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Mariculture – An Option for Meeting Our Growing Seafood Demand: Part III

The world’s oceans have been fished nearly to the limits of their sustainable yields. With the current state of fisheries, additional production of seafood will have to come mainly from aquaculture. In recent times, mariculture has got a tremendous boost globally owing to technological developments in the field of cage culture and related areas in Norway, other Scandinavian countries, Chile, Japan and Australia. The Norwegian technology has helped countries like Chile to make tremendous foray in the field within a short period of ten years.  

Read more about mariculture, a specialized branch of  aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms, in this multi-part series. minilogo_green 

Commercial mariculture: The only attempt at cage culture in India has been made by two entrepreneurs from Chennai and Kochi, who had started their units for groupers and seabass farming respectively in Andaman waters.  However, at present these units are not functional owing to various reasons discussed as under.

M/s Shilpi Aquaculture Limited, Cochin during 1994 had surveyed suitable site for cage culture and established the nursery at Burmanllah village. Shilpi aquaculture initially ventured for culture of exotic species Sparus auratus (Gilthead Sea Bream). Due to objection on the ground of introduction of exotic species, the firm was not allowed to take up the culture of Sparus auratus. However, culture of hatchery reared seabass Lates calcarifer has been accepted by the administration in principle.

It has not been possible to ground the project so far as the environmental clearance from the ministry is still awaited. Since considerable investment has been made by the company and the physical facilities in the form of a state-of-the-art hatchery has been created, the possibility of financial restructuring of the project subject to the above clearances may merit consideration.

Considering the fact that this was the first major attempt to start marine cage culture, and that the maiden success could lead to opening up of the sector, the project may be monitored closely and necessary conditions created for its implementation if otherwise found feasible.

M/s Samudira Marine Farms had also started a project of cage culture on grouper but did not establish the hatchery as per the project. The firm instead of culturing the groupers had resorted to purchase and export of groupers from local fishermen, which was against their project proposal and hence, the A&N administration did not favour the firm to continue the same practice. This project was financed by Vijaya Bank and refinanced by NABARD. The original project site was Junglee Ghat with stations at Mayabunder, Dighlipur and Havlok. The promoter lives in Chennai and at present there is no operation. However, one caretakers is stationed at Havlock. The cage raft for 12 cages was moored in Havlock Bay when visited in May 2001. It is understood that the project would be revived on receiving necessary clearance from the authorities.

Past attempts at launching of cage fish culture of fin-fishes has better prepared the department of fisheries, Govt. of A&N to deal with planning for this sector.  The department has broadly identified the costal areas and the open sea areas suitable for such mariculture activities based on preliminary observations. Each 25 m2 cage unit can yield 500-600 kg. of cultivated fish in 7-8 months period.  While not much information is available on the distribution and availability of juveniles in natural habitats, hatchery seed production technology is available and the same can be adopted. The technology of seabass farming in coastal ponds is being standardised at the Rajeev Gandhi Foundation of Aquaculture Research of the MPEDA with collaboration of the Department of Primary Industries, Govt. of Queensland, Australia. However, cage culture of finfishes being technology intensive, it may be necessary to go in for technology transfer from countries like Norway or Australia where the technology has been perfected.

Similar transfer of technology programmes are required pertaining aquaculture of groupers, snappers and other important species, the list of which is growing with the success of tuna rearing in Australia. The possibilities are enormous and ever increasing. The possibility of seabass and grouper culture may be explored in the first phase.

The need of financial assistance for commercial marine cage fish farming could be considerable taking into account the level of sophistication and capital outlay involved. The average project cost for a floating farm with 12000 M3 cage volume and annual production of 300 MT may be of the order of Rs. 7.0 Cr. Thus for a production of 100,000 MT, the investment cost may be of the order of Rs. 2500 Cr. minilogo_green

To be continued …

Mariculture – An Option for Meeting Our Growing Seafood Demand: Part II

The world’s oceans have been fished nearly to the limits of their sustainable yields. With the current state of fisheries, additional production of seafood will have to come mainly from aquaculture. In recent times, mariculture has got a tremendous boost globally owing to technological developments in the field of cage culture and related areas in Norway, other Scandinavian countries, Chile, Japan and Australia. The Norwegian technology has helped countries like Chile to make tremendous foray in the field within a short period of ten years.  

Read more about mariculture, a specialized branch of  aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms, in this multi-part series. minilogo_green 

Small scale mariculture: Where as small scale mariculture activities have not picked up on account of lack of proper technology, policy support, infrastructure and various linkages, the inshore and open sea cage fish farming has not picked up mainly because the activities are technology and capital intensive. Although isolated examples of successful small scale mariculture activities are there but the same has not picked up on large scale. The list of such activities in this sector are on the increase.

Among the most promising mariculture activities which have been field tested are pearl culture activity in the Gulf of Mannar, seaweed farming in Palk Bay, lobster fattening at Kanykumari, crab fattening in the deltaic region of Sunderbans and ornamental fish breeding and rearing in Chidambram districts of Tamilnadu. There are many more activities being field tested viz. edible oyster and mussels. The important developments in the field of mariculture involving small entrepreneurs include sea weed farming with franchisee network of Pepsi Ltd. in the Gulf of Mannar region for which, the technology has been provided by the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar.

Promising small scale mariculture activities among coastal communities in India:

  1. Community owned pearl culture in the Gulf of Mannar region in and around Rameswaram1,
  2. Edible oyster culture in Karnataka state,
  3. Edible oyster and mussel culture in Kerala state,
  4. Pearl production under off-bottom culture at Vizhinjam in Keral,
  5. Mud crab fattening proramme in the districts of 24-Parganas North and South in West Bengal3,
  6. Sea weed farming in Palk Bay, Ramnathapuram district of Tamilnadu4,
  7. Lobster fattening in Kanyakumari district of Tamilnadu2,
  8. Ornamental fish breeding and rearing near Chidambram in Tamilnadu1,
  9. Conservation of marine life through construction of artificial reef in Tamilnadu1,

1 supported by MSSRF, 2 supported by Life Care Trust, 3 supported by NABARD, 4 supported by CMSCRI & Pepsi Ltd.

Small scale mariculture projects in India:

Mussel culture: Mussel culture is a popular activity in Kerala and is gradually gaining popularity in Karnataka, Goa and Maharashtra. The activity is taken up on community basis. In the backwaters of Kerala, it is an important a ctivity however it is facing marketing problem as the price is dictated by exporters. In the absence of depuration units, the quality control of the product posses marketing problems.

Pearl culture project at Mandapam: A pearl culture society has been formed in Mundalmunai village near Mandapam in which 10 families are involved in pearl farming. One lakh nucleus implanted oysters are being grown, which involved an expenditure of Rs. 11 lakhs comprising of permanent farming structure (Rs. 3 lakhs) and implanted oysters (Rs. 8 lakhs). Net income from the operation after 10 months is estimated to be Rs. 3 lakhs, accounting for net income of Rs. 30000 per family.

Sea weed farming in Palk Bay: Sea weed farming has acquired a new dimension in the Palk Bay, supported by Pepsi Ltd. The company is engaged in franchisee farming and technology support is from Central Marine Salt & Chemicals Research Institute (CMSCRI), Bhavnagar. The effort needs appropriate leasing policy and clearance from the State Govt. and the Ministry of Environment and Forestry. The CMSCRI has worked out the technology and economics in respect of farming of five seaweed species and is in various stages of transfer.

Crab fattening units in West Bengal: The activity is in practice in the Sandeskhali I & II blocks of 24-Parganas (North) district of West Bengal on a large scale. In Sandeshkhali II block, 315 farms are engaged in crab farming. Traditional crab farming appears to be the main activity of this deltaic block. There are 102 crab fattening units operating in Sadeshkhali block II alone. The soft crabs are collected by crab collectors from the crabbers and supplied to the fattening units. The fattened crabs are sold to exporters from Kolkata. minilogo_green

To be continued …

Mariculture – An Option for Meeting Our Growing Seafood Demand: Part I

The world’s oceans have been fished nearly to the limits of their sustainable yields. With the current state of fisheries, additional production of seafood will have to come mainly from aquaculture. In recent times, mariculture has got a tremendous boost globally owing to technological developments in the field of cage culture and related areas in Norway, other Scandinavian countries, Chile, Japan and Australia. The Norwegian technology has helped countries like Chile to make tremendous foray in the field within a short period of ten years.  

Read more about mariculture, a specialized branch of  aquaculture involving the cultivation of marine organisms, in this multi-part series. minilogo_green 

Much progress has been made globally in mariculture and methods have been developed to culture a number of species of fishes, prawns, lobsters, molluscs and seaweeds. The mariculture operations have led to culture/fattening of finfish/shell fishes in confinements of cages/enclosures, rearing of shell fishes using racks /trays/ ropes etc. in bays, backwaters and sea ranching i.e. stocking of open waters with artificially produced seed to enhance natural stock.  

Mariculture potentials of India: In India, the mariculture activity at present is limited to the onshore farming of Mud Crabs and inshore farming of Mussels, Clams and Edible oysters in a limited area in Kerala, West Bengal and Orissa. The potentials of other coastal areas and open sea areas have not been assessed so far. The mariculture production of India considering the global mariculture productivity, and its coastline of 8040 Km, could be at least 200,000 Mt by undertaking mariculture in sheltered bays, coves and backwaters in appropriate locations. The projected production is based on average productivity of 25Mt/km of coastline.

Considering higher level of productivity of advanced countries, the production could be higher given the required inputs. Further, it is estimated that by utilizing 5300 Ha of marine area, under commercial cage fish farming in appropriate locations, annual fish production of the order of 5.3 million tonnes could be achieved with productivity of the order of 300 tonnes ha-1. Thus the country could almost doubling its fish production, given the necessary policy, technology and fund support.   

Mariculture productivity of the leading countries in the world:

Country Length of coastline (km) Aquaculture production (t) Share of marine aquaculture Estimated Mariculture production (t) Productivity (t)/km
Norway 25148 843730 95% 801544 32
United Kingdom 12429 179187 70% 125431 10
Japan 29751 732374 96% 703079 24
Chile 6435 843142 95% 800985 124
Philippines 36289 741142 77% 570679 16
India 8040 3478690 4.27% 148540* 18
  
Data source: FAO Yearbook, 2008; 
* denotes production from coastal aquaculture and not mariculture.
 
Contribution of leading cage aquaculture producing countries:
 
  
 Contribution of leading freshwater cage aquaculture producing countries:
 

The marine sites can be judiciously used for culture of marine organisms of seafood export importance. These activities, which have significantly contributed towards enhancement of marine fisheries production globally, holds the promise of doubling India’s fish production. However, in India, no systematic efforts have been made to even assess the potentials. Formulation of leasing policy, identification of potential sites, standardization of culture practices and implementation of projects remain a remote possibility.

Though mariculture has been declared as a thrust area during the IXth Plan, precious little has been done by way of creating enabling conditions for smooth operation of such projects. In fact an entrepreneur may be faced with an almost insurmountable task of obtaining a permit or a lease right to implement such a project as brought out subsequently. The multitude of permissions that an entrepreneur is required to obtain from a plethora of agencies, often act as stumbling block in the absence of a clear policy. minilogo_green

To be continued …