When it came time to put fish into the first offshore cages deployed in 1999, there were not a lot of choices. While research was underway for raising species such as cod and halibut, juveniles of these species were not available in the numbers needed for an offshore experiment.

Summer flounder, also known as fluke, was being produced in commercial quantities by Great Bay Aquaculture. Summer flounder are amenable to culture in tanks and near shore cages, they are accustomed to feeding on formulated pellets, and they have a high market value. We decided to test whether 500 gm fish stocked in the spring could grow to market size (1 kg) over the warmer months of the year.

While this strategy yielded some degree of success, it was clear that this was not the right species for offshore culture in the Gulf of Maine where water temperatures are too cold for year-round growth. The experiments with summer flounder in 1999 and 2000 did yield other important benefits. We learned a great deal about strategies to minimize transport stress when moving fish from the hatchery to the offshore cages that were subsequently applied to other species