Juvenile yield index to highlight intensive culture potential in tropical marine fish

Abstract

Juvenile seedstock availability and costs are some of the main biological aspects to be considered on species for intensive culture assessment studies, together with market importance and performance under culture conditions, especially the growth rate and yields. A juvenile yield index (JYi) is described, as one of the judgment indicator of juvenile efficiency utilization on edible size culture production of tropical marine fishes. This index is expressed as the number of juveniles required per metric ton per year, and combines fish growth rate during grow-out, survival, and commercial size at harvest. The JYi could be combined with production costs and wholesale prices, to estimate a juvenile gross profit index (JGPi), and expressed in terms of estimated gross profit per juvenile number required per ton produced per year.