Science and Technology Daily (Reporter Wang Zhuhua and Intern Qu Yizhen)

An important breakthrough in the field of artificial nursery for a species of wild fish called Seriola Dumerili will promote the green and high-quality development of aquaculture, fill the market gap during the fishing moratorium, and bring considerable economic benefits to fish breeding in the aquaculture industry.

The reporter learned from Hainan University that recently the subject of "key technology research and demonstration of the application of artificial breeding and safe production of Seriola Dumerili", which was jointly studied by Hainan University and the Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhanjiang) and other units of major scientific and technological projects in Hainan Province, was accessed in Wenchang, Hainan for the results of the nursery experiments. After the site investigation and testing carried out by aquaculture experts from Hainan Academy of Marine and Fisheries Sciences, Hainan Aquatic Products Quality and Safety Testing Center, the Hainan Tropical Oceanographic Institute and other units, it is determined that 210,000 tails of artificially cultivated Seriola Dumerili all have excellent quality.

Seriola Dumerili, a high-value product in the international seafood market, has a market price per kilogram of fry exceeded one hundred RMB. According to statistics, the breeding production of Seriola Dumerili in the Asia-Pacific region has exceeded 100,000 tons, and Seriola Dumerili fry accounts for more than 90% of Hainan Province's aquatic exports of fry, and the total amount of annual exports in 2022 is expected to exceed RMB 180 million. However, there is a risk of germplasm decline as the previous Seriola Dumerili fry came exclusively from wild-caught sources.

"In order to change the situation that Seriola Dumerili aquaculture relies entirely on wild-caught fry and to make up for the short board of the deep-sea aquaculture industry, the scientific research team is intensifying its scientific research efforts on the artificial propagation and fry cultivation of Seriola Dumerili." Luo Jian, the project leader of the subject, introduced that at present, the team has screened out the suitable Seriola Dumerili oxytocin, solved the technical problems of parental fish cultivation, sperm preservation, artificial oxytocin, etc., and carried out technological innovations in the areas of fertilized egg hatching, pond water cultivation, fry's first bite on food, and water quality management, making breakthroughs in the key technologies of large-scale Seriola Dumerili fry cultivation.

Zhu Chunhua, a professor at Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Zhanjiang), said, "A demonstration of Seriola Dumerili aquaculture in large-scale net cages of 60,000 cubic meters is expected to be realized in 2023, and it is expected to realize the output value of RMB 1 billion of Seriola Dumerili fry in 2025 with a whole industrial chain of RMB 10 billion."