The ocean absorbs the excess heat and energy released by gas emissions on the planet, whose effect has caused an increase in sea temperature with impacts on the marine biodiversity on which coastal communities depend, according to the United Nations (UN).
Rising sea temperatures can cause the loss or change of the distribution of target species for fishing. To address these types of challenges faced by fishing activity, Innovaciones Alumbra (IAlumbra) supports Santomar, a regenerative aquaculture company whose methods are developed in the open ocean of the Gulf of California, in the city of La Paz, Baja California Sur.
“We are making a commitment to regenerative warm-water aquaculture because the planet is warming and there will be more and more surface area susceptible to regenerative tropical hot water aquaculture on the planet. We are getting ahead of this scenario and resolving how we feed healthy and good protein to a growing population in a sustainable way,” said Andrew Rhodes, director of Public Relations and Policy for IAlumbra in Mexico.
Innovation for Resilience
Pond with totoaba spawners. Source: Alumbra Innovations.
Santomar has been a pioneer in the commercial cultivation of both huachinango and totoaba. Its beginnings date back to 2013 when they began in a research phase and, later, as a production center under the name of Earth Ocean Farm. Starting in 2024, it merged with the oyster producer Sol Azul as a commercial strategy, which gave rise to the Santomar brand.
Currently, they control the entire life cycle of Totoaba and Huachinango and their operations begin in a production and reproduction laboratory. There they have tanks with recirculation systems with totoaba and huachinango breeders, there is another area where they incubate eggs and a larviculture area where they feed them for about 30 days in the case of totoaba and up to 50 days in the case of huachinango.
After this period, they become juveniles and are transferred to the pre-fattening area, which is the last step before taking them to the cultivation area.
The process from being an egg until it reaches commercial size takes about a year in the case of huachinango and one year four months in the case of totoaba.
In addition, they have a staggered system to be able to have productions of both species all year round. Achieving this level of technification has taken more than 10 years to develop it.
“If you fail in a phase, everything is ruined. That's why we need people here 24 hours a day. Because if you spoil this, you're not going to have food in three days and that affects the larvae and it's a chain effect. All live food crops are the same, they are cyclical and everything is connected,” said Gerardo García, manager of the Santomar production laboratory.
Hatcheries in Totoaba and Huachinango. Source: Alumbra Innovations.
However, in addition to fulfilling the purpose of reproducing the specimens, in the case of huachinango, they carry out a genetic improvement program so that they withstand extreme conditions.
“Currently, we have been faced with increasing temperatures in the water, so we are looking for genetic selection to obtain organisms that are more resistant and tolerant to high temperatures because our fish are not able to move to where the ideal temperature is,” García said.
Freddy Lapentti, director of the Fish Division at Santomar, clarified that it is not a matter of genetic manipulation, but only of selecting the specimens that survive extreme conditions and reproducing them among themselves.
Regenerative aquaculture
“The goal is to promote a regenerative aquaculture industry. When I mention industry, I even refer to small businesses that go beyond sustainability and seek to regenerate the environment,” Rhodes said.
For this reason, unlike traditional aquaculture, which is satisfied with obtaining good yields from their products, Santomar also aims to regenerate a species that was once endangered, such as totoaba, Lapentti said.
Since 2015, Santomar, in collaboration with communities and local authorities, has organized the release of totoaba specimens on Santispac beach in the municipality of Mulegé every year. In this period they estimate that they have released around 280 thousand copies.
“We don't really have a quota to cover, but we're releasing around 40,000 copies a year, but it's also very difficult because of the area where we carry them. We decided to carry 40,000 because that is the amount that we can transport logistically under the best conditions,” García said.
However, they mentioned that currently Santomar does not have the capacity or knowledge to keep track of released species to analyze how releases influence the recovery of the species.
Commercialization
Due to the high technification of their processes, since they began, the production of totoaba and huachinango has been scaling up, to such an extent that in 2024 they produced 350 tons of totoaba and 60 tons of huachinango, and by 2025 they plan to close the year with 520 tons of totoaba and 230 tons of huachinango.
“The huachinango actually was the biggest jump between last year and this year. The company's projection for next year is to continue climbing and reach 400 tons of huachinango and 700 tons of totoaba more or less,” Lapentti said.
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