Yellow perch (YP) Perca flavescens are members of the Percidae or perch family, native to North America, and very common in the northwest to Great Slave Lake and west into Alberta. This species is a particularly important aquacultural and ecological species in the Great Lakes Region (GLR) and the Midwest USA . The demand for yellow perch has remained very high in the region. One reason in particular hindering expansion has been relatively slow growth of currently cultured populations of this species. Using current yellow perch strains, only 60% of the fish cultured in aquaculture operations reach market size in a normal growth cycle (16 months), with the remainder below market size. This is an inefficient use of resources, feed, and operational costs, and leads to marginal profits at best.
Yellow perch female monosex culture has considerable potential for increasing the ef ficiency and profitability of yellow perch aquaculture, since females grow ~40% to ~50% faster than males in aquaculture systems in year 1 and the advantage is even more pronounced in year 2. Funded by USDA and NOAA-Sea Grant, Ohio Center for Aquaculture Research and Development (OCARD) at OSU South Centers has developed technology that can generate large numbers of fast-growing, all-female yellow perch populations. A growth performance test of the all-females vs. mixed-sex group showed that all-females grew 26.3% faster than the mixed group, and 66.0% faster than males. In the past few years, OCARD created a large number of neomale broodstock of yellow perch with a female genotype and is using the large numbers of superior neomale broodstock to produce a commercial-scale of all-female monosex yellow perch and transferring them to aquaculture industry for demonstration. A few aquaculture partners have been identified for the farm demonstration and commercialization . All-female monosex populations will significantly benefit the aquaculture industry.