EXPERT TOPIC 1503: Cobia

8/9/2019 EXPERT TOPIC 1503: Cobia

1/836 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | May-June 2015

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COBIA

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Cobia: is it thenext big thing?by Roy Palmer, Aquaculture WithoutFrontiers, Australia

Everyone wants to be in on the next

big thing, be that a speculative share,

a new technology gadget and yes,

even a new fish!

The success of salmon has people dream-

ing of the new discovery that will be salmon’s

white fish competitor. There is a definite

demand for this. There are a number of spe-

cies that have potential and one of them is

cobia (Rachycentron canadum).

In the wild, cobia is a highly valued sea-

food species - a very popular game fish well

regarded because of its fighting abilities and

the delicious taste. Wild cobia are rarely seen

in large groups, so only a small quantity is wild-

caught and, generally speaking, professional

fishermen do not specifically target cobia; they

only harvest them incidentally when fishing for

other species.

Quality harvested aquaculture cobia

doesn't taste fishy. It's white and firm likeswordfish. It can be grilled, sautéed or served

as sashimi or in a bouillabaisse.

The FAO says worldwide farmed cobia pro-

duction was less than 2,500 metric tons 10 years

ago but in 2009 production surpassed 30,000

metric tons, with more than 80 percent in China

- the world’s largest producer - and Taiwan. A

sign that US cobia imports are increasing is that

the US International Trade Commission gavecobia an import code (thus being able to dif-

ferentiate from unspecified finfish).

As much as China has been the leading

producer of farmed cobia, many other coun-

tries are developing technology to aquaculture

cobia, hence global production of cobia is

on the rise and it is appearing on menus

more and more. Ocean-cage operations are

under way in the Bahamas, Vietnam, Taiwan,

Indonesia and a number of Latin American

countries including Belize, Ecuador, etc. but

this article will look specifically at Brazil,

Panama and Australia.

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BrazilThe difficulty in Brazil with cobia farming was that it was not well

recognised as a high-quality food fish in some regions, particularly in

the South. However, this scenario is changing, and first farmed cobia

productions have been well accepted by local consumers, restaurants

and fresh fish markets. The increasing demand for high quality fresh

food fish and seafood, combined with the lack of local fish production,

has driven up the price of farmed cobia. Currently, the emerging

cobia production in Southern Brazil is being sold for US$18-20/kg for

whole gutted fish.

With an increasing demand for fresh fish, an increasing production

of cobia is expected and for that reason, this promising market has

attracted the interest of medium and large entrepreneurs for cobia

cage culture. One issue holding these farmers back at present is the

lack of high quality commercial diets for marine fish. This continues to

be the biggest obstacle to development of cobia aquaculture in Brazil.

In Brazil, there are several promising marine fish species with great

aquaculture potential. In the last seven years there has been a strong

interest from the government through the Ministry of Fisheries and

Aquaculture to promote marine fish culture starting with key species

such as cobia. This native species was chosen for several reasons

including fast growth rates, good flesh quality, and well-developed

husbandry protocol that could easily be adapted to local cultureconditions. Therefore, research programs, partnerships and regional

hatcheries were created to promote marine fish culture.

Wild cobia is mainly captured on the northeast coast of Brazil,

where it is appreciated by consumers in many restaurants. The high

water temperatures in this region throughout the year allow a cer-

38 | INTERNATIONAL AQUAFEED | May-June 2015

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tain consistency in wild cobia supply. However, wild cobia is rarely

caught in southern Brazilian waters, particularly during the winter,

as water temperatures drop below the cobia’s requirements. As

a result wild cobia is largely unknown in southern markets. For this

reason, cobia production was questioned due to its market potential

and the challenges of promoting an unknown fish with a nonexistent

demand.

Clearly though, having high-quality flesh in a market where there

was a lack of fresh marine fish supply and an increasing demand

enabled an opening for fresh cobia. It is now well accepted by local

consumers, restaurants and fresh fish markets. Maybe not surprisingly,

the Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo markets easily and readily absorbed

the first farmed cobia productions. Whilst this is still a minor produc-

tion in comparison with the potential consumer market of these two

major centres in southern Brazil, it is a good indicator of the potential

of marine fish culture and the demand for fresh fish.

The majority of the production is absorbed by fine Japanese restau-

rants where cobia is served as sashimi. Due to its high-quality flesh and

favorable texture, the Japanese chefs appreciate this species. In addi-

tion, other restaurants are serving cobia in a variety of ways to attend

the consumer’s needs. The freshness of the final product is important,

and therefore having the culture sites close (most farms are located

less than three-four hours’ drive away) to the final consumers enables

efficient logistics. As a result, a fresh, high-quality product is deliveredfrom farms to the restaurant doors.

The high selling price is working well for the farms as they have

to deal with high operational costs including floating cages, nets and

particularly feed costs. A lack of commercially available diets for marine

fish in Brazil, especially one that meets the specific requirements of


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cobia, is holding back the opportunity but effort is going into research

and development.

Farmed cobia has several characteristics that lead to a consistent

promising market, including freshness and high-quality flesh being a

good source of health-promoting omega 3 fatty acids. To establish

a niche market, it requires demand for a specific product, and more

importantly a consistent supply of high quality product. Aquaculture

exhibits the benefits of controlling the production cycle to meet con-

sumer demands in terms of forecasting production and consistency in

size and quality of the final product. In this context, farmed cobia is a

potential candidate for a niche market; however, it is important to high-

light the necessity of industry support and sustained marketing effort.

Whilst the increasing demand for fresh seafood and marine fish is

expected to continue into the future in Brazil, there is still much to be

done regarding feeds and farming techniques.

Luís André Sampaio from Universidade Federal do Rio Grande is

involved in a current study on the performance of juvenile cobia reared

in low salinities (three and six percent), with or without alkalinity cor-

rection in a RAS. He is presenting at WA2015 in Jeju and will highlight

that the survival rate was 100 percent at all treatments, but growth

parameters (final weight, weight gain, SRG and feed intake) decreased

significantly at salinities of six and three percent when compared with

the control. Results suggest that cobia has a limited euryhaline capac-ity, but they can be reared in low salinity (three and six percent) for

six weeks with no mortality. However, when reared in three percent

salinity, juvenile cobia can benefit from alkalinity supplementation and

the higher pH associated with this, in order to sustain better growth

than those reared in the low alkalinity treatment.

AustraliaIn Australia, cobia (previously known as black kingfish) are not often

seen in the fish markets but are a prized species for tropical recreation-

al fishermen. They generally can be encountered near reefs and other

structures from south-western West Australia, around the north of the

country and as far south as the central coast of New South Wales. In

the wild they can grow to well over 45-50 kg and are strong fighters.

Information was filtering through to Australia from various studies

on the species. The information was exciting. The news was that cobia

was a very fast growing species - the maximum age recorded for a

1.6m, 50kg+ cobia in the Gulf of Mexico was only 11 years of age.

Juveniles grew to more than 60cm in their f irst year, and fish a metre

long were only around three years old. Females matured in their

second year when around 80 to 90cm, while male fish often matured

in their first year.

Scientists discovered that cobia spawned between April and

September in the northern hemisphere (that region's spring and sum-

mer) and in Australia the spawning period occurred September to

June. The size at first maturity for 50 percent of male and female cobia

in Australia was 78cm, again at about two years of age. Additionally,

cobia produce excessive numbers of eggs.

Scientists working in the Gulf of Mexico highlighted that individualcobia spawned a number of times throughout the season. Evidence

was that the fish spawned as often as once every five to 12 days . It was

not unusual to see larger fish spawning up to 1.5 million eggs per batch,

but the average 'batch fecundity' of cobia in Australia was shown to be


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even higher, at 2.8 million eggs per spawning cycle, with the spawning

frequency assessed to be around seven to eight days.

Due to their high energy needs associated with their fast growth,

they were not considered prissy feeders. In the wild, dietary studies

showed that they are bottom feeders, seemingly enjoying crustaceans,

especially crabs.

The Australian Seafood Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) cre-

ated a project on cobia, which aimed to build on previous research

by Queensland aquaculture producer Pacific Reef Fisheries and the

Department for Employment, Economic Development and Innovation

(DEEDI).

During this research they discovered that the financial potential for

fish farmers is very significant, primarily because cobia can grow up to

10 kilograms within their first year - this is double the speed of bar-

ramundi and triple the speed of Atlantic salmon.

Although cobia are not fussy eaters in the wild, things are not the

same in captivity, and it was important, just like with any new farmed

species, to ensure the diet mix is right.

Other problems thwarted Pacific Reef in the early days. Heavy stock

losses due to bird predation caused some angst but this was resolved

by installing anti-predator cages for the fish to live in as fingerlings.

Additional issues were created as the fish were being grown in prawn

ponds, which was not ideal due to their shallow depth.The CRC work also planned on developing reliable and robust

controlled spawning methods for cobia, utilising hormonal, social and/

or environmental manipulation; production of sufficient fingerlings

to enable the on-grow commercial quantities of cobia for market;

developing pilot scale cobia fingerling production by the hatchery; for-

mulating diets designed to meet the specific nutritional and energetic

requirements of cobia and developing and field testing new farmed

cobia product(s) with high market acceptance.

Pacific Reef have shown they have the technical capability and

infrastructure to produce cobia for the marketplace and to target the

appropriate market sector (high end restaurants and sashimi) for the

product. Recently the company won accolades at the 2015 Sydney

Royal Show Fine Food – Aquaculture Awards, taking the awards forChampion Fresh Fish (Classes 7 and 8) Sashimi Grade cobia.

“We want to be Australia’s biggest and largest aquaculture facil-

ity growing sustainable product for the Australian and the overseas

market,” said Maria Mitris, Operations Manager of her family’s business,

Pacific Reef Fisheries.

The company, family-owned and funded, is able to control all

aspects of their operation from the high tech hatchery at Guthalungra

to the farming operation at Ayr. Their main business is the production

of approximately 700 tonnes of black tiger prawns per annum.


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PanamaYou cannot mention cobia without involving the name of Brian

O’Hanlon.

Some regard Brian O'Hanlon as an overnight success story with his

Open Blue cobia from Panama hitting menus in the USA. Typically of

such success stories, though, it has taken many long, hard years tackling

obstacles head-on to achieve such ‘overnight’ status.

Originally from Long Island, O’Hanlon knew from an early stage in

his life that he wanted to be in aquaculture. His father was wholesaling

fish, the family had a long history in the industry and the business gotinto his blood. Even in the early stages of his career he was experiment-

ing with a 2000-gallon tank in his parents' basement, endeavoring to

grow red snapper.

Some 17 years ago O’Hanlon met up with Daniel Benetti from

the University of Miami and managed to secure a position on one of

Benetti’s courses. This helped focus his intentions, but many years of

frustration due to prohibitive US regulations that made growth impos-

sible ensured that he would have to work outside the USA if he was

to achieve his dream.

It was not until 2009 that O’Hanlon finally moved to Panama where

he acquired Pristine Oceans, another deep-ocean cobia farming ven-

ture, and created Open Blue.Benetti is a believer in cobia in that he has often said that they are

as close to a perfect species as he has ever seen. This has been a long

quest by Benetti and he has been the reason many people have got

excited about this species.

Having finally started production in 2012, offshore cobia producer

Open Blue has been ramping up its volumes and promoting and mar-

keting the product since then and has been offering product every

week of the year. From small beginnings, production is now very com-

mercial, with one seafood wholesaler in New York reportedly selling

fillets direct to the public at US$16.95 per pound.

Over the years O’Hanlon has always been strong about not being

caught in the commodity business, so he has invested heavily in ensuring

that his fish is getting to high-end markets. Logistically, harvesting is organ-

ised to link to air transport and ensuring that the quality is consistent.

To further add value, the group have recently completed a brand

new hatchery in Panama and are hoping to expand production through

value-adding in their new factory. Additionally, they have secured

Global GAP certification, and are now considering ISO 90001 and

BRC standards.

Open Blue is ambitious: the fish is farmed eight miles from the coast,

in cages of 6,400 cubic meters. The cages are submerged 30 feet under

the sea surface, and are each anchored to a submerged mooring grid

with 40 anchors of 1.5 metric tons each. The anchors reach 220 feet

deep. To alert boats of the cages’ presence, the buoys are fitted with

lights and transponders which will alert any approaching ships. Eachcage can take 50,000 fish, or 130-150t, creating a pen density of 20

kilos per cubic meter.

Benetti and O’Hanlon are to be congratulated for their work on

cobia to date, and both of them would rather that they were able to

do this in the USA, but due to regulations and bureaucracy this is not

allowed. It is a dilemma facing many so-called developed countries, and

whilst many of them talk the talk at various world conventions they

have failed to see the opportunity that is being missed. So whilst mining

and drilling are seemingly allowed carte blanche, opportunities in the

quest for sustainable quality seafood are cast aside.

Benetti and many scientists have argued for the past several years

that such open-ocean fish-farming is the environmentally sensitive way

of saving the world's seafood demand, because from a food production

angle it creates a higher yield with a lower impact.

Feed is an important research element as, like salmon, cobia are

predators that need fishmeal in their diet and with cobia being bigfish-eating fish there is a need to have a limited impact on the ecosys-

tem. Benetti is experimenting with a fishmeal that is part soy mix part

protein. A fact which is often forgotten when people complain about

fish feed ratios is that it takes ten pounds of wild fish to produce a

pound of large fish in nature, hence aquaculture is many times more

sustainable than nature itself.

This is why we are seeing feed organisations like the BioMar Group

recently signing a Memorandum of Understanding with leading Chinese

feed producer Tongwei Co. Ltd to establish a Joint Venture dedicated

to producing and selling high performance feed for aquaculture in China.

The product range for the new Joint Venture factory will include starter

and grower feeds for marine and fresh water species such as sea bass, sea

bream, cobia, turbot, bass, grouper, trout, sturgeon, tilapia, eel, and shrimp.

The simple question that fish farmers will always ask is about the

speed of turning their investment from an output of dollars to an input

of dollars, and clearly if you were starting a fish farm and you could

raise ten-pound fish in one year, or another fish species that takes two

years to grow one pound, the decision is obvious.

Marketing is still the key as the fish is not well known but surely it

is the dream of any good chef to find something that’s reliably sourced

year-round and grows quickly and sustainably and tastes delicious!

So hopefully it is just a timing issue before it becomes a staple in all

restaurants.

One major word of caution - not every venture is going to be suc-

cessful. In the USA a freshwater facility in Virginia which was producing

farmed cobia had to close. Research efforts were not enough to enhance

commercial aquaculture of freshwater cobia and demonstrate its techni-

cal and economic feasibility. The fish simply did not grow as fast as it

should have and the partnership involved closed down the operations.

ReferencesBrazil information thanks to Artur N. Rombenso (Centre for Fisheries,

Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences and Department of Zoology, Southern

Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA), Andre

Araújo (Fundação Instituto de Pesca do Estado do Rio de Janeiro,

Angra dos Reis, Brazil) and Luis A. Sampaio (Laboratory of Marine and

Estuarine Fish Culture, Institute of Oceanography, Federal University ofRio Grande, Brazil).

Website: http://www.fishwatch.gov/seafood_profiles

/species/cobia/species_pages/cobia.htm

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jA_Cn6zIb4E


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EXPERT TOPIC 1503: Cobia

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