US researchers report advances in bonefish culture

Researchers at Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute have successfully acclimated young, wild bonefish to the tank-based culture environment to the point where they were able to spawn recently. The achievement is a first in bonefish culture and “could allow for the closure of the life cycle and enhanced study of the fish’s reproductive and developmental biology,” says Dr Paul Wills, research professor and associate director for research who spearheads the aquaculture and stock enhancement program at FAU’s Harbor Branch. While bonefish (Albula vulpes) is not a popular food fish other than in Hawaii, advances in its culture could benefit aquaculture, says Dr Wills. “I personally wouldn’t eat them since they are so bony and their value is greater when left in the water to support a catch-and-release sport fishery and the tourism dollars that follow, but this research is important to the industry because bonefish are taxonomically related to eels and have ...