Prized sea bass Chile’s next farmed species?

Kate Casey

In the U.S. the fish is known as the much-preferred Chilean sea bass. In the E.U. it is known as the Patagonian toothfish, and in Japan it is known as the mero. Regardless of its commercial name, the species Dissostichus eleginoides is one of Chile’s most highly prized fisheries. Since the opening of the fishery in the early nineties, yearly captures of the species have drastically declined from 17,778 tons in 1992 to 1,283 tons in 2004, and the demand for the fish is constant, especially in the U.S. market. The fish’s habitat is the southernmost tip of the Southern cone, reaching into Antarctica, and found at depths as far as 2000 meters.  Four companies, together with the Professional Institute La Araucana in Puerto Montt have recently won financing from the Chilean government to initiate a US$ 2.2 million R&D project for farming the species. According to Mundo Acuícola the project duration is four years and its principal objective is to produce juveniles from fish caught in the wild and reproduced under controlled conditions.