An overview of global aquaculture and cage farming- Winter School on Recent Advances in Breeding and Larviculture of Marine Finfish and Shellfish

Aquaculture, the fastest growing food-producing sector, now accounts for almost 50 percent of the world’s food fish and is perceived as having the greatest potential to meet the growing demand for aquatic food. Given the projected population growth over the next two decades, it is estimated that at least an additional 40 million t of aquatic food will be required by 2030 to maintain the current per capita consumption

Interview Commercial seacage farming; Set to secure its place in Indian Waters

CMFRI is soon to bring to a culmination their Sea cage Farming effort, moving focally towards the commercially-oriented field stage of introducing sea cages along the Indian coastline, to be managed by trained hands. Eashwar Dev Anand, Managing Editor, Fishing Chimes had the opportunity to interview Dr. Syda Rao, Director, CMFRI. Excerpts of the Interview. Eashwar Anand: The sea cage farming is the buzzword in the marine aquafarming sector of India. CMFRIhas mounted focal efforts to usher in the technology of sea cage farming. Could you throw light on the project from the stage of its conception to the present status

CMFRI achieves maiden success in the finfish breeding of pompano

The silver pompano, Trachinotus blochii is one of the topmost tropical finfishes, mainly owing to its fast growth rate and high market demand. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute initiated the aquaculture research on pompano since 2008 and the first successful broodstock development, induced breeding and larval production is now successfully accomplishe

Marine Cage Farming in India: Recent Initiatives

In the simplest term a cage is nothing but an enclosure in the water body whereby the juveniles of aquatic animals are kept, fed and grown to marketable size. However, in practice it is very complicated in its structural, engineering, social and biological aspects. The cage culture was initiated in Norway during 70s and got developed into a high tech industry, particularly for salmon farming. Similarly the cage culture has spread to South East Asian countries and developed well. The major advantage in these countries is that they have large, calm and protected bays to accommodate the cages safely against natural bad weather conditions. Compared to that, India is endowed with very few such areas and the sea conditions are hostile at least during certain periods making the safety of structures uncertain. Added to the above, the Government of India or its maritime states have no water leasing policy for commercial open sea cage farming or any other mariculture activities in the sea.All countries are interested to sell the cage related products which are suitable for them and may not be suitable to Indian conditions and are reluctant to transfer technologies suitable to Indian conditions

Successful cage culture (farming) initiatives by CMFRI during the 11th Five Year Plan

Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) has initiated open sea cage farming as an R&D effort during 2006-07 with support from Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India. An indigenous cage of 15m diameter was launched at Visakhapatnam with primitive mooring techniques and stocked with 9000 nursery reared seabass seed of 50 g size. After 45 days the cage developed technical problems, drifted and hit the coast, and most of the fish escaped into the sea. However, the cage and nets were salvaged and analysed for several related issues. The juveniles retrieved had reached 150-350 g size which indicated good growth. With this valuable "setback" a new cage with modifications in design and mooring was launched in December 2007. Considering the previous experiences, importance was given to structural stability and safety of the cage. In this endeavour, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, West Bengal was consulted, which collaborated in engineering aspects of the cage. As a consequence of this and for easy manoeuvring, 6 m diameter cages were designed recently, to cater to the needs of small farmers. The mooring and other aspects were also suitablv modified. The volume of each cage is about 170 m and production potential is about 4-5 t of fish. Further impetus was given by the participation of National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) in the demonstration of open sea cage framing by sponsoring 14 cages of 6 m diameter. These cages were launched at different places, one at Sutrapada, Gujarat, 2 at Vasai, Maharastra, 2 at Mangalore, Karnataka, 2 at Cochin, Kerala, 2 cages at Pulicat, Tamil Nadu, one each at Nellore, Kakinada and Baruva in Andhra Pradesh and one cage near Balasore in Orissa. Apart from these, there are 12 cages Including one with 15 m diameter, three each at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh, Mandapam in Tamil Nadu, Karwar in Karnataka and Vizhinjam in Kerala. In the mariculture farm at Karwar, at present there are 23 cages of different dimensions

Overview on mariculture and the opportunities and challenges of cage culture in India

India is the fourth largest producer of fish in the world and the total fish production is around 6 Mt per year and its share in the GDP is around 1.4%. The world annual growth rate in aquaculture production has been 7.05% since 1971 (FAO 2008). In 2006, aquaculture comprised 41.8% of total seafood supply. Indian aquaculture has demonstrated a six and half fold growth over the last two decades, with freshwater aquaculture contributing over 95 percent of the total aquaculture production. Given the status of global fisheries, with most large fish stocks being fully exploited or over-exploited, aquaculture production must increase in order to maintain or increase the global seafood supply per capita

Way forward for enhancing Indian Marine Fish Production - With Developmental Measures Suggested for Adoption

World population is increasing, rendering shrinkage of arable land. Therefore, package of practices followed in the agrarian sector is for vertical expansion of productivity. Over the last few years, the ideas on a carbon smart and health conscious world propagate a holistic view of organic cultivation, which promotes a qualitative production of food. Coastal plains and riverine valleys used to be well known for food production. In the realms of climate change there are issues of Mean Sea Level rise, saline water inundation and various related issues rendering rnuch of these productive lands unavailable for agriculture. Even with stringent regulations, most of these lands are converted into residential areas affecting the equations with respect to food production. Various researchers suggested that in the years to come, globally people will have to look at the seas for food. To meet the requirement of fish by 2050 vis-6-vis the population, at current level of management and restrictions, there seems to be much more dependence on marine fisheries sector to be exercised for livelihood

Development of Sustainable Capture Based Aquaculture: A Profitable Option for High Value Sea Food Production

india is the fourth largest producer of fish in the world and the total fish production is around 6 Mt per year and its share in the GDP is around 1.4%. The marine fish production was 2.81 million tonnes for the year 2005-06 which form 42.78% of the total fish production. With continued human pressure on marine fisheries and ocean resources, aquaculture has become one of the most promising avenues for increasing marine fish production in the future

Onshore [land Based] Culture of Pearl Oysters for Pearl Production

Marine pearls are precious and are the most attractive objects of adoration. Pearls are most revered biological products from time lmmemorial. Pearls have been extolled as a metaphor of life for virtue, love, wisdom and justice, spirituality and righteousness. The occurrence and use of pearls have a history more ancient and more fascinating than any other precious objects

Sustainable Capture based aquaculture in India: Status and Prospects

India is the fourth largest producer of fish in the world and the total fish production is around 7.5 million tonnes per year and its share in the GDP is around 1.4 per cent. The marine fishproduction was 3.2 million tonnes for the year 2008 which form 42.7 per cent of the total fish production. With continued human pressure on marine fisheries and ocean resources, aquaculture has become one of the most promising avenues for increasing marine fish production in the future. On a global scale, the decline of fish stocks has been a motivating factor for expanding the role of aquaculture. It is well known that the ready availability of seed in adequate quantities is one of the major constraints in the development and expansion of mariculture. In this context, the concept of capture based aquaculturejmariculture is considered as a viable option for augmenting production of high value species