Advanced research on shellfish and finfish of commercial and environmental importance: Designing and improving seafood production methods.

The objective of COMB's aquaculture and fisheries biotechnology program is to apply molecular and cellular approaches to basic studies of reproduction, genetics, early development, nutrition, growth and disease in selected marine and estuarine high-value finfish and shellfish. This research is applied to the development of novel and generic strategies to improve yields, performances, sustainability and competence of Maryland, US and global marine aquaculture and fisheries. Through hatchery technologies, we produce healthy stocks of important fisheries species (such as the Chesapeake Bay blue crab) in an effort to replenish diminished harvests in the marine and estuarine environments.

During the last three decades, the world has witnessed an alarming decline in commercial fisheries, the result of overfishing, environmental degradation and disease. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, nearly 70% of the world's commercial marine fisheries species are now fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. Based on anticipated population growth, it is estimated that the world's demand for seafood will double by the year 2025. Even the most favorable estimates project that in the year 2025 the global demand for seafood will be twice as much as the commercial fisheries harvest.

The same trend is present in the United States. Per capita consumption of seafood by Americans increased 25% from 1985 to 2000. As a result, the US is overwhelmingly dependent on imported seafood, with more than half of its supplies coming from overseas. The US is, after Japan, the world's largest importer of seafood. This has resulted in an annual trade deficit of $7 billion for edible seafood, which is the third largest contributor to the US trade deficit, after petroleum and automobiles.

It is very clear that the only way to satisfy the world's growing need for fisheries products, and to reverse the US fisheries trade deficit, is through aquaculture, the farming of aquatic organisms in controlled environments. Responding to the situation, US aquaculture production has grown steadily in the 1980s and 1990s. In fact, throughout the US and the world, aquaculture has been the fastest growing agriculture industry.

However, despite the recent growth of the US industry, only 10% of the seafood consumed in the US comes from domestic aquaculture, and the US ranks only tenth in the world in the value of its aquaculture production. Worldwide, it is estimated that in order to close the increasing gap between demand and supplies of fisheries products, aquaculture will need to augment production three- to four-fold during the next two and a half decades. For global and US aquaculture to meet that challenge, the industry must become much more efficient, reliable and cost effective. For that to happen, aquaculture must overcome some major obstacles related to the biology and life cycle of the farmed organisms, as well as become fully compatible with the marine and coastal environments.

Consequently, the major objective of COMB's aquaculture and fisheries biotechnology program is to apply molecular and cellular approaches to basic studies of reproduction, early development, nutrition, growth and disease in selected marine high-value finfish and shellfish, in view of developing novel and generic strategies to improve yields, performances, sustainability and competence of Maryland, US and global marine aquaculture. COMB programs also combine diverse expertise in developing a new generation of fully contained and environmentally sustainable marine aquaculture.

To enhance commercial fisheries, COMB's programs target major diseases that have caused drastic decline of important species such as the Eastern oyster, and attempt to develop novel strategies to diagnose, overcome and eliminate the disease. Our programs also aim at understanding the reproductive and developmental processes and at producing healthy stocks of important fisheries species (such as the Chesapeake Bay blue crab) in an effort to replenish diminished harvests in the marine and estuarine environments.

For information on COMB aquaculture programs, please contact Dr. Yonathan Zohar .

Programs:

---- Reproduction ( Zohar )
---- Early development (Du , Jagus , Place, Vasta, Zohar)
---- Growth ( Du,)
---- Nutrition and metabolism (Place)
---- Immunology (Hansen, Vasta)
---- Diagnostics and disease control (Hansen, Jagus, Vasta, Zohar)
---- Transgenics (Du)
---- Microbiology in aquaculture (Belas, Schreier)
---- Recirculated mariculture (Schreier, Place, Zohar)
---- Extension (Sea Grant) SciTech