Status of sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria, aquaculture

Sablefish, Anoplopoma fimbria (also called black cod), is a long‐lived marine species with wide distribution extending from Baja California to Alaska, the Bering Sea, and through to the eastern coast of Japan. The landed weight of sablefish in the U.S. commercial fisheries is not large compared with other species; however, the exceptional value of sablefish has ranked it high compared with other species such as pollock, sockeye salmon, and Pacific cod. Sablefish are high in omega‐3 fatty acids and have white firm flesh with superior quality and taste. Current population levels are lower relative to historic ones and harvests have decreased within the last decade. The exceptional value of sablefish and decreases in wild populations have stimulated the development of methods to commercially aquaculture this species. Over the last 20 years, significant progress has been made in addressing the production of sablefish, and while there is still research that needs to be completed, sablefish have been commercially aquacultured by a small number of Canadian companies. In the Pacific Northwest, it is relatively easy to collect sablefish broodstocks from the wild and to transition them to land‐based rearing facilities. However, they must be maintained at cold temperatures to successfully reproduce. Captive broodstocks for genetic selection are not commercially available, though producers have begun their own development. Incubation conditions for yolk‐sac larvae have been developed and currently require long incubation periods at low temperatures, elevated salinity, and light exclusion. Although incubation times are long, they do not require very much attention during this phase. Exogenously feeding larvae currently require a regimen of rotifers and Artemia prior to dry feed habituation. However, tank characteristics, water turbidity, temperature, and illumination, as well as live feed enrichments have been studied. With the research that has been accomplished so far, survival rates of 10–40% have been routinely obtained at the larval stage. Despite a scarcity of species‐specific nutritional studies, researchers have shown that sablefish can be successfully cultured from the juvenile to the adult stage on commercial salmon feeds. Off‐the‐shelf salmon feeds have been used successfully in net‐pen grow‐out trials and are used by commercial producers. In addition, sablefish have proven to be a good cold‐water marine model for alternative feeds research. Still, research