Some argue it’s a phenomenal fish, both in its enormous size and unique shape. Others seek it during their scuba dives, as it became a very rare fish to spot. The rest might say it just tastes so good…
Meet the Grouper.
The grouper family* holds a significant number of species. Having more than 200 described species, it has varied habitats and can be found in the Indo-Pacific ocean, the North Atlantic, and some species are endemic to the southern Mediterranean Sea.
Degraded gradually from its natural habitats throughout the years, the grouper caught both marine conservationists’, and aquaculturists’ attention worldwide.
Like many other fish types, overfishing places the grouper's natural populations throughout the seas and oceans at a tremendous risk. In its last 2023 update, the “IUCN Red List of Endangered Species” published that out of 188 categorized grouper species, more than 35% are categorized as threatened (categories NT near threatened to CR critically endangered).
To mitigate its threats, governmental conservation programs are aiming to enforce laws against overfishing, designate new MPAs (Marine Protected Areas), and elucidate its conservation importance.
However, the domestication of wild populations to broodstock in industrial marine institutes, may considerably decrease the market's dependence on fishing and have a relieving effect on the Grouper’s natural populations.
Out of the many species of grouper existing in the wild, several species and their hybrids have been successfully reared in fisheries around the world.
The red-spotted, orange-spotted, and brown-marbled groupers (E. akaara, E. coioides, E. fuscoguttatus) are commonly cultivated in the Southeast Asian market. The Black and Jewfish groupers (M. bonaci, E. itajara) can be found in the western Atlantic, and the Sabah Giant Grouper is a hybrid species of the Tiger and Giant Grouper that has been developed in Malaysia.
The common grouper types found in the Mediterranean market are the Brown Grouper (Epinephelus marginatus), the Canine Grouper (Epinephelus caninus), the Royal Grouper (Mycteroperca rubra), and the White Grouper (Epinephelus aeneus).
Unfortunately, in most farms cultivating grouper these days, the fish are raised from wild juveniles.
Zooming in on the cultured, South Mediterranean grouper species, the White Grouper demand in the European, North African, and Middle Eastern markets has significantly risen and will probably continue to rise, in the upcoming years.
In the Dagon marine finfish hatchery, the White Grouper Program is now stepping into its final stages of establishing a steady, year-round egg-producing broodstock. Dagon's broodstock genetic lines originate from endemic south Mediterranean sea populations.
After years of gradual rearing and acclimatization to intensive-indoors conditions, Dagon is on the brink of producing White Grouper eggs year-round and establishing of a larvae-rearing multi-stage protocol.
In order to supply the local Israeli market’s demand, Dagon's R&D team designed and built a grow-out facility (greenhouse with deep intensive ponds) that perfectly suits the White Grouper’s requirements.
The greenhouses are facilitated with innovative RAS systems which receive a continuous saltwater supply. In order to achieve complete control of the fish's nutritional profile, Dagon designed a nutrition plan for white grouper-specific feeding pellets.
Dagon’s awareness of the urgent need to rehabilitate the Grouper’s wild populations, alongside the uncompromising effort to meet the rising fish market’s demands, led the path forward toward the White Grouper multiyear R&D program. A continuous progress in the development of innovative cultivation methods is the key to a sustainable and productive future for the aquaculture industry.
*Subfamily Epinephelinae under the Serranidae family
Lior Shak, Dagon February 2023
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