Tiger prawns successfully raised in marine pens in Bohol — BFAR

CALAPE, Bohol — A technology breakthrough has been achieved in this sleepy and rustic municipality with the bountiful harvest of tiger prawns or Penaeus monodon raised experimentally by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in marine fishpens.

Known more by the locals as sugpo, P. monodon is usually cultured in brackishwater fishponds along coastal areas, particularly in Bacolod, Capiz and Iloilo in the Visayas and Bulacan, Pampanga and Quezon in Luzon.

BFAR director Malcolm Sarmiento Jr. said the research on the culture of sugpo in marine enclosures was conducted to test the technical feasibility and economic viability of raising P. monodon in this environment.

"This is an initiative to develop new low-cost technology to produce more fish and aquatic products in line with the government’s twin goals of expanding production areas to have more fish supply for the population and lessening production cost," he said.

In his message after the ceremonial harvest, Sarmiento said the success of this experiment would revolutionize the country’s shrimp industry.

"We have a good thing going on here. Tiger shrimp farming is no longer for the rich. Everybody, even the poorest of the poor, can now venture into this industry," he said.

However, he warns that we must not abuse the environment as nature has a way of getting back.

"We should not exceed the carrying capacity of the area. BFAR will be working in collaboration with the local government units to set appropriate guidelines, zoning and control before the commercialization of this technology. We must ensure that this will be sustainable and will go on and on," Sarmiento said.

The research is meant to be part of the proposed five-year development roadmap for the shrimp industry, which aims to revive the once flourishing sugpo industry which reached its peak in the late 1980s averaging a production of some 80,000 metric tons.

With a production of only around 35,000 metric tons today, a shrimp roadmap is being drafted and finalized in collaboration with the stakeholders to cover strategies that would address the whole gamut of industry issues, including disease control, marketing and credit, post-harvest and introduction of new technologies and species, among other things, Sarmiento said.

Dionisio de la Peña, BFAR regional director for Region 7 and chief implementor of the project, said the experiment used nine fishpens measuring three meters by three meters with depth of 3.5 meters in the marine waters of Calape Bay in Bohol’s Panggangan Island.

Here, sugpo post larvae (PL 18 — 20) were stocked and reared to marketable size for 188 days or for a six-month period.

Water quality monitoring, which included pH, dissolved oxygen, temperature and salinity, was done twice daily, De la Peña said.

Feeding was done using commercial shrimp feeds.

Prior to the stocking in the pens, the post larvae were nursed in fishponds for 45 days, De la Peña said.

Initial results showed that among the three stocking densities — 10/m2, 20/m2 and 30/m2 — the stocking density of 20 post larvae per one square meter gave the most promising results with 76 percent survival rate and 1.7: 1 food conversion ratio or FCR.

This means that a fishpen measuring three meters by three meters with a depth of 3.5 meters could produce almost four kilos of marketable high-value shrimps or 4.4 metric tons per hectare, said Mario Ruinata, the experiment’s project leader.

Compared to tiger prawns reared in fishponds, production is almost the same but net profit is higher due to big savings in electricity, equipment and other water management cost.

Sarmiento said the experiment was initially in collaboration with Bonjie Aniag of Dawis, Bohol but because of some administrative problems, BFAR proceeded on its own to complete the project here.