Cephs in Aquaculture

[Graeme]

One of my subjects this semester has been on Aquaculture. Now, just this minute, while trying to read over some lecture notes, I started to wonder, just out of my own curiosity, if there are any cephalopods in aquaculture, like fisheries or anything? I suppose, a squiddery?

Graeme- really just wanted an excuse to say squiddery, maybe too much coffee!

 

[a rabid squid]

i would guess not because in monterey bay and other places they are like mud, there are so many it just wouldnt be logical

 

[chrono_war01]

According to my unresearched memory, there's no need for a squiddery since they multiplie on their own just fine and they're around the same place every year. Also, it's cheaper to catch them/ import them around. (And maybe squid's need large areas "squidderys" cannot provide...)
Octopus don't need a "octotery" since they escape and go everywhere, so escaping proofing it would not be sound when you know that lowering a thousand pots into the ocean for a few mouths is bound to get you some octos. (Not to mention octos are not that great to eat anyway...)
Cuttles, cuttles are a viable option, but our cuttles here in Hong Kong are still wild caught.

Maybe cephs just arn't suited for aquaculture...

 

[Euprymna]

i would guess not because in monterey bay and other places they are like mud, there are so many it just wouldnt be logical

It's true, there are a lot of them and most fished cephalopod stocks generally meet the demand and don't show a decrease (but large fluctuations yes!) so there is no sufficient market pressure for alternative source of cephs. Plus it is thought that depletion of the slow growing finfish species will slowly shift the balance towards our fast growing cephalopods. So in theory there will be even more in the future!! (this doesn't mean their fishery does not need management!!)

However, in spain and other parts of Europe some results indicate a decrease in the O. vulgaris population (a real delicacy there) and intensively fished overthere there are some commercial culture of Octopus vulgaris in large cages. Before they were simply ongrowing them since the paralarval stage is very hard/expensive to rear until settlement. I think that now they have managed to rear baby vulgaris on a commercial scale in the canary island...not sure.
I also think that they are doing the same for Sepia officinalis which is actually more easy to culture...but not 100% sure if they are at the commercial stage yet. Does anybody knows?

Also in Japan they do some work but I don't really know the situation there.

In the U.S the NRCC has been doing a lot of research to culture cephalolopds not for food but for biomedical research. They have managed to successfully culture throught one complete life cycle members of the 4 groups (octos, squid, cuttle and nautilus). In general much better success has been achieved with littoral cephs than with fast pelagic squids which are very hard to maintain. The culture facilities at the NRCC are nowwhere near as intensive as production systems seen for finfish or penaeid farms.

The problem with culturing cephs on a commercial scale is that no artificial diets have been developed (yet!) like in shrimp or fish aquaculture. They are very picky with their food and if they don't like the food you give them they'll eat each other. For an aquaculture to work commercially, the food has to be cheap and easy to give, yet for cephs it's not really like that at present!

eups

 

[Graeme]

wow, that's indeed interesting! Thanks guys! So no squidderies then (uses the word again!). Mind you, even fisheries are difficult, since we only know, or at least can control, the full life cycle of, what, 9 species of fish or something? I reckon it's the way to go. OK so you won't get "Wild Salmon" on your John West tins, but hey, I'm all for it if it preserves the wild populations (unless there's escapees, but that's not my point!).

Graeme- always wondered if "Dolphin Friendly" had a hidden meaning on tuna tins, else they would say "Dolphin Free"...

 

[monty]

always wondered if "Dolphin Friendly" had a hidden meaning on tuna tins, else they would say "Dolphin Free"...

Maybe because they could say "dolphin free" if they made sure to fish all the dolphin carcasses out of the net before sending the tuna to the packing plant?

 

[Graeme]

Exactly!

 

[main_board]

Jason (squidvicious) is doing his masters on squid aquaculture in NZ. I believe that there are others maybe in Taz doing similar work. Some have looked into octo aquaculture (I know of one in NZ and some elsewhere) but it extremely (and currently impossible, no has done it yet) to get them through the larval stage in small egg species. Once they've settled, it seems problems hugely drop, but as with all marine species its the damn pelagic larval stage that gets everyone.

As previously stated, most ceph stocks are okay or completely not know about. According to the CIAC conference, many are currently being managed, but this doesn't not mean that there won't come a time when the need will arise for aquaculture of cephs.

Cheers!

 

[Euprymna]

Some have looked into octo aquaculture (I know of one in NZ and some elsewhere) but it extremely (and currently impossible, no has done it yet) to get them through the larval stage in small egg species.

Actually, it is not impossible. Many people have managed to culture through one complete life cycle various species of cephs with planktonic hatchlings (L. opalescens, L. pealei, O. vulgaris, S. oweniana, S. atlantica, E. tasmanica...). However, the degree of success is quite low (in terms of % reaching settlement), it is very energy demanding (feed them many times a day and not the easy artemia but mysids!) and as a result not yet commercially viable.
Anyway, there is not an extensive deal of research done since it is not a current priority. So maybe will find a way around this when ceph stocks will be going down! hope it won't happened when still here!

eups

 

[Andy Lister]

Not really a big aquaculture scale but Sealife (the big company of public aquaria) will aquaculture as much lifestock as they can. Even if it's just from hatching eggs which are found as part of trawl fishing. You can have juv. S. officinalis onto dead mysis in a couple of days. Makes a lot of sense to grow them on and move them around the company as the only specimins which are caught are breeding adults and generally dont have long left in them.

Don't know if it's really what you were after but it is being done on that small scale

 

[rvangeld]

Euprymna has hit the nail right on the head. Cephs are being investigated as aquaculture species and food seems to be the main obstacle. I know that here the squid group can get E. tasmanica through a full life cycle and there is research looking at Idiosepius as well as Sepioteuthis australis. Sepioteuthis is difficult becasue only two adults can be placed in a 1000L tank. It will come down to a question of priority....what do they need and when.