KOCHI:Mariculture in India will get a major boost with the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) successfully developing the seed production technology of Indian pompano (Trachinotus mookalee), which has high commercial value both in domestic and international markets.
This is the fifth achievement made by the CMFRI after the institute developed seed production technology of cobia, silver pompano, orange spotted grouper and pink ear emperor. Indian pompano (locally known as Avoli Vatta) is the most suitable species for cage culture considering its fast growth rate, easy adaptability to culture conditions, quick acceptance of artificial feed, good meat quality and high consumer preference.
Breeding and seed production technology of the species was developed at the Visakhapatnam Regional Centre of CMFRI after two years of research. The technology was developed with the help of Recirculating Aquaculture System (RAS), a new facility in fish farming.
Indian pompano belongs to the Carangidae family, which is distributed in the Indo West Pacific region and is reported to be present in 15 different countries of the Asian continent.
It is a marine fish with sporadic occurrences in bays and lagoons and the adult fishes prefer shallow coastal waters with rocky areas. According to Dr A Gopalakrishnan, Director of CMFRI, this is the first report of successful mass scale seed production of Indian pompano in the world.