The current generation of sequencing technologies can produce terabases of data with exceptional accuracy and speed, at a fraction of the cost of older methods. Despite this unprecedented power, adoption into aquaculture health management presents several challenges, including identifying where such capability may be optimally deployed. Here we synthesise discussions from a structured expert workshop held at the 2025 Aotearoa...

The bacterial skin disease tenacibaculosis, caused by Tenacibaculum species, affects numerous economically important marine fish, including salmonids. This study reports the ability of three Tenacibaculum maritimum strains, belonging to different molecular O‐AGC types, and a single Tenacibaculum dicentrarchi strain to induce tenacibaculosis in farmed Chinook salmon ( Oncorhynchus tshawytscha , Walbaum 1792) in Aotearoa New Zea...

Emerging infectious diseases are a major threat to global aquaculture production and are projected to increase in frequency due to anthropogenic stressors and climate change. Our ability to screen the global aquatic ‘infectome’ is dramatically improving through unbiased metatranscriptomic (i.e., total RNA) sequencing. Despite recent advances in molecular diagnostics and next‐generation sequencing, outbreak investigation in aqu...

Most diseases in aquaculture are caused by opportunistic pathogens. One of them, Vibrio harveyi , is a widespread Gram‐negative bacterium that has become an important pathogen of aquatic species in marine environments. Here, we propose the use of the causal pie model as a framework to conceptualize the causation of vibriosis in juvenile barramundi ( Lates calcarifer ) and to establish an effective challenge model. In the model...

The Tasmanian salmon industry had remained relatively free of major viral diseases until the emergence of pilchard orthomyxovirus (POMV). Originally isolated from wild pilchards, POMV is of concern to the industry as it can cause high mortality in farmed salmon ( Salmo salar ). Field observations suggest the virus can spread from pen to pen and between farms, but evidence of passive transmission in sea water was unclear. Our a...

Size, growth, and density have been studied for North American Pacific coast sea urchins Strongylocentrotus purpuratus , S. droebachiensis, S. polyacanthus , Mesocentrotus (Strongylocentrotus) franciscanus , Lytechinus pictus , Centrostephanus coronatus , and Arbacia stellata by various workers at diverse sites and for varying lengths of time from 1956 to present. Numerous peer‐reviewed publications have used some of these dat...