Meyer, T.

Mous, P.J.

Pet, J.S.

Wageningen Yield 

34
Marine finfish
With over 17,500 islands, and an
estimated 80,000 km of coastline,
Indonesia has long been recognized as
having enormous potential for marine
fish cage culture. However, a shortage
of marine hatchery capacity as well as a
lack in capacity to address technical
challenges and to develop sustainable
fish culture businesses have meant that
Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network
   Magazine
Sustainable, profitable and socially
responsible - building a ‘triple bottom line’
grouper and snapper culture industry in
Komodo
Trevor Meyer, Sudaryanto, Peter Mous and Jos Pet
South East Asia Centre for Marine Protected Areas, Jl. Pangembak No.2, Sanur,
Bali, Indonesia, e-mail: pmous@tnc.org; tmeyer@tnc.org, websites: www.tnc-
seacmpa.org/, www.komodonationalpark.org, www.nature.org/international.
existing cage culture of marine fish has
fallen far short of its potential.
The Nature Conservancy, a US-
based conservation organisation, has
developed a model for regional marine
fish cage culture industries in
Indonesia. A pilot hatchery and grow-
out project, based just north of
Komodo Island, eastern Indonesia, has
Aerial view of Loh Bongi.
Collaborating organizations
Network supported by:
October-December 2004 (Vol. IX No. 4) 35
Marine finfish
Marine Finfish Aquaculture
Magazine
An electronic magazine of the
Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish
Aquaculture Network
Contact
Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish
Aquaculture Network
PO Box 1040
Kasetsart Post Office
Bangkok 10903, Thailand
Tel +66-2 561 1728 (ext 120)
Fax +66-2 561 1727
Email grouper@enaca.org
Website http://www.enaca.org/
marinefish
Editors
Sih Yang Sim
Asia-Pacific Marine
Finfish Aquaculture Network,
c/o NACA
sim@enaca.org
Dr Michael J. Phillips
Environmental Specialist &
Manager of R&D, NACA
Michael.Phillips@enaca.org
Simon Wilkinson
Communications Manager,
NACA
simon.wilkinson@enaca.org
Dr Mike Rimmer
Principal Fisheries Biologist
(Mariculture & Stock
Enhancement)
DPIF, Northern Fisheries Centre
PO Box 5396
Cairns QLD 4870
Australia
Mike.Rimmer@dpi.qld.gov.au
Above: The hatchery. Below: Shots of the grow out facility.
now been operational since January
2003, and has demonstrated the
technical feasibility of the model with
the first harvest of 500kg of estuary
grouper Epinephelus coioides in June
2004. The pilot project is scaled to
produce 25 tonnes of live grouper and
snapper annually, but the successful
development of the project into a
viable operation will require its up-
scaling to a production capacity of
around 200 tonnes. Consequently, The
Nature Conservancy is now looking for
partners to assist in the transformation
of this pilot project into a triple bottom
line business – namely profitable,
sustainable and socially responsible.
The cage culture operations will
supply live grouper and snapper to the
Hong Kong-based live reef fish trade.
Market prices for live fish are high –
typically between US$5 to US$30 per
kg depending on the species – and an
existing network of mobile fish buyers
ensures that the live product can be
sold at the farm gate, with no need for
investment in processing, packing or
export. In fact, the fish farm model
described here was developed as part
of a wider goal to contribute to the
transformation the entire live reef fish
trade to a sustainable practice.
The hatchery
The pilot project described here aims to
demonstrate the viability of a fish
culture industry of this type in remote
parts of Indonesia and other parts of
Southeast Asia.
The species of fish selected for
culture were chosen taking into
account the market price, ease of
culture and local availability of
broodstock. At Komodo, five species
of fish are currently maintained as
broodstock – estuary grouper
Epinephelus coioides, tiger grouper E.
fuscoguttatus, humpback or mouse
grouper Cromileptes altivelis,
mangrove jack Lutjanus
36
Marine finfish
argentimaculatus and seabass Lates
calcarifer. All were caught as juveniles
or adults over the last five years in
local waters, and thus are not threat to
the genetic integrity of the local stocks,
and avoiding the need of importing
broodstock and eggs, with its
attendant risk of disease introduction.
In addition, a stock of leopard coral
grouper Plectropomus leopardus have
recently been included in the
broodstock facility.
The broodstock are maintained in
cages throughout the whole egg-
production cycle. Techniques have
been developed to allow egg collection,
and excellent broodstock condition and
minimal stress result in all fish species
maintained (with the exception of
seabass) spawning naturally, without
the need for hormonal manipulation.
This helps ensure good egg quality
and high hatching rates.
The hatchery itself consists of a
shore-based flow-through system.
Water is drawn from the sea through
sand filters, then directly to the
hatchery and live feed production
facilities. Water quality is excellent,
with a temperature range of 26-31C, and
salinity of 34 ppt. After passing
through the hatchery, the water passes
through a system of simple settlement
ponds that act as a trap for particulate
material and as a natural biological
filter, before being returned to the sea.
Phytoplankton and rotifers (both
small and super-small strains) are
produced by way of batch cultures,
using open mass-production
techniques. Such systems result in
modest productivity levels, but, most
importantly, are simple and workable –
necessary requirements if such
hatcheries are easily replicated in other
remote parts of Southeast Asia. Pure
master cultures of algae and rotifers are
available from research institutes in
Indonesia, and imported products such
as enrichment diets, Artemia cysts and
high quality larval feeds are readily
available from local agents.
Live feed production facilities, and
the fish larval rearing and nursery
units, are constructed from locally
available materials, using local
contractors, wherever possible. Small
culture volumes are maintained in
fiberglass tanks, whilst larger mass
production volumes use concrete
tanks.
Fish larvae are reared in 10 cubic
metre tanks, and maintained on a diet
of enriched rotifers, Artemia and high
quality larval diets until weaning at 40
– 50 days of age, after which fish are
graded and transferred to the nursery
section of the hatchery, where fish are
grown-on to a size suitable for transfer
to cages. Larval rearing protocols are
based on those developed at Gondol
Research Institute for Mariculture, Bali
and are thus proven, workable
techniques, with typical larval survival
rates of successful batches varying
between 1 and 10%. The hatchery itself
has been built in a modular form,
allowing the replication and scale up of
the existing facility with a minimum of
disruption and at a minimum cost.
Grow-out farms and
community involvement
A key part of this fish culture model is
to use local communities in the cage
grow-out of the grouper and snapper
produced by the hatchery. Such
communities are often well placed to do
this, typically being located in suitable
coastal locations for cage culture as
well as having prior experience of
holding live fish in cages, or at least in
fishing. Consequently, this model has a
further function in providing
alternative livelihoods to communities
previously reliant upon destructive reef
fishing practices, and thus reducing
the fishing pressure on vulnerable
stocks of reef fish and the associated
damage to coral reef communities.
Two community grow-out units had
been established by July 2004, with the
first harvest of grouper carried out
during June 2004. Cages and related
infrastructure are made from low cost,
locally available materials such as
wood and plastic drums, and are,
therefore, restricted to sheltered
locations, in close proximity to the local
community involved in their operation.
Each grow-out unit is scaled to rear up
to six tonnes of grouper and snapper
per annum.
Future development
The Komodo Fish Culture pilot project
has successfully overcome a number of
major technical challenges, and has
shown that an operation of this type is
technically feasible. The project is now
ready, therefore, to enter its most
critical and exciting phase:
Transformation into a triple bottom line
business that is not only profitable but
that also benefits local people and is
environmentally sound. As a global
non-governmental, non-profit
organization, The Nature Conservancy
fully realizes that this transformation
must be driven by the private sector,
with the Conservancy only in a
supporting and catalytic role. The
approach to this process is that the
Conservancy will carry out a final
feasibility study, which will support the
formation of a business group that will
take over and up-scale the fish culture
facilities and that will operate as an
independent business. Fish culture
companies who are interested in
becoming involved in business
development are invited to contact
Trevor Meyer (tmeyer@tnc,org) or
Peter Mous (pmous@tnc.org).
Mouse grouper Cromileptes altivelis.
Juvenile tiger grouper, Epinephelus
fuscoguttatus.
Changing the nets.


Sustainable, profitable and socially responsible-building a 'triple bottom line' grouper and snapper culture industry in Komodo

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