grouper_pond_culture_ed2_lat_6204

AQUACULTURE COMPENDIUM – CAB INTERNATIONAL CASE STUDY TITLE OF CASE STUDY: Grouper pond culture in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam SUMMARY In Vietnam, pond culture of marine finfish including mull

AQUACULTURE COMPENDIUM – CAB INTERNATIONAL

CASE STUDY

TITLE OF CASE STUDY: Grouper pond culture in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam

SUMMARY

In Vietnam, pond culture of marine finfish including mullet, milkfish and seabass has been developed since the 1960s (Dao, 1996) and significant expansion took place in the early

1990s with the appearance of a live fish market Groupers (Epinephelus akaara, E bleekeri,

E coioides, E fuscoguttatus, E malabaricus, E merra, and E sexfasciatus) are currently

among the major cultured species There are approximately 500 ha of coastal pond culture

of marine finfish in Vietnam producing more than 1,000 t of products, mainly groupers with a farm gate value of more than VND100 billion (more than US$7 million) in 2003 Khanh Hoa,

a province in the south of Central Vietnam with an area of 5,258 km2 and a population of approximately 1 million, is one of major localities producing groupers in ponds with a total estimated production of 100 t in 2003 This case study reviews the current status of pond culture of groupers, and identifies major technical, economic and social constraints to further development in Khanh Hoa province as well as elsewhere

NON-ENGLISH SUMMARY (Arial Unicode pt11)

Ở Việt Nam, nghề nuôi đìa cá biển như cá đối, cá măng biển và cá chẽm đã phát triển từ những năm đầu thập kỷ 1960 và nghề này phát triển mạnh mẽ vào đầu những năm 1990 vớI sự xuất hiện thị trường cá tươi sống Cá mú/song (Epinephelus bleekeri, E akaara, E sexfasciatus, E malabaricus, E coioides, E merra, và E fuscoguttatus) hiện nằm trong số những đốI tượng nuôi chính Hiện có khoảng 500 ha vùng biển ven bờ được xây dựng thành các ao đìa nuôi cá biển trên tòan quốc Những ao đìa này đã cung cấp trên 1000 tấn sản phẩm, chủ yếu là cá mú với giá bán tại đìa trên 100 tỷ đồng (trên 7 triệu Đô-la Mỹ) vào năm 2003 Khánh Hòa, một tỉnh ở Nam Trung bộ Việt Nam, có diện tích 5258 km vuông vớI dân số khoảng một triệu người, là một trong những địa phương chính nuôi cá mú đìa vớI sản lượng ước đạt 100 tấn vào năm 2003 Bài viết này đánh giá hiện trạng nghề nuôi cá mú đìa, và xác định các trở ngại chính về các khía cạnh kỹ thuật, kinh tế và xã hội đối với sự phát triển nghề này tại tỉnh Khánh Hòa cũng như những nơi khác

BACKGROUND

Khanh Hoa province in the south of Central Vietnam has an area of 5,258 km2 and a population of approximately 1 million Four of the six districts (Cam Ranh, Nha Trang, Ninh Hoa, Van Ninh) are located along the coastal area and there is one island district - Truong

Sa (Spratly) Khanh Hoa has a 200 km long coastline with a sea area of more than 400,000

km2 including the Spratly archipelago (Le, 1998)

The climate is tropical and monsoonal The annual average temperature is about 26-27°C but ranges from a monthly average of 24°C in January to monthly averages over 28°C from April - September, with minima of 14.5-15°C to maxima of 39-40°C in certain years The average rainfall is about 1,500 mm with 80% in a 4-month rainy season from September - December (CCHS, 1995) Khanh Hoa has a twisting shore line with many shelf bays and islands which contributes to making Khanh Hoa one of the biggest producers in Vietnam in coastal aquaculture, especially grouper, lobster and shrimp culture

In Vietnam, pond culture of marine finfish, including milkfish, mullet and seabass, has been developed since the 1960s (Dao, 1996) In Khanh Hoa, grouper was cultured initially in 1988 and significant expansion took place in 1990 with the appearance of a live fish market The development of grouper pond culture underwent ups and downs due to technical and socio-economic circumstances such as outbreaks of shrimp disease and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) Recently there have been 85 grouper farms of approximately 1 ha each, mainly in Cam Ranh and Nha Trang

Local farmers normally raise grouper in failed shrimp ponds with a similar growth rate to those in cages but with a higher survival rate and easier management in ponds The seed supply is mainly from the wild; however, local hatcheries and imported seed have increased

in recent years Feed for grouper is mainly marine trash fish including anchovy, cardinal fish and lizard fish, but sometimes tilapia harvested from brackishwater ponds that received polluted water from the surrounding community and overhung latrines In the past, diseases rarely occurred in groupers but recently there have been some diseases in cultured groupers

in some ponds However, the average survival rate is as high as 70 - 80%

The estimated total annual production of farmed grouper in Khanh Hoa is currently about

100 t a year with a farm gate value of nearly US$ 0.8 m, about 10% of the total national production Grouper pond culture is a profitable industry and creates employment opportunities for local village people, especially in places where pond shrimp culture failed

DESCRIPTION OF ISSUE OR PRACTICE

Seed

Grouper species cultured in ponds are Epinephelus akaara, E.bleekeri, E coioides, E fuscoguttatus, E malabaricus, E merra and E sexfasciatus Initially, seed was only from the

wild but in recent years, seed of some species has been produced in hatcheries or imported from Taiwan to augment wild seed

Grouper Culture Cycle

The grouper culture cycle usually runs for 8-10 months, from January or March Ponds are cleaned after the final harvest Normally 9 months after stocking grouper, farmers begin to harvest grouper for sale, mainly through middlemen for export to China, Hong Kong

Feed

Previous studies (Nguyen and Hambrey, 1998) have shown that only whole fresh trash fish are used and that the food conversion ratio (FCR) in cage culture, averaging 5.9 (fresh weight), is significantly higher than that for pond culture of grouper where the average FCR

is 4.3 Trash fish used for grouper culture include anchovy (Stolephorus sp.), flat fish (Solea sp.), lizard fish (Saurida spp.), pony fish (Leiognathus spp.), red big-eye (Priacanthus macracanthus), sardine (Clupea leiogaster) and scad (Decapterus sp.) as the main species,

but there are many other species in smaller amounts as well as small crabs and shrimps The preferred fish are anchovy and lizardfish for less than 200 g and larger size groupers, respectively Feed costs comprise around 18% of the farm gate price of grouper

Disease

In the past, diseases of groupers rarely occurred Recently, there have been some diseases

in cultured groupers in some ponds such as black gill, red gill, white spot, ulcerative body syndrome, swelling abdomen and vitamin deficiency

Some preliminary studies (Dam, 1998) showed that the main pathogens occurring in infected

groupers (mainly E malabaricus) were Contracaecum sp., Pseudorhabdosynochus sp., Rhiphidocotyle sp and Trichodina sp

Economics

The estimated total annual production of farmed grouper in Khanh Hoa is currently about

100 t with a farm gate value of nearly US$ 0.8 m (VND 120,000 kg-1 or US$ 8 kg-1) The average profit margin is 20% Therefore, grouper pond culture is a profitable industry It involves approximately 85 farmers/households and creates many employment opportunities for local village people However, the stability of the market is one of the major concerns of the farmers

Further Research Needs

• Grouper seed for pond culture is sourced mainly from the wild In the long-term this is unlikely to be sustainable There have been some successful experiments on seed propagation of grouper at the Research Institutes for Aquaculture 1 and 2 (RIA Nos 1 and 2) recently However, much work remains to be done

• The feed used is mainly trash fish and small shellfish The sustainability of this feed supply for the long-term development of grouper pond culture industry is also questionable Compound feeds, using a higher proportion of non-fish protein need to be developed

• Diseases of cultured grouper have occurred commonly in some areas but little is known about the diseases Additionally, aspects related to the live grouper market such as market structure and stability and its potential expansion should be studied

CONTEXT

COUNTRIES

Vietnam

CULTURED SPECIES

Epinephelus akaara

E bleekeri

E coioides

E fuscoguttatus

E malabaricus

E merra

E sexfasciatus

AQUATIC DISEASES

Black gill

Red gill

Swelling abdomen

Ulcerative body syndrome

Vitamin deficiency

White spot

ECOSYSTEMS

Tick Ecosystem

√ Estuaries

√ Peri-urban areas

√ Rural areas

GROWOUT PRODUCTION SYSTEMS Tick Growout system

PARTICIPANTS

Organizations

University of Fisheries 2 Nguyen Dinh Chieu,

Nha Trang, Vietnam

Individuals

√ Development Agents - Government and Non-Government

√ Aquaculturists

√ Extension officers

√ Research, Education & Training

√ Researchers

√ Producers, Investors, Consumers

√ Small-scale producers

ISSUES

√ Production systems: technology and its management

√ Seed

√ Species availability and seed supply

√ Feeds

Extension

√ Sustainable Development

√ Sustainable environmental development

√ Livelihood issues

√ Poverty alleviation

√ Integrated resource management and coastal zone management (CZM)

REFERENCES

CCHS, 1995 Characteristics of climate and hydrology of Khanh Hoa Nha Trang, Vietnam:

Centre of Climate and Hydrology of the South, 191 pp In Vietnamese.

Dam BL, 1998 Study on parasites on cultured and wild caught groupers in Khanh Hoa

B.Sc Thesis Nha Trang, Vietnam: University of Fisheries, 71 pp In Vietnamese

Dao MS, 1996 Marine fish culture in Vietnam A paper presented at the NACA Workshop on Aquaculture of Coral Reef Fishes and Sustainable Reef Fishes, 4-8 December 1996, Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia 10 pp NACA, Bangkok, Thailand

Do MD, 2003 Technical, socio-economic and market characteristics of the grouper culture

industry in Khanh Hoa B.Sc Thesis Nha Trang, Vietnam: University of Fisheries, 45 pp In

Vietnamese

Le AT, 1998 The sustainability of grouper seed supply to the aquaculture industry in Khanh

Hoa, Vietnam M.Sc Thesis Bangkok, Thailand: Asian Institute of Technology, 112 pp

Le AT, Nguyen TN, Hambrey JB, 2000 Status of Cage Mariculture in Vietnam In: Liao IC,

Lin CK, eds Cage Aquaculture in Asia: Proceeding of the First International Symposium on

Cage Aquaculture in Asia Manila, Philippines: Asian Fisheries Society and World Aquaculture Society - Southeast Asian Chapter, 111-123

Nguyen VT, Hambrey JB, 1998 Grouper culture in Vietnam Infofish International, July/August, 4(98):30-35

TEXT SECTIONS

Summary

Non-English Summary

Background

Description of Issue or Practice

Seed

Grouper Culture Cycle

Feed

Disease

Economics

Future Research Needs

References

ILLUSTRATIONS

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3 Push net used for catching wild grouper

4 Bamboo traps used for catching wild

grouper seed

scanned Le Anh Tuan

5 Grouper pond in front of the house scanned Le Anh Tuan

6 Grouper pond with paddle wheel

aerator

scanned Le Anh Tuan

7 Preparing trash fish as feed for grouper scanned Le Anh Tuan

8 Crabs and shrimps used as feed for

grouper

Taken digitally

Le Anh Tuan