Commercially Viable Out-of-Season Spawning Technologies to Improve Yellow Perch Fingerling Production

An important aquaculture industry is developing in the Great Lakes region for yellow perch (Perca flavescens). The primary problem constraining the expansion of this industry is the high cost of fingerlings, which represents more than 35% of total operating costs for growout producers. Yellow perch normally spawn only once each year and fingerling ponds are only used for 6-8 weeks in the spring to produce one crop of fingerlings annually. The overall objective of our proposed research is to double the productivity of yellow perch fingerling ponds by developing a reliable method to spawn yellow perch out-of-season in the summer, thereby allowing for the production of two crops of pond-reared fingerlings per year. This SBIR project is expanding on previous studies funded by NSF and the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center. In Phase I we demonstrated the feasibility of inducing mid-summer, out-of-season spawning using photothemal phase shifting. In Phase II we will conduct out-of-season spawning on a commercial scale, evaluate an alternative out-of-season spawning method, and test different mid-summer fry production techniques.