© The Cosmonaut
The OPTI-RAS project, led by the Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (AWI) in collaboration with Oceanloop, Sander, and Ecomarine, has developed new farming protocols and initiated market trials for the Queensland giant grouper in Europe.
The initiative, supported by the Federal Ministry of Research and Education under the Innovation Space Bioeconomy on Marine Sites programme, aims to establish grouper as a viable species for RAS farming - offering both economic potential and sustainability benefits.
Several batches of 3g fingerlings have been successfully shipped from The Company One - an Australian hatchery that reproduces this species year-round - and acclimated at the AWI's Centre for Aquaculture Research. To date, the project has mainly focussed on feed development and stress response at different stocking densities. The results have been used by Oceanloop to manufacture a grouper feed, which has been successfully used for a farming trial at their research and development system in Kiel. The researchers have shown that, under the right conditions, the grouper can grow up to 3 kg form fingerling size over the space of a year.
Various stocking densities have been tested, ranging from 60 to 200 kg per m³ and, based on their initial results, the researchers plan to stock the species at a much higher density than other marine species.
The project also explored the market potential of the species within Europe, with the fish being introduced to the menu of the two-star Michelin restaurant Ikarus of Red Bullin in Salzburg, Austria. A small volume of sales to private customers also began in November 2024, and confirm the high market potential of grouper in Europe.
"We see great potential in farming this species. Growth, feed conversion and survival are excellent and, together with the stocking densities that can be achieved, this species can be a very sustainable marine fish species to be farmed” commented Dr Bert Wecker, CTO of Oceanloop, in a press release.
