The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (ICAR-CMFRI) developed hatchery technology for picnic seabream (Acanthopagrus berda), a commercially important marine fish. Also known as black seabream and goldsilk seabream, it is known for its excellent meat quality and high economic value. It is an good species for mariculture due to its faster growth rate, strong resistance to diseases and ability to cope up with wide variations in environmental parameters such as salinity and temperature. 

“The breeding technology, developed by the Karwar Research Centre of CMFRI, is expected to open up enormous scope for the country’s mariculture ventures in near future through species diversification,” said Dr. A Gopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI. “With the development of hatchery technology for picnic seabream, Indian mariculture is poised for a new surge with exponential increase in marine finfish production.” The next task of the institute is to standardize the farming protocol for this species as no record of breeding and aquaculture is available in the country.

“India targets 4-5 million metric tons of fish production in the next ten years from mariculture. Species diversification for mariculture is primarily aimed at achieving this target by enhancing the marine cage farming system across the coastal states of the country,” Dr. Gopalakrishnan said.

This is the seventh marine fish species of which breeding technology was developed by the CMFRI, taking around three years for the CMFRI scientists to develop the seed production technology for this species. The institute previously succeeded in broodstock development of fishes like cobia, silver pompano, Indian pompano, orange-spotted grouper, pink ear emperor and John’s snapper. CMFRI would transfer these technologies to those interested in the commercial production of the seeds.