Australian research project will use cutting-edge genetic techniques and applied animal breeding to develop advanced reproductive techniques for the barramundi industry. James Cook University researcher, Jarrod Guppy, was awarded Australian Research Council Early Career Industry Fellowship, an AUS 470,000, three-year research fellowship, and aims to halve the time it takes for barramundi to reach sexual maturity.

“We are aiming to speed up the process of selective breeding as much as possible and give the operators of selective breeding programs more control over how they breed,” Guppy said to local news.

One of the big challenges for barramundi breeding programs is that they can take four to six years to mature for breeding. Researchers aim to halve that time. “By understanding the biology of barramundi, and tailoring our techniques to its needs, we will produce fish that are mature at two years old to breed the next generation of fast-growing fish,” Guppy said.

The project is a collaboration of James Cook University and the world’s largest barramundi breeding company, Mainstream Aquaculture.