As a prime target species for the fishing industry in the Florida Keys, pressure is put onto the grouper family. The effects of overfishing fecund adults and the premature harvesting of developing juveniles, takes away from the total annual population and is not a sustainable or responsible practice within the fishery. Despite concerns for the future species populations, the pressure on the grouper family will continue to rise.
To combat the intense fishing pressure on such an essential Florida Keys apex predator species, our work with aquaculturing and raising our own grouper through in-vitro fertilization will develop into a one-of-a-kind Florida Keys stock enhancement initiative. Our results, through this in-vitro fertilization process, has the potential to spark a revolution in the marine finfish hatchery industry as well as the aquaculture community worldwide.
As part of ‘From Guts to Glory’ through the College of the Florida Keys, we are specifically looking at gonads of the black grouper, Mycteroperca bonaci . We will harvest male black grouper gametes, cryopreserve the samples, and use the sperm to fertilize female black grouper eggs in an effort to aquaculture a ‘College of the Florida Keys black grouper’. We will be working with Dynasty Marine to collect our 9 female broodstock , where they will be housed in a 2,700-gallon indoor recirculating system specially designed to help induce spawning. Our goal is to induce female egg production through simulations of natural spawning conditions; temperature regulation, photoperiod control via lunar cycle simulation, and the use of audio stimulus with male courtship calls.
As data on the aquaculture of grouper species on a semi-commercial scale is limited , our efforts to analyze behavioral interactions of female brood and attempt invitro-fertilzation with the local species faces challenges. Maintaining water quality parameters and deterring aggression among the broodstock are two of the most notable challenges we have faced in the beginning stages of this project. As an aggressive species capable of displaying high levels of dominance, balancing territory through the installation of various pipe structures deters aggression which would otherwise influence hormonal egg production during a simulated spawning event.