Multi-Trophic Aquaculture of the Green Abalone Haliotis fulgens and the Warty Sea Cucumber Apostichopus parvimensis Enhances Production

Abstract

Around the world, abalone species are a highly valuable marine resource. In recent years, abalone fisheries in the Northeast Pacific have suffered massive mortalities because of environmental factors. Aquaculture has been proposed as a solution to stop the collapse of this multimillion-dollar resource. Moreover, it has been shown widely that coculturing two or more species can increase the productivity of the resources cultured. The aim of this study was to test whether the growth rates of the green abalone Haliotis fulgens would increase when cocultured with the warty sea cucumber Apostichopus parvimensis. Growth rates of juvenile abalone increased by 29% in the presence of medium densities of A. parvimensis; however, coculture settings are not common in the Northeast Pacific. To our knowledge, this is the first coculture reported of these two species. Thus, these findings provide relevant information to promote innovative strategies for sustainable production of food.