Mackerel, as a seafood category that combines both edible value and market demand, is consumed in various scenarios, including Japanese cuisine and the daily diet of the general public. In recent years, due to the decline in wild resources, the supply stability and price trend of the mackerel market have both faced challenges.
Recently, Japanese aquaculture company Maruha Nichiro announced a technological breakthrough, providing a new solution to this problem - for the first time globally, it has achieved the full-process cultivation of mackerel from fish eggs to market size in a land-based aquaculture system, shortening the breeding cycle to about half a year.
The technical barriers of artificial breeding of mackerel: Why It Has Long Been regarded as an "impossible mission"
As early as 1998, the Fukushima Marine Science Museum in Japan attempted to raise mackerel pike in water tanks. However, the breeding of mackerel pike is extremely difficult. Its scales are prone to fall off, and it is highly sensitive to the environment. Even the slightest stimulation may cause it to collide with the water tank and die. The fish fry in small water tanks are hard to catch, and the water temperature needs to be regulated appropriately. It has a special physiological condition that it has no stomach and requires continuous feeding... Each one is an ultimate test of the breeding techniques.
So many years have passed, and it is still hard to see "farmed mackerel" in the market.
Break through the "impossible"! The world's first land-based farming, from fish roe to table size, everything is done
Recently, Japanese aquaculture giant Maruha Nichiro has brought a major piece of news: They have successfully raised mackerel pike from fish eggs to marketable adult fish in their land-based aquaculture system! This is a genuine "full-process breakthrough" :
In October 2023, with the technical support of the Fukushima Marine Science Museum, the team launched experiments at the aquaculture center in Kagoshima, with all the fish eggs provided by the science museum.
The company had previously handled the farming of high-value fish such as bluefin tuna and ð« fish. This time, it applied all its experience to mackerel - from feed formula, water tank environment control to stocking density adjustment, making mistakes bit by bit
In June 2024, good news came: The first batch of mackerel grew to over 100 grams (the standard market size), and the breeding cycle only took half a year.
Two months later, the team successfully completed artificial insemination - this means that the mackerel has completed the full-cycle breeding from fish eggs to adult fish and then to the next generation.
The aquaculture team's surface: The current achievements are close to commercial standards. If we want to raise fish in large quantities in the future, we can produce a batch of fish every half a year.
Against the backdrop of the decline of wild resources: The industry value and future direction of breakthroughs in aquaculture
From the perspective of resource data, the global wild resource of mackerel pike has been on a continuous downward trend. In 2008, the global catch of mackerel pike was approximately 350,000 tons. Due to factors such as overfishing, changes in the Marine ecological environment, and adjustments in fishery management policies, the catch of mackerel pike in Japan was only about 20,000 tons in 2022. Although it slightly rebounded to 39,000 tons in 2024, the overall resource volume remains at a low level. This directly led to a significant increase in market prices and an increasingly prominent contradiction between supply and demand.
Against this backdrop, the breakthrough in Maruhariru's land-based mackerel farming is not only an innovation in the field of aquaculture but also of great significance in alleviating the pressure on wild resources and ensuring market supply.