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

California yellowtail (Seriola lalandi) is a high performance species that is characterized by fast growth, high reproductive output and high market value.  These factors make California yellowtail a perfect candidate species for aquaculture, which has been validated on a commercial scale in other countries.  HSWRI has maintained an experimental breeding program for this species since 2003.  This breeding program continues to evolve and is currently the focal point of several collaborative research projects focused on nutrition, and egg and larval quality.  Because the breeding program typically relies on spawning from large groups of up to 30 adults in a single pool, relationships between offspring and the parents that spawned them have historically gone undetermined.

A team of collaborators is now seeking to unravel these mysteries, enlisting the help of USD graduate student and Sea Grant trainee, Elizabeth Smith.  Under the direction of Dr. John Hyde, geneticists at NOAA’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC) in La Jolla have successfully identified unique genetic markers among HSWRI’s captive broodstock that will allow researchers like Elizabeth to link offspring to their parents.  Elizabeth’s thesis will focus on determining spawning patterns for the broodstock population over two consecutive seasons.  Through this process, she hopes to improve our understanding of reproductive output and associated cycles among captive spawners, including batch and annual fecundity as it relates to female size and age.  Although the individuals being studied are captive, this research is expected to enhance our understanding of yellowtail reproduction in the wild.  Elizabeth’s findings will also allow researchers studying yellowtail egg and larval quality in a parallel project funded by the Western Regional Aquaculture Center (WRAC) to link quality attributes with individual parents, providing extra value from her work.