The requirements to rear spotted wolffish, Anarhichas minor, a cold water, demersal fish, native to the north Atlantic Ocean, have been developed over the past 25 years (since 1990s) and it now is commercially produced in one fish farm in Norway with additional plans for commercial development in the near future in Quebec, Canada. Spotted wolffish have numerous attributes that make them a desirable species to culture in the United States including, but not limited to: having a high value; desired by consumers and chefs; not supplied by U.S. or Canadian fisheries; an established broodstock available in neighboring Quebec; well‐developed hatchlings that do not require live feed; high rearing density tolerance; and low disease susceptibility. Here, we review the advancements made in broodstock management and spawning, egg incubation, juvenile rearing, and on‐growing of fish, as well as future research and development needs. Areas requiring further focus include reducing variability in gamete production; nutritional studies at all life stages; health expertise; genetic selection; and further refinement of standard operating procedures at the commercial level for all life‐stages. Given the state of advancement of wolffish cultivation and the existence of a commercial operation in Norway, we propose that spotted wolffish is commercially ready for production in the United States with the primary barrier being a steady source of eggs to supply emerging pilot‐scale or commercial operations.

The first artificially fertilized spotted wolffish (Anarhichas minor) eggs hatched in Norway in the mid-1990s as this species was considered by Norwegian authorities to be a top candidate species for cold-water aquaculture in the North Atlantic regions. Previous research conducted in Norway (since 1992) and Canada (since 2000), focused on identifying key biological parameters for spotted wolffish cultivation which led, respectively, to the rapid establishment of a full commercial production line in northern Norway, while Québec (Canada) is witnessing its first privately driven initiative to establish commercial production of spotted wolffish on its territory. The control of reproduction can be viewed as a major requirement to achieve the development of performant strains using genetic selection tools and/or all-year-round production to bring about maximal productivity and synchronization among a given captive population. Although the basic reproduction aspects are more understood and controlled there are still some challenges remaining involving broodstock and upscaling of operations that limit the achievement of a standardized production at the commercial level. Quality of gametes is still considered a major constraint and it can be affected by multiple factors including nutrition, environmental conditions, handling practices, and welfare status. Internal insemination/fertilization and the protracted incubation period are challenging as well as the establishment of a health monitoring program to secure large-scale operations. The profound progress achieved in the control of reproduction, sperm handling, and cryopreservation methods for this species is presented and discussed. In this review, we also go into detail over the full range of up-to-date cultivation practices involving broodstock and identify areas that could benefit from additional research efforts (i.e., broodstock nutrition, health and welfare, scaling-up egg and larval production, genetics, and development of selective breeding programs).

Hybridization between closely related species can generate genetic and phenotypic variation, providing valuable biological material to assess the physiological impact of the structural or functional variability of different organs. In the present study, we examined growth rates of various organs and whole body in brook char, Arctic char and their reciprocal hybrids over a period of 281 days. Parental species achieved significantly higher body mass than their hybrids. Hybridization significantly reduced the relative size of the heart, liver and spleen. The relative size of pyloric caeca did not differ among the four groups. The observed lower growth performance of the hybrids compared to parental species strongly suggests that divergence in the relative size of digestive organs, liver and heart partly dictate growth capacity. Our results also suggest that the increased variability achieved through hybridization may prove useful in a genetic selection program.