Location Funding Institution Principal Investigator(s)
Hawaii $46,090 Oceanic Institute of HPU Chatham K. Callan, PhD and Dustin Moss, PhD

Overall Goal
The overall goal of this project is to improve and expand fish culture in the region by addressing a significant bottleneck in the production of copepod nauplii, a critical larval food for many marine species. Specifically, we aim to improve the efficiency of copepod nauplii production using selective breeding to develop line(s) of copepods that are highly fecund at high culture densities.

Objectives
1. Establish experimental copepod populations maintained at increased culture densities (3 and 6 adults/mL).
2. Use mass selection to select for nauplii production at high-culture density for at least 6 generations (120 days).
3. Compare nauplii production between selected lines (3 and 6 adults/mL) and control line (1.5 adults/mL) in a commercial scale, high-density production system.
4. Conduct final workshop to review project accomplishments and discuss future opportunities.