (Fundao Instituto de Pesca do Estado do Rio de Janeiro,
Angra dos Reis, Brazil) and Luis A. Sampaio (Laboratory of Marine and
Estuarine Fish Culture, Institute of Oceanography, Federal University of
Rio Grande, Brazil).
Website: http://www.fishwatch.gov/seafood_profiles
/species/cobia/species_pages/cobia.htm
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_Cn6zIb4E