More fish hatcheries needed, says BFAR

Posted on April 27, 2014 - Filed Under Business, News | Comments Of

A PROMISING INVESTMENT
THE Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) has called for more
investments in fish hatcheries to meet growing demand.
At the Regional Bangus Summit last April 23, one of the activities in the Dagupan
Bangus Festival, BFAR Region 1 Director Nestor Domenden said the most promising
area of investments is fish hatchery, with Region 1 alone needing at least 600
million milkfish fry annually.
Of the 600 million demand, about 100 million are sourced from Cagayan, another
100 million from diferent parts of the Ilocos region, 150 million from Sarangani in
Mindanao and the rest from Indonesia.
We call bangus our national fish, yet it is imported from Indonesia, Domenden told
bangus stake holders from Region 1.
Domenden said to become self-sufficient in fish fry production, the aquaculture
industrys sustainability must be for the long term.
Breeding hatchery is our key to our self-containment for our industry to stay,
Domenden stressed.
Region 1 accounts only for 25 per cent of the more than 401,000 metric tons of total
milkfish production in the country, majority of which comes from Pangasinan.
Domenden said the growth area in fisheries is on aquaculture, dominated by
milkfish, and urged fish farmers to diversify to other species like grouper (lapu-lapu,
snapper, seabass, maya-maya, pampano and siganid (malaga), which are
considered high-value produce.
He announced the establishment of a fish hatchery in Labrador by Feed Mix and
that another group is now securing permit and other regulatory papers for another
hatchery in Sual town.
EXPANSION AREAS
The total fish production area in Region 1 includes some 825,000 hectares of
municipal water whose control, management and conservation are under the local
governments authority, and another 25,000 hectares of fresh water.
Of these, only 12,225 hectares of brackish water and 1,425 hectares of fresh water
are actually being utilized for fish production.

Domenden said potential areas for expansion are Sual Bay facing the West
Philippine Sea near the Zambales border where 774 hectares of municipal waters
can be tapped, and part of the Agno River in Bugallon town.
Aquaculture or fish farming accounts for majority of the total annual fish production
in Region 1 at 77 percent, while the remaining 23 percent is from capture fisheries.
LVM with report from Johanne R. Macob
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New feed for Lapu-lapu

By Leo Solinap | Updated December 8, 2002 - 12:00am
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ILOILO CITY – Lapu-lapu fish may soon became a domesticated fish from its usual nature of being
cannibals and territorial fish. They may taste even better.

This is after an introduction of an artificial nutritional feed for Lapu-lapu instead of the usual trash fish or
fishmeal which comes from dead fish.

Phillip Ong, president of the Santeh Feeds Corp., makers of Tateh artificial feeds said that they have
developed a technology that would changed the feeding methods and technology of lapu-lapu growers
from the usual old trash fish to the new formulated feed.

This new technology, has also made some breakthrough, not only on the growth of lapu-lapu but also
changes on their behaviors.

Lapu-lapu (grouper) is one of the most widely-sought finfish species in the Philippines, Australia, Japan,
Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore and Taiwan. In natural waters, groupers feed on bottom-living finfishes
and crustaceans.

By feeding on trash fishes, bottom-living finfishes and crustaceans the mortality rate of the grouper is
large because of the fact that if they starve, they eat their own kind thinking they are also trash fish.

It also develops bacteria from decomposing components of trash fish.

Trash fish feeding results in 30 percent mortality from the stocks, due from bacteria cannibalism while
artificial feeding eliminates mortality rate.

Research has shown that grouper, which is a territorial and a cannibal kind of fish becomes domesticated
after a month that they have introduced their formulated feed.

"They are like this domesticated fish when they started eating this artificial feeds. They have not been like
this before," Ong said.

Ong said the down of the grouper industry in the country was due to the inconsistency in the production of
grouper to the other country.

He also stressed that the inconsistency was the result of poor production of grouper fingerlings and poor
feeding technology.

"I think this is the formulated feed product in the market that is only for lapu-lapu. Because as far as we
know, group growers have been using ever since trash fish to feed their lapu-lapu," Ong said.

Ong said, the artificial formulated feed contains fishmeal, fish oil, carbohydrate, wheat and vitamins which
is perfect for growing grouper, compared to the trash fish which is only contains dead fish.

Ong said, with the new method of feeding which taste even different, the grouper looses its behavior of
eating their own kind because they have developed a new taste for food and not on their own kind.

Steven Rong, a grouper grower since 1993 in the town of Pulupandan in Negros Occidental, is planning
to change his trash fish feeding method to artificial feeding after he learned that there is new formulated
feed in the market.

Rong revealed that despite trash fish feeding method is cheap, it still requires huge amount of labor since
he has to use 10,000 kilos or one ton of dead fish for a week of feeding on his 8-hectares of pond with
60,000 groupers.

For trash fish, Rong has to store the fish in a huge container filled with ice. And when it’s feeding
time, they have to crush the fish to small pieces to be ready for feeding.

With this new artificial feed, he said, he can store them in his store room and do not have to worry about
the decomposing fish and crushing them for feeding.

Rong has used this method even since because he have not seen any new feeding technology that he
can used to feed his grouper except the traditional one.

Rong told The STAR that investing on grouper aside from other aquatic fish is that grouper is more
profitable compared to other fish in the market. The culture of the lapu-lapu fish in ponds and cages is
becoming popular in the country.

This is because of its domestic and export market potential as foodfish, according to the Southeast Asian
Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) Aquaculture Department.

A gross revenue of P640,000 per hectare per year is possible. This projection is based on a stocking rate
of 5,000 per hectare and a survival rate of 80 percent. The culture period is five to six months, with two
croppings per year.

The projection also assumes 4,000 pieces of total harvest at an average body weight at harvest of 400
grams per fish. The 3,200 kilos yield per hectare is sold at P200 per kilo ex-farm.

A net profit after tax of P267,930 is projected. Payback period is estimated at eight months.

Rong said, grouper cost around P380 to P580 per kilo in Manila. Rong also hope new changes in his
grouper behavior as observed by Ong and other lapu-lapu growers and researchers.

Regarding the taste, Riza San Juan of Santeh said that during their study with the Seafdec, it reveled that
grouper tasted better with the formulated feed than the traditional trash fish.

During yesterday’s awarding ceremony if the Lapu-lapu Fingerling Production Contest 2000 held at
AmigoTerrace Hotel, the Negros Occidental School of Fisheries (Nosof) won the first place besting the
University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) and the Panay Southern Polytechnic College. (PSPC)

Marlo Abeto adviser of the Nosof said that they also recommend artificial feeding because it has more
advantages compared to the traditional method.

Abeto also said the fish gained weight from 11.5 grams to 52.6 grams in just two months.

Ong believes that with this new technology in feeding, the grouper industry in the country which has been
down for so many years may be developed again to regain the exports that we lost to Thailand and
Singapore.

According to Ong, artificial feed is favored by the grouper especially since it is tastier compared to trash
fish.

However, Ong pointed out that before the fish is introduced to this new feeding technology, the fingerlings
should undergo a 30-day weaning period or a period of adjustment from natural feeds.

http://www.philstar.com/agriculture/187048/new-feed-lapu-lapu

Dagupan has more than just milkfish

By Yolanda Sotelo |Inquirer Northern Luzon
10:52 pm | Saturday, July 14th, 2012

Read more: http://business.inquirer.net/70965/dagupan-has-more-than-just-milkfish#ixzz39booEcdc

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TEOFILO Quinto and Robert Lamsen help other fishermen by marketing their catch. Photo by Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer
Northern Luzon

DAGUPAN CITYNo one doubts that this Pangasinan city produces the best tasting bangus (milkfish) in the
country.
But unknown to many, Dagupan is fast becoming a major producer of the expensive fish, lapu-lapu (grouper).
City agriculturist Emma Molina says there have always been lapu-lapu growers in the city but their production
was on a limited scale.
The number of growers and the production went up after the citys rivers were cleared of fish pens that
spawned pollution and which obstructed navigational lanes, she says.
When the city government dismantled hundreds of fish pens, its operators and caretakers lost their livelihood,
prompting the city government to offer them alternative sources of income.
One of the livelihood activities we thought of was the raising lapu-lapu in cages, a venture that does not create
as much pollution as raising bangus in pens. Lapu-lapu is an expensive fish, Mayor Benjamin Lim says.
The rivers, which once teemed with pens, are now wide and clean waterways. Fish cages have been put up in
areas near the banks of Pugaro and other island villages to culture lapu-lapu and other high-value fish like
talakitok, malaga and sea bass.
Molina says Pantal River is a good area for lapu-lapu culture.
Teofilo Quinto, 43, a resident of the island village of Pugaro, used to own fish pens on which he cultured
bangus. Last year, his fish pens were demolished as a part of the city governments program to free the rivers
of fishery structures.
It was good that he was culturing lapu-lapu on the side for many years.
We asked Mayor Lim if we could continue to produce lapu-lapu and he agreed, even helping us in marketing
our fish, Quinto says.

THESE are almost ready for market, says Quinto. Photo by Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon

From a single cage on which he started raising some 100 fingerlings, Quinto is now overseeing more than 10
cages that could stock more than 2,000 fish.
Fisherman Robert Lamsen, 46, finds lapu-lapu culture as a good source of income, prompting him to leave his
job in a mining company in Benguet.
I only own six cages but these are enough to provide for my familys needs, he says.
Lamsen says more than 200 fishermen here have shifted to lapu-lapu culture.
While they regularly supply a restaurant here with lapu-lapu, their bigger market is still Metro Manila, with
traders from the metropolis coming here to buy their stock.
Quinto says fish cage owners had to consolidate their produce to meet the demand.
Lapu-lapu are cultured from five months to a year, depending on its size, Quinto says.
The best marketable size are lapu-lapu weighing 450 to 500 grams each. A kilogram of this size could fetch at
least P450. The smaller lapu-lapu costs less, from P280 to P300 a kg.
Lapu-lapu eat what growers call trash fish or the small fish caught by trawls that could not be sold in the
market.

In the past years, trawlers gave away the trash fish to lapu-lapu growers. But with many fishermen now into
lapu-lapu culture, trawlers sell these at P15 to P20 a kg. Some 10 kg of trash fish are fed to 200 lapu-lapu
every day, growers here say.
The lapu-lapu venture has also spawned another livelihoodfingerlings sale.
On the day the SundayBiz visited Pugaros production area, fisherman Francis Flores, 40, arrived with several
newly caught lapu-lapu finglerlings that he would sell to Lamsen.
Flores used to sell his harvest in the local market, where the smallest (about three inches) are sold at P5 each.
But we buy it at P15, so fishermen who gather fingerlings earn more, Lamsen says.
The city has no hatchery for lapu-lapu and growers depend on fingerlings gathered from the wild for their
stocks.
Fortunately, when the fish pens were demolished, local fishermen were able to harvest more fingerlings in the
rivers, Molina says.

Read more: http://business.inquirer.net/70965/dagupan-has-more-than-just-milkfish#ixzz39bodpRcc

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Business Proposition
Posted on March 26, 2012 - Filed Under Business Proposition, Opinion | Comments
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Farming the high-value lapu-lapu

By Roberto Garcia
GROUPER, or locally known as lapu-lapu (takulit in Pangasinan), is one of the most
sought-after fish because of its fine and tasty meat. The demand for this fish is
steadily growing in live fish markets abroad, particularly in Hong Kong, Japan, and
Singapore as well as in local markets and restaurants.
Although the culture technology of lapu-lapu is pretty much developed nowadays,
few have ventured into it probably because of lack of knowledge in culture
technique, lack of capital, and most significantly, the lack of fingerlings.
The coastal water of Pangasinan is one of the major sources of wild grouper fry and
fingerlings in the country. In Dagupan, the seasonal supply of the young groupers
can be obtained from the Salapingao-Pugaro-Sabangan area. On the other hand,
certain institutions have developed hatchery techniques to mass-produce grouper
fry, but unfortunately it is not yet available in Pangasinan.

There are many species of grouper, but only two species are commonly cultured
commercially: the orange spotted grouper Epinephelus coioides and the blackspotted grouper E. malabaricus.
Farming grouper can be done in net cages or in fishponds but proper site selection
is critical for success. For cages, the waters must be deep enough but calm, of right
salinity, and far from pollution sources. On the other hand, pond culture requires at
least one-meter depth of brackish water with sufficient dissolved oxygen. For feed,
the fish can be fed with chopped trashfish, live tilapia fingerlings, or waste from fish
processing.
Grouper takes five to seven months of rearing to attain the marketable size of 400
to 800 grams. When harvested, the fish is maintained in live condition to get the
best market price. The demand is year-round but the highest price is reached during
Christmas season and the Chinese New Year.
Grouper culture has been proven to be commercially feasible in Sual, Anda and
Bolinao in floating cages while there were attempts to rear them in brackish water
ponds in San Fabian, Dagupan and Binmaley. Perhaps fish farmers should try
farming the high value lapu-lapu to get a higher income compared to other species.
- See more at: http://punch.dagupan.com/articles/opinion/2012/03/businessproposition-20/#sthash.pcT5FFhf.dpuf