IMAGE: The species being used in the research is the black sea bass or Centropristis striata.

Here is some interesting research coming out of Woods Hole, Massachusetts involving open-ocean ranching. Open-ocean ranching is an interesting idea that is worth investigating. If the project comes to full fruition it will be interesting to compare costs of open-ocean ranching with traditional aquaculture systems especially when considering predation and differing growth rates that will probably be associated with open-ocean ranching. However, there could be some gains against traditional aquaculture such as decreased disease and parasitic infections. In addition, fish farmers could market quasi-farmed fish that possibly influence the environment less. No doubt, some folks will be concerned with the impact of human’s introducing fish to “wild” open ocean ecosystems that are already out of whack from overfishing. For example, too many of one species and competing might negatively influence another species that has not yet recovered from overfishing. However, we already live in a socially constructed nature but we should still approach with caution. From Discovery News: Discovery Channel:

“It sounds crazy, but it’s real,” said Simon Miner, a research assistant at the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s Hole, which received a $270,000 grant for the project from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 

Miner said the specially trained fish could someday be used to bolster the depleted black sea bass stock. Farmed fish might become better acclimated to the wild if they can be called back for food every few days.

The bigger goal is to defray the costs of fish farming, an increasingly important source of the world’s seafood. If fish can be trained to return to the farmer after feeding in the open ocean for several days, farms could save money on feed and reduce the amount of fish waste released in concentrated areas.

The key question for fish farmers: How many fish will actually return, and how many will be lost to predators or simply swim away?…

Miner said the first objective was to see if the fish could truly be trained. He got his answer after keeping the fish in a circular tank, then sounding a tone before he dropped food in an enclosed “feeding zone” within the tank that the fish could enter only through a small opening.

Researchers played the tone for 20 seconds, three times a day, for about two weeks. Afterward, whenever the tone sounded, “you have remote-control fish,” Miner said.

“You hit that button, and they go into that area, and they wait patiently,” he said.

Miner is now trying to figure out how long the fish remember to associate the tone with food. He feeds the fish outside the feeding zone without a tone for a few days and then tests if they will still head for the feeding area when the tone sounds again.

Hat tip to Kevin.