Public Lecture Series 2026

Decades of declining Southern Flounder populations have prompted fishery management agencies in Texas and other states to supplement nautral stocks by producing flounder in hatcheries and releasing them into coastal bays. A major challenge with this approach is that hatchery-reared fish do not always develop normal pigmentation. This condition, known as malpigmentation, make affected flounder especially vulnerable to predators and less effective at capturing prey. At one state hatchery, as many as 30% of the flounder produced exhibited malpigmentation. Researchers at the UT Fisheries and Mariculture Laboratory are addressing this issue through an extensive research effort focused on understanding and reducing malpigmentation in hatchery-produced flounder. In this presentation, Dr. Fuiman will describe the experiments conducted and the key findings that emerged from this work. Importantly, these laboratory results have led to actionable recommendations that have alread been implemented at the hatchery, resulting in a substantial reduction in malpigmented flounder. Ongoing research aims to reduce malpigmentation even further.