Aquaculture Programs
During recent decades, many wild fishery resources have been reduced by habitat loss, pollution, and overfishing at non-sustainable levels. Consequently, fish numbers have declined and more restrictive harvest regulations have been implemented to protect and restore resources. Seafood products and supplies have also varied as a direct result of the changes in fish catches. As more people have moved to the coast and as tourism grows in importance demand for fresh seafood supplies has increased. Since its inception, MRRI has focused various activities on development of tools to increase fishery resources as well as the development of new farmed seafood products.
Research areas include:
- development of environmentally friendly technologies for producing seafood;
- utilization of hatchery-produced organisms to improve our understanding of natural fish populations and the ecosystems upon which they depend;
- testing the potential of increasing fish populations through releases of hatchery produced fish; and technology transfer of important findings to the private and public sectors.
Thus, development of culture techniques for various species offer opportunities for both the public and private sectors, and have application to both native fisheries as well as private commercialization. Due to its culture successes, MRRI's mariculture program has been recognized as a national leader, winning a number of prestigious awards.
For more information contact:
- Estuarine Finfish Research Coordinator: Dr. Aaron Watson - (843) 953-0462
- Mariculture Section Manager: Dr. Jason Broach - (843) 837-3795
- Waddell Mariculture Center Manager: Erin Levesque - (843) 837-3795