OCEAN LECTURE SERIES

"Marine Foodfish Culture and Stocking"
• Dr. John Tucker

ABOUT THE LECTURE

The success of marine fish farming and stocking depends on control of four key management areas: environment, reproduction, nutrition, and health. Advances made in these areas by the speaker's research program will be described. Examples of fish raised and their life histories will be discussed, with emphasis on mullet, sheepshead, seatrout, red drum, snook, barramundi (Australian snook), and Nassau groupers.

Both voluntary and induced spawning techniques are used to obtain eggs. Because marine fish larvae have narrow tolerances and requirements, production of sufficient numbers of healthy juvenile fish for stock enhancement or aquaculture depends primarily on refinement of larval rearing methods. Much effort is devoted to understanding all growth phases (but particularly sensitive larval stages) to provide optimal environmental and nutritional conditions and obtain the best survival and growth. Nutrition research is mainly directed toward developing a series of economical, environmentally responsible, practical feed formulas suitable for various warmwater marine fish at all stages. Many hatcheries still use drugs that are potentially dangerous for the reared fish, wild fish, environment, and/or humans. Fish raised with progressive hatchery methods grow fast, have not needed drugs, and are not likely to; they are resistant to diseases and stress.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

John Tucker grew up in Charleston, South Carolina, spending much time in the woods and on the water. He attended Clemson University (B.S. in Forestry), North Carolina State University (M.S. in Zoology - Fish Development), and the College of William and Mary (Ph.D. in Marine Science - Fish Physiology). Beginning with home aquariums, he has raised 40 species and hybrids of fish in the eel, herring, anchovy, killifish, mosquitofish, snook, striped bass, grouper, dolphin, snapper, porgy, drum, tilapia, damselfish, mullet, wrasse, spadefish, lefteye flounder, and triggerfish families. He has produced more than 33,000 juvenile and adult fish on an experimental scale and released more than 25,000 of them.

John has conducted research at the National Marine Fisheries Service in North Carolina and in Australia, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Cayman Islands, St. Thomas, Guam, and Palau, and has been technical advisor for many research and commercial projects. Since 1983, he has conducted pioneering research at Harbor Branch on the aquaculture and biology of marine fish. He is a SCUBA instructor for the National Association of Underwater Instructors and the British Sub-Aqua Club and has spent hundreds of hours studying marine fish under water. As Professor at Florida Atlantic University, Florida Institute of Technology, and Indian River Community College, Visiting Professor at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, National Fisheries Institute (Mexico), National Polytechnic Institute (Mexico), University of Puerto Rico, and Curtin University of Technology (Australia), and Fulbright Professor for a year at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, he has taught students from 29 countries. He has taught more than 50 courses on diving, seashore life, marine science, marine biology, marine ecology, marine biodiversity, underwater biology, aquaculture, fish culture, and scientific writing. He also has made scientific visits to Belize, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Japan, Martinique, New Zealand, Okinawa, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, St. Croix, Taiwan, Thailand, and Wales. He has produced more than 80 publications, including the 760-page book Marine Fish Culture, which has become a standard reference and textbook sold in over 100 countries.