Future studies may show the 

 impacts of such releases on wild 

 stock. 



The sea bass research 

 represents a progression from 

 commercial fishing to aquaculture. 

 In the first FRG project, small but 

 legal-sized black sea bass trapped 

 by Snow demonstrated successful 

 growth rates when given practical, 

 commercially available feed. A 

 second study showed the fish are 

 tolerant of relatively high stocking 

 densities. 



Now, a new FRG project is 

 focusing on spawning, using some 

 of the original wild-caught stock. 



APPLYING 

 SCIENCE 



"I think the best thing I've 

 enjoyed about this project is that 

 everything I've said (about black 

 sea bass) has been proven right," 

 says Snow. 



One thing that impresses 

 Snow is how many additional 

 people it takes to increase the 

 scientific validity of an FRG 

 project like his — North Carolina 

 Sea Grant staff, academic 

 researchers like Watanabe to 

 design and oversee the experiments, and 

 students who do much of the lab work. 



Kim Copeland was a graduate student in 

 marine biology when she started working on the 

 project at the beginning, in 1999. Watanabe says 

 her work has been "crucial" to the project's 

 success. 



Now a research associate, Copeland has 

 witnessed the growth of the project and of the 

 black sea bass — from weighing and measuring 

 the fish to compiling and analyzing the data. She 

 went out a couple of times with Snow to see 

 how black sea bass trapping was done, and 

 hauled the fresh catch back to the university's 

 Wrightsville Beach lab. 



From what she's seen, she agrees with 

 Snow that these are some resilient creatures. 



Most fish species brought in to the lab 

 require "feed-training," she says, and must be 

 introduced to artificial feed gradually. 



4^ 



TOP: Captain Snow's first mate, JeffJugan, delivers just-caught 

 sea bass for the Fishery Resource Grant study. fPhoto by Kim Copeland) 

 BOTTOM: Kim Copeland amid tlte recirculating system at the UNC-W 

 Center for Marine Science facility at Wrights\>ille Beach. I Pimm courtesy UNC-W) 



Some, like the flounder used for 

 broodstock, won't take pellets at all. They eat 

 only fish called silversides that have been frozen, 

 then thawed. The labor and processing involved 

 in meeting the exacting requirements of such 

 picky eaters hikes up aquaculture costs. 



But the bass took to the commercial feed 

 readily — a rare event "anytime you're taking 

 fish from the wild and putting them in an 

 artificial environment," Copeland says. 



And, attesting to their hardiness, Copeland 

 explains that the mortality rate from the 

 acclimated fish during the feeding study was 

 zero. Even given some mortalities early on from 

 transporting and holding, she says the statistics 

 are impressive. 



A potential drawback for black sea bass 

 aquaculture, says Watanabe, is the relatively 

 slow growth rates in wild populations of this 

 species, which can grow to seven pounds and 24 



inches long. In the study, 

 Watanabe says growth rates 

 proved to be much faster than in 

 the wild. 



So far, so good. But in order 

 to be feasible for farm-rearing, 

 the fish must tolerate stocking in 

 tanks at numbers that will mean 

 profit to the aquaculturist 



Using results from the 

 feeding study, the second FRG 

 looked at how adaptable the 

 black sea bass were to different 

 stocking densities. The CMS 

 facility uses recirculating tanks 

 — a "closed" system in which 

 water quality is managed using 

 biological and mechanical 

 filtration with ultraviolet water 

 sterilization. Heat pumps control 

 water temperature. 



The black sea bass did well 

 with more fish per tank. Another 

 study funded by the U.S. 

 Department of Agriculture is 

 looking at stocking densities 

 high enough for profitable 

 aquaculture. 



But to say the fish tolerated 

 more crowded conditions isn't to 

 say they were unaffected. 



"Ours had higher body fat 

 content, but enhanced value as a sushi product 

 where higher fat content seems to be preferred," 

 Watanabe says. 



Fat content is a characteristic that may be 

 controllable in aquaculture by manipulating feed 

 and the amount of exercise the fish get in the 

 tanks, he explains. 



THE PROOF IS 

 IN THE EATING 



No one needs to tell Captain Snow that 

 black sea bass is delicious. 



"You can't beat a sea bass. It's a great 

 eating fish," he attests. Even though Snow and 

 his wife can get all the fresh fish they want year- 

 round, Snow says they like sea bass so much 

 they freeze it — just so they can have it in the 

 summer, too. 



In December 2001, the fish from the study 

 were submitted for a taste test at Elijah's 



18 EARLY SUMMER 2003 



