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Courtesy of the Hubbs SeaWorld Research Institute Feb/Mar Program Research Report:

As a continuation of our research funded by the United Soybean Board, we recently spearheaded a feeding trial at a commercial cage farm in Mexico.  To start the trial we transported approximately 25,000 white seabass by boat from Oceanside, California to Pacifico Aquaculture’s cage farm adjacent to Todos Santos Island off the coast of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico.  At the farm the fish were split evenly into two 25m3 surface cages.  One group was fed a commercial diet high in fish meal while the other group was fed a 12% fish meal diet complemented by a high level of soy ingredients.  This soy-based diet was developed over several years of laboratory research trials.  The fish were reared on these diets for 18 months and grew to approximately 500g.  Overall the growth performance was not different between the two dietary treatments.  Survival was higher in the commercial control group at 94% compared to the soy diet at 86%.  However, most of the mortality occurred after the fish were treated for gill flukes in the final third of the study period.  Prior to that, survival was high (>98%) in both groups.  At the end of the trial, fish health was evaluated in cooperation with the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC) in Ensenada using hematological analyses and it showed that both groups were of similar condition.  This study shows the importance of long-term grow out trials and their value in validating feed formulations.  It also highlights the possibility of successfully replacing traditional fish-based ingredients with alternative ingredients such as soy in fish feeds. For a video overview of this project, see below: