Throughout the past decade, USSEC has spoken about the economic importance of disease free marine fish juveniles and high quality fingerlings and fingerling feeds as the basis for a successful ocean aquaculture industry in Asia.  Although the volume of soy feed is limited in hatchery and fingerling systems, healthy juvenile fish are the basis for feed-based ocean production systems that utilize soy as a key feed ingredient.
USSEC works closely with the United Soybean Board to develop and demonstrate soy-optimized feeds for the ocean aquaculture industry that can help drive rapid expansion of the sector.  As part of this effort, the USSEC aquaculture program in Southeast Asia (SEA) recently collaborated with the aquaculture sector in Australia to develop soy-optimized feeds for Asian sea bass and to assist the SEA ocean aquaculture sector to improve marine fish hatchery systems.
In 2012, USSEC contractor Dr. Stewart Fielder of New South Wales, Australia, provided training in seminars and on-site visits as a first step in upgrading marine fish hatchery systems in several USSEC target countries in SEA.  In 2013, the USSEC SEA aquaculture program will conduct verification feeding demonstrations with industry of the soy-optimized Asian sea bass diet, and in 2014, USSEC plans to provide hands-on marine fish hatchery training for SEA producers with Dr. Fielder in Australia.  These efforts are targeted at increasing the productivity and sustainability of the SEA ocean aquaculture industry as a major market for U.S. soy in the coming decade.