DA opens 200-ha mariculture park

The country’s first mariculture park was inaugurated recently by the Department of Agriculture and its Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA/BFAR).

Located on the municipal waters of the Island Garden City of Samal Island, Davao del Norte, the 200-hectare mariculture park is ideal for milkfish farming and raising of grouper, siganid, caranx, seabass, cabia and other high -value fish in cages.

At full development and utilization, it is estimated to create some 20,000 jobs and generate around P200 million investments. It stands to raise the country’s fish and seaweed production by at least 70,000 metric tons with a market value of P3 billion.

Agriculture Secretary Leonardo Q. Montemayor led government officials in welcoming locators and interested investors in the storm-sheltered park, reputedly the biggest of its kind in Southeast Asia.

Montemayor said, "Government partnership with small countryside entrepreneurs and other investors is envisioned to create countryside centers of growth and prosperity. This kind of government initiative – focused on the economic uplift of coastal communities–will give the fisher folk a fighting chance for a better life."

BFAR Director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr. said the park is a major component of DA/BFAR’s Aquaculture for Rural Development Program. The latter is a comprehensive program that seeks the accelerated growth of the aquaculture industry to make up for the slack in capture fisheries production due to the overfishing and widespread marine habitat destruction.

BFAR has allocated P15 million to make the marine livelihood part attractive to investors. The bulk of this amount was used for delineation and installation of floating buoys, markers, moorings, floating platforms and power system.

Already, a number of big fishery enterprises have offered to lease big areas in the park, among them commercial fishing giant, Frabelle Fishing Corp. which needs 100 hectares for its initial venture in aquaculture. The company may have to settle for a smaller area as medium-scale investors and small countryside entrepreneurs have expressed interest in business opportunities in the park.

For its part, the local government of Island Garden has made available to the project a two-hectare on-shore area for ancillary services such as hatcheries, nurseries, small-scale processing and refrigeration facilities. Funding for maintenance and future development of the marine park, including provision of security to investors’ properties, will come from lease rentals.