If the National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has its way, fishermen along the coast of the south Indian State of Tamil Nadu can sail just a few kilometres into the sea once in a few months and return with a catch of 10 tonnes. The institute has come up with technology to breed fish in huge cages. Having done pilot studies using cages of 9m diameter that yield up to 10 tonnes of fish, NIOT is ready with cages of up to 20m diameter.
Plans are afoot to tie up with National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard) and nationalised banks for fishing communities and cooperative societies to take care of the cages. The produce would include parrot fish, sea bass, pompano and cobia, which are sought after in the export market. NIOT director M A Atmanand said about 10 cage culture units have been used successfully in three locations Olakkuda near Ramanathapuram, Kotha Chathiram near Nellore and Port Blair.
“So that fishing communities can benefit from the technology, we are approaching funding agencies. Coordination between fishing cooperative societies and funding agencies will help fishermen earn from cage culture,” he said. For its experimental projects, NIOT procured fish seeds from Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture in Nagapattinam.
H Mohamad Kasim, former principal scientist at Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, said the NIOT technology will be a success if it is implemented effectively.
“Sourcing suitable fish seeds and proper feeding will make it a success. Effective measures to prevent theft and other damage to the fish culture have to be ensured,” he said.
The harvest from the cage culture will get a better price in the market because dead fish entangled in normal fishing nets only reach the market after several hours or days. “If there is an efficient market chain benefiting fishermen, there will be a huge demand for fish raised in the cage culture,” said Kasim.
The cage has a diameter of 9m and 10 tonnes of fish can be bred in it. “We are developing cages with a diameter of 12m to 20m,” said R Kirubagaran, head of NIOT’s marine biotechnology team.
“High-density polyethylene is used to build the cage and it will last for more than seven years. Other than popular fish species such as sea bass, cobia and pompano, fishermen can also try milk fish and seasonal species that grow up to 1kg in eight months,” he said.
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