Early maturation is considered to be one of the greatest problems in, for example, cod, sea bass and salmon farming. Fish stop growing during spawning and food fed for somatic growth is lost through spawning, resulting in elevated feed costs. Methods to delay puberty, including photoperiod control, have been developed. However, these protocols are not always fully effective; for example, there is limited knowledge on the activation of the brain-pituitary-gonad axis during puberty in salmon, which is essential for further development of some key genes during puberty under different photoperiod regimes.

The dominance of male fish in culture conditions is an additional hurdle, for example in sea bass, where females naturally reach puberty a year later than males and are generally larger in size. Farmed sea bass populations are typically 90% male, with over a quarter attaining puberty precociously.

Puberty is currently delayed or prevented by continuous light conditions and by induction of sterility by triploidy. The application of antireceptor vaccinations, which have specific antagonistic effects on gametogenesis, is also in development.

(Information in this section was prepared with the expert assistance of scientists Alicia Felip and Silvia Zanuy).