Prospects for mud crab production brightens

Production of mud crab ("alimango") continue to brighten, thanks to technological breakthroughs achieved in recent years on this crustacean.

Among the R&D headways already achieved were the generation of technology where mud crab can be viably produced in ponds and in mangrove areas, and production of mud crab seed stocks in hatcheries.

To boost the strides so far chalked up, government-hosted Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC AQD) – based in Tigbauan, Iloilo, recently published a manual titled "Biology and Hatchery of Mud Crab Scylla spp."

Authored by Dr. Emilia T. Quinitio and Dr. Fe Dolores Parado-Estepa, the volume was launched during the SEAFDEC AQD roadshow seminar billed "Business Opportunities in Aquaculture" held not long ago in Iloilo City.

Drs. Quinito and Estepa have worked at AQD’s crustacean hatchery for more than 25 years. They had earlier authored a manual on shrimp hatchery.

Its authors averred that the advantages of using hatchery-reared mud crab megalopa (crablets) over wild source juveniles for mud crab farming are uniformity in size; certainty of identification, especially on smaller juveniles, availability throughout the year; and absence of undesirable species.

Mud crabs are valuable commodities of coastal fisheries in the Philippines. Over the past five years, Philippine and crab production rose steadily to reach 4,600 tons in 2001 valued at P1.5 billion.

The demands is continuously rising both in the expert and domestic markets and the apparent bottleneck to expansion is the supply of seedstock.

"Mud crab hatchery operation is very similar to that of a shrimp hatchery," stated SEAFDEC AQD chief Dr. Rolando R. Platon. "Considering the abundance of idle or underutilized shrimp in the country, hatchery operators now have an opportunity to diversify their operations to alternate species like mud crab, thus, improving their business viabilities at the same time alleviating the continuing shortage of mud crab seedstock." – Rudy A. Fernandez