All About Aquaculture.

                                                                           Marine finfish like Atlantic salmon are raised in net pens like these

The term “aquaculture” refers to a broader spectrum of practices than many realize.  In freshwater and marine ecosystems, finfish and shellfish are raised in a variety of different man-made structures.  Mesh nets, lines, cages, and rafts are used for shellfish aquaculture, which in New England produces mostly mussels, clams, and oysters.  These systems are placed in estuaries and bays, which are natural habitats for shellfish.  Seed (very young shellfish) are obtained from hatcheries or collected from wild populations and allowed to settle on the aquaculture structure being used, where they can filter food and nutrients from the surrounding marine environment and grow to a commercially harvestable size.

Saltwater finfish aquaculture, which in New England consists mostly of salmon farming in Maine, is carried out in large net-cages placed in coastal marine waters, which are stocked with fry from freshwater hatcheries on land.  There have also been efforts to expand this technology offshore in the U.S. for raising or growing out other finfish species and some extensive operations based on offshore structures elsewhere in the world. Because the fish are not free to forage or hunt for themselves, finfish aquaculture requires feed from the fish farmer.  On land, aquaculture is carried out in natural habitats such as ponds as well as artificial environments like raceways and tanks.  Freshwater finfish aquaculture in New England consists mainly of trout and salmon hatcheries in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts, where juvenile fish are raised to a certain size in tanks on land and then released into streams and ponds.

These different practices can be categorized by the level of human intervention involved in the animal’s growth and life history.  Extensive aquaculture, which requires minimal intervention, usually involves introducing species from a hatchery or a wild stock into a new natural or slightly altered environment and then leaving them alone until they are ready to be harvested.  An example of extensive methods can be found in ancient Chinese carp aquaculture, in which the carp ponds were stocked with fry from wild populations but left to feed on naturally occurring or introduced algae.  Many shellfish farms – such as theNantucket Oyster Company in Massachusetts – also practice extensive methods, in which wild or hatchery seed is set on a man-made raft or line suspended in a natural marine environment.  Because shellfish are filter feeders, they do not need any supplemental feed.  Since rearing seafood in this manner requires modest energy inputs, extensive aquaculture is among the most efficient and sustainable food production processes in the world.

Intensive aquaculture is at the opposite end of the spectrum.  Both feed and habitat are artificially supplied in intensive aquaculture systems, which are generally less sustainable because the higher level of human intervention requires higher energy, water, and land use.  Within intensive systems, farming low trophic-level species (herbivorous and omnivorous fish such as tilapia and catfish) is much more sustainable than farming high trophic-level species (piscivorous fish like salmon) – a future blog post in this series will explore the issue of sustainability further.  Cage aquaculture – such as that used by True North Salmon Company in Maine – is often considered intensive because even though fish may be raised in a natural habitat (rather than on land in a recirculating system or raceway) they are entirely dependent on humans for survival.

Semi-intensive aquaculture involves an intermediate level of human intervention, in which feed may be provided in a natural environment or an environment is provided but feed is not.  In some cases, feed may be added to a natural environment to augment growth or nutrition of the cultured species, but at levels below those required to fully sustain the population.  Some people consider the New England lobster industry to fall in this category as current populations are nurtured and grow as a result of millions of pounds of food put in the water in the form of baits in traps. Of course, if the lines between these three categories seem fuzzy, it’s because they are – every farm is different, and there are many ways to farm the same aquatic animal.  Extensive, intensive, and semi-intensive are general terms that attempt to roughly describe the amount of energy needed to produce the final seafood product.

talkingfish.org

The Israeli Guest that’s Welcome Around the World

Fast becoming one of the world’s most important fish for food, tilapia, with roots in Israel – and the high-tech farms that raise them – are making a big impact

An AquaMaof indoor fish farm (Photo credit: AquaMaof/Yair Kachel PR)

Once a staple only in gourmet restaurants, amnon, or St. Peter’s Fish  – also known as Israeli (blue) tilapia – is fast becoming one of the most important fish in the world, enabling millions in the Third World, as well as in developed countries, to enjoy tasty, nutritious, and healthy fish. With overfishing becoming a major problem, Israeli fish-farming technology is being welcomed in countries around the world — as are the tilapia fish that are often grown in these farms.

There are nearly 100 tilapia species out there (most of them freshwater fish), and various versions of the fish are common throughout the Middle East; for example, the Nile tilapia (Nile perch), native to Egypt, is farmed there using basic methods, and other species are farmed in Jordan, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Tilapia is also wildly popular in the Far East, with China the world’s biggest producer/exporter of the fish. But only Israel has perfected the high-tech methods of fish farming that allow farmers to generate far more fish than with traditional fish-farming methods. Many fish farmers and policy makers say that Israeli tilapia are the tastiest of the bunch.

Tilapia, currently the second-most farmed fish in the world (behind salmon) have come into their own over the past few decades. Whereas 30 years ago, few people had even heard of tilapia, food policy officials in countries around the world have come to recognize that the fish can help solve the overfishing crisis that has become more severe in recent years. Tilapia can survive in warm-water environments, aren’t particularly picky about their food, and survive well in brackish water. They grow quickly in a short period of time, so their bodies have less time to absorb chemicals like mercury, the bane of many fish. And, tilapia are almost tailor-made for raising on farms, as they are easy to breed and raise — allowing policy makers to ensure a definite supply of an important protein source for their country’s populations.

Israeli-raised tilapia were popular long before hi-tech fish farming; they have been introduced into lakes and rivers in a number of countries, including the United States, where almost all the tilapia hail from stocks imported from Israel. In the US, the geographic range of tilapia is limited, because they cannot survive in colder water (below 50 degrees Fahrenheit). Tilapia are considered an invasive species, however, and in some places in the U.S. people who enjoy sport fishing have complained that tilapia tend to corner the resources in an ecology, basically taking over the “neighborhood” by eating many of the plants that provide oxygen (although they generally do not compete for food eaten by other fish). On the other hand, they also eat weeds, algae, and other other “undesirable” underwater plants, keeping rivers and lakes cleaner. In some places, in fact, tilapia are used in reservoirs to keep municipal water supplies clean.

And countries around the world have embraced Israeli tilapia fish-farming systems. Last month, the governments of Kenya, Germany and Israel recently inked a trilateral cooperation agreement to use Israeli hi-tech methods to improve tilapia farming. In Kenya’s Lake Victoria, fish stocks are being depleted even as the demand for fish — and tilapia in particular — continues to increase. Fish prices in Kenya and much of Africa have doubled over the past two years, said Ilan Fluss, director of policy planning and external relations at the Israel Foreign Ministry’s Agency for International Development Cooperation (Mashav). The new program, he said, will help Kenya “industrialize” its tilapia output, enabling the country to significantly provide better nutrition for residents at lower prices, and to turn Kenya into a tilapia exporter, Fluss added.

But Israeli tilapia-based fish-farming systems are welcome in the “First World” as well. This week, the largest fish farm in Europe — to be used mostly for the production of tilapia — will open in Poland, courtesy of the Israeli company AquaMaof Aquaculture Technologies. The company has developed an innovative farming system that makes it possible to breed fish under controlled temperature conditions in all types of weather, in any country, and during all seasons, independently of external factors — while cutting energy costs by some 70%, the company said. The 8,000-square-meter (24,000-square-foot) facility will produce some 1,200 tons of tilapia annually, said AquaMaof, which has already built similar farms in Africa, the US, and Asia.

With the new system, Poland, too, could become a major fish supplier to the rest of Europe, as catch limits in the European Union are increased, limiting or outright prohibiting the sale of some types of fish, whose stocks are quickly being depleted because of commercial fishing. Thanks to Israeli fish-farming systems — equipped with Israeli tilapia — Europeans will get the fish they crave, while fish still in the ocean will have an opportunity to replenish their stocks.

By DAVID SHAMAH@timesofisrael.com

Sustainable Seafood and Integrated Fish Farming in China

The story is about 'Integrated Fish Farming', using traditional methods that have been adapted to modern circumstances, and opportunities to apply these as a low ecological footprint fish farming model. It shows two families: The Ma family farms fish and works with other families that farm silkworms, while the Wang family farms both fish and silkworms themselves and then sells the raw silk for production of finished silk products in the village. Both families live and work in a village in China where the fish/silkworm cycle is the typical fish-farming practice, and where fish and silk are the major cash products.

The cycle works like this: silkworms are fed on leaves of the mulberry tree which grows around fish ponds. The waste from Mulberry and silk worms provides some feed for the fish and the Fish waste fertilises the dykes and the mulberry - creating an integrated farm ecosystem with a low ecological footprint. This type of system is widely used in China, and the sum total of carp production on farms like this is more than 10 million tons per year, which is more than the total amount of fish produced by any other nation.

Fish farming Project Part of the Stimulus Program

As part of the economic stimulus program, the government, three years ago, set aside 3 billion shillings to promote fish farming in the country. This was intended to not only reduce over fishing in the lakes, but also to create additional job opportunities. And as NTV's Ouko Okusah reports, today the government has entered into a trilateral cooperation with the governments of Germany and Israel in an effort to expand the program

By NTVKenya

Kenyan Government Enhancing Fish Farming in North Rift

Children getting fish out of one of the ponds in Nabiswa village of Trans Nzoia County. [Photo | Leonard Wamalwa]

Fish farming has in the last three years improved a great deal in Rift Valley province with the number of fish farmers rising from 1500 at the start of the three years before the introduction of the government’s economic stimulus program –ESP and has since rose to 9400 farmers to date.

Rift Valley provincial fisheries officer George Onyango told reporters in a fish farmers workshop in Kitale that the practice is being embraced by many farmers who have developed interest hence overwhelming the new trend of farming in the region.

Onyango noted that in the last two decades fish farming in Rift Valley had not been doing well but shot up after the introduction of the ESP that facilitated the process at the initial stages that have since stabilized and are fully fledged in most parts.

“At the moment I would like to say that this program has been so beneficial and there is quite a high enthusiasm from farmers and we are overwhelmed at the moment,” said Onyango.

He noted that the ESP program did not only impact on farmers alone but it also impacted greatly in creation of jobs especially in the Kazi Kwa Vijana –KKV program whereby youths were employed to construct 9400 ponds leading to them being paid over Kshs 85 million.

Rift Valley Provincial Fisheries Officer George Onyango and the Trans Nzoia and West Pokot County fisheries officer Jamleck Njeru (R)as he addressed journalists at the workshop.

Accompanied by the fisheries officer in charge of Trans Nzoia and West Pokot counties Jamleck Njeru, Onyango noted that due to the fast growing practice of fish farming, the government is doing sensitization programs to farmers, capacity building through trainings and putting measures to avail the fish feed to the farmers.

“We realize that most of the farmers jump-started and didn’t know much about fish farming hence necessitating the trainings and other sensitization programs on fish farming,” noted Onyango.

The officers revealed that the government has moved in to procure four peletizing machines fairly distributed in the region with one situated in Trans Nzoia to produce the fish feed.

Peletizing machines were bought as a form of cottage industries to be given to clusters within the region to manufacture their own fish feeds locally at a cheaper cost with the available materials.

The four machines are in Saboti, Naivasha in Subukia, Ainamoi in Kericho and another one in Eldoret with each purchased at Kshs 800,000 with a start up fund of Kshs 100,000 accompanying them.

The government is also putting in place measures to put up fish processing machines in every county across the country to facilitate the buying of the fish harvested by farmers in the respective regions and process its products.

Njeru pointed out that the putting up of the processing machines will also go in tandem with the number of farmers and the amount of fish produced in a region to necessitate the essence and time to start up the machine though the minimum production requirement is not yet revealed.

Read:

• Fish farming transforming lives of Trans Nzoia residents
• Fish farming  in Trans Nzoia
• Sh 6 million to boost fish farming in Trans Nzoia County
• North Rift farmers encouraged to venture in to fish farming business 

Production of fish in the region

In the last one year that ends in this month of June a total of 604,000 kilograms of fish were produced in the region amounting to over Kshs 102 million entering the farmers’ pockets.

The practice is noted to be receiving favor from most of the farmers both from the large and small scale due to the small amount of land used to put up the ponds and the high profits at the end of the harvest as compared to other crops including maize in a similar piece of land.

Trans Nzoia and West Pokot fisheries officer Njeru noted that in a 20 by 15 meter piece of land converted in fish farming can earn a farmer between Kshs 30,000 to 50,000 as compared to maize that can earn less than Kshs 300 hence farmers are quickly embracing the fish farming.

“If a piece of land measuring 15 by 20 meters can give a farmer between Kshs 30,000 and 50,000 as compared to maize that can only give about Kshs 300 and thus the farmers have seen for themselves and are entering the practice in large numbers,” said Njeru.

Declining production of fish at the lakes

It was noted that the government is supporting fish farming as a way of alleviating the declining production of fish from the lakes that have been for a long time the only major source of fish in the country.

The officers revealed that the lakes have reduced in production of fish due to pollution and over-exploitation hence failing to meet the ever increasing demand for the products that necessitate enhancing of fish farming.

The fast growing fish farming is believed to be the only remedy to the situation at the lakes and thus maintain the supply that can meet the market demands.

Written by Leonard Wamalwa@West FM

Palawan's Fishermen Move to Seaweed Farming

Communities along Palawan's coastal areas are now no longer dependent on just fishing for their livelihood.

Now, they are also farming seaweed -- a project that is not only giving them an alternate source of income, it is also preserving Palawan's waters.

Located in the northern part of Palawan is the pristine Pandan Island.

 




For decades, families living along this coastal town lived a comfortable life, relying solely on fishing as their source of income. But damage to the ecosystem, caused by indiscriminate fishing, depleted the waters and threatened to wipe out their livelihood.

Through the help of the Asian Development Bank, a Fisheries Resource Management unit was set-up to teach fishermen how to diversify their income and rehabilitate the waters of Palawan.

The community now engages in seaweed farming, which has become a thriving aquaculture industry in the province.

From earning just barely US$100 monthly, fishermen like Mario Mulato can now earn as much as US$1,700 a month.

He said: "I earn more thru seaweed farming. I was able to have some savings because of it. Fishing is harder to do, more tiring and you lack sleep."

For fisherman Angelino Rebintinola, who used to engage in cyanide fishing, seaweed farming has opened his eyes. He has now dedicated his life to protecting the waters of Palawan from destructive fishermen.

He said: "I am one of those who volunteer to guard the sea because illegal cyanide fishing destroys our seaweed production. If we are able to protect our environment, maybe, slowly, the waters will go back to the way it was before."

By providing alternative means of livelihood to the coastal communities, such as maintaining mangrove nurseries and creating fish sanctuaries, fishermen and their families are now able to reduce their reliance on fishing and increase their income, thus ensuring a more sustainable development to the fisheries sector.

Delia Martinez, who is working in the fisheries sector of the City Agriculturist Office, said: "Fishing is seasonal. There are times when the sea is rough and they cannot go out to sea. With the additional skills that we have taught them, they get to have extra income. Now we can ensure that their children, the next generation, will have a better life than them."

Palawan has become the country's number one seaweed producer, supplying more than 90 per cent of the country's seaweed. As a low-cost and labour-intensive venture, it has become a viable supplemental source of livelihood for the fishermen of Palawan.

channelnewsasia.com

Fish Farming in the Negev and Arava Reservoirs

Mashabbei Sade is a beautiful and lively kibbutz near the city of Beer Sheva. It belongs to the Regional Council of Ramat HaNegev, which consists of five kibbutzim, two moshavim and six communal settlements. The Kibbutz is characterized by green lawns and park-like areas. A few weeks ago I had a chance to visit the Kibbutz.

The kibbutz uses both treated sewage water and saline groundwater for irrigation. It also has one interesting, and very unique characteristic: part of the income comes from the fish farming.

The fishes are been cultivated in a reservoir lake that was originally built and funded by the Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF). Currently, there are over two hundred water reservoirs in Israel.  

However, this specific reservoir in Mashabbei Sade gets its water from a deep underground aquifer consisting slightly saline fossil water. Most of the reservoirs in Israel collect runoff water and also store treated sewage water.  

The reservoirs’ main and primary purpose is to increase the balance of water available for use. The reservoirs produce 260 million cubic meters of water annually, which is about half of the water consumed by agriculture in Israel (2010).

The idea of fish farming is not a new industry in Israel. For instance, the study of the Mediterranean Dead Sea Hydroelectric Project in the 1983 (Mediterranean Dead Sea Company) listed fish farming and marine agriculture as one of the future developments in the Negev. 

In addition to this, there also used to be fish farming in Eilat near the Gulf of Aqaba. It seems that the dry desert area is highly suitable for marine agriculture due to the favourable climate and its distance and isolation from the major seas. This is because in the desert you can more easily control the conditions of the fish farming industry. Other benefits of marine agriculture are that it doesn’t require much land and it doesn’t consume much water.

I believe that in the future there is going to be more fish farming in the Negev as it provides a unique chance to develop the business opportunities.  As the fish farming industry develops it will provide an opportunity to develop additional sources of income and new jobs.

Additionally, it has even been suggested the one should explore the feasibility of growing shrimps in the desert region for exports. Personally I find this quite interesting. Could anyone have believed a hundred years ago that one could grow fish or shrimps in the desert? 

It is important to explore these alternative and prospective ways to sustainably develop the arid desert region, in order to provide more job opportunities. This is an excellent way to advance the economic structure in a land that has great potential.

Jerusalem Post

Fish Farming in Uganda

                    Fish farming considered a gold mine that will lift household incomes and boost exports

Sylvester Adia, a resident of Kajjansi off Entebbe Road, defied unemployment by venturing into commercial fish farming at his home. He has no regrets

Armed with Shs50, 000, he bought 2,500 young fish from fishermen on Lake Victoria after digging a fish pond where they multiplied. That was ten years ago. Today, he proudly talks about his Kimoyo Fish Farm, which boasts of a hatchery and 10 aquariums each of which harbors between 3,000 to 6,000 Tilapia fish and Cat fish.

“I started with 50,000 and I bought 25,000 fish from the fishermen in Lutembe on the shores of Lake Victoria,” he recalls.

“No one was willing to give me a loan then because the loan officers expected me to pay back the loan in 2 or 3 years, which I could not afford,” said Adia the proprietor of the Kimoyo Fish Farm.

Between 2001 and 2003, he used to collect Shs10 million every month.  Currently, he earns from his hatchery and sells a kilogram of Tilapia at Shs 2,500 and Shs10, 000 for Cat fish per kilogramme. Instead of being an employee, Adia chose to be an employer - his farm currently employs three workers.

In recent years, fish has become one of the top non-traditional exports that fetch Uganda millions of dollars in foreign exchange.  While most fish comes from lakes, fish farming is still a virgin area though it requires relatively less investment but offers high earnings.

Paul Ssebinyansi, the chairman of Walimi Fish Cooperative Society,  said starting aquaculture could require as little as Shs 1 million if one has a piece of land but it also requires clearance from National Environment Management (NEMA) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries.  This according to Ssebinyansi, aquaculture can be successful in an urban area.

“You must follow guidelines from NEMA and the Ministry and have land that accesses water. It can be practiced anywhere even in urban centres if oxygen is available and there is water exchange,” he said, adding that with government intervention, the industry is set to grow even further.

There is a vast market locally and internationally for Tilapia and with the introduction of new policies and revision of the old ones, the market will go beyond Kenya, Rwanda, DR Congo, Asia and the European Community, according to Ssebinyansi.

Higher productivity

Indeed, having realized the potential of fish farming, the government appears to be stepping in to ensure more productivity.

Paul Omanyi, the senior fisheries officer at the Ministry, said the government has developed a five year development plan for the fishing sub-sector.

It aims at boosting fish exports to Asia, the region and European Union in the next five years. As part of the plan, facilities such as the Kajjansi Rehabilitation Centre have been set up under a bilateral agreement with the Government of China.

The priority in the development plan (2011 – 2016), according to Lovelock Wadanya, the assistant commissioner in the Department of Fisheries, is training farmers in aquaculture to lift productivity to 3,000 tons in addition to the potential 9,000 tons annually

Uganda exported 15,500 tonnes of fish in 2011, thus earning the country about Shs 212 billion, out of which the bigger percentage was from the Nile perch species. The EU accounts for 75 per cent of the fish exports from Uganda sold through Amsterdam and Brussels to other European destinations.

Under the plan, public private partnerships in aquaculture will be a key focus as well as directly digging dams and valley tanks for potential famers, which will be in form of grants.

Aquaculture is now widely practiced on small scale basis in the areas around Lake Victoria, Lake Katwe, Kajjansi, River Nile and wetlands among others.

Andrew Kyalibono, a supervisor at the Source of the Nile Fish Farm Ltd at Njeru in Mukono District, said fish farming can fetch one a healthy return of between Shs 32 million and Shs 48 million annually.

He said one only needs a start-up capital of Shs 2.5 million, basic knowledge and commitment plus a piece of land that has access to natural water. Just seven months is enough for a Tilapia fish that weighs between 0.7 grams and 1 kg to mature. This will sell for between Shs 4, 000 and Shs 6, 000.

The Independent. Uganda 

Kenya Fish Farming

                                                    Farmers harvesting fish from a pond. 

Some Sh6 billion has been spent on fish farming countrywide in the past three years, the Permanent Secretary in the Fisheries Ministry, Mr Micheni Ntiba, has said.

Through an aquaculture programme, many farmers have been educated on fish farming techniques and are doing well, he said.

The programme, which has created employment, particularly in the rural areas, has seen the construction of 48,000 fish ponds across the country.

Professor Ntiba said that due to proper monitoring of the programme and involvement of growers, fish production had gone up from 4,000 tonnes in 2007 to 20,000 tonnes last year.

“Fish farming is growing rapidly. With time, we shall start produce enough fish for local consumption and even have a surplus for export,” he said on Tuesday at Sagana National Aquaculture Centre in Kirinyaga County.

The PS said the programme had reduced pressure on oceans and lakes, which served as the major sources of fish.

“We have now developed the Kenya National Ocean and Fisheries Policy where the government has developed fish farming as one of its core activities to reduce pressure on our traditional fish habitats — oceans, lakes and rivers,” he said.

He added that fish farming had also enhanced food security. He said the programme had created a demand of over 50 million certified tilapia and cat fish fingerlings and 30,000 tonnes of specified and formulated fish feeds.

Due to high demand, he said, an acute shortage of fingerlings had hit the country.

He was quick to add that the government and the private sector were resolving the problem.

The PS said the private sector was expected to be a prime mover in the provision of fish seeds and feeds, adding that the government would only be carrying out a regulatory function.

Accompanied by the Kenya Marine and Fisheries Research Institute managing director, Dr Johnson Kazungu, the PS said his Ministry was constructing mini cooling and processing units in strategic places to process and add value to fish.

At the moment, four cooling plants have been established in upper eastern, western Kenya, Nyanza and coast provinces.

The PS spoke as he officially opened a Sh23 million project dubbed Association for Strengthening Agriculture Research in East and Central Africa (Asareca), which is being funded by the World Bank.

The project is expected to come up with improved aquaculture technologies.

By George Munene@Daily Nation: Kenya

$820 Million Lobster Farm for Sabah

Sabah is set to become a major lobster producer when a RM2 billion (S$819.9 million) Integrated Lobster Aquaculture Park (iLAP) deal takes off at Pulau Timbun Mata in Semporna.

Yayasan Sabah, through its subsidiary Inno Fisheries Sdn Bhd, will sign the deal to set up the world's first iLAP with Darden Aquafarm, a subsidiary of Darden Inc, in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. Darden is the owner of Red Lobster and other seafood restaurant chains in the United States with 2,000 outlets and 180,000 employees.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the project would cover 9,300ha of land, comprising 6,000ha for tropical lobster production, 700ha for a research and development, training and demonstration farm, and 2,600ha for mussel (feed) production.

"This project includes hatching, production, feeding and processing, and it will be part of a 15,000ha area to be gazetted as a Lobster Aquaculture Zone, regulated by the Sabah Fisheries Department," he said after meeting Darden Aquafarm Inc president Bill Herzig at Sri Gaya near here yesterday.

Musa, who is also Sabah finance minister, said the iLAP would comprise the core entity, small-and-medium enterprises and contract farming. Upon its completion in 2020, he said the farm could generate RM3 billion in annual revenue and provide 12,000 jobs. It would also encourage participation from locals as contract farmers or as entrepreneurs through a buy-back scheme.

Written by Roy Goh. Read more@asiaone.com 

Rwanda: Local Women Gaining From Fish Farming

It is not only in the Rwandan parliament that women outnumber their male counterparts but also in other areas, such as fish farming.

With this whole month dedicated to every woman and girl in Rwanda, women are showcasing their potential in different sectors of the country.

In an interview with The New Times, Dr. Wilson Rutaganira, Coordinator of Integrated Installation and Interior Lakes Management Support Project (PAIGELAC) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources, said that there are more women in fish farming than men.

"The total number of members involved in the project is 57,652 and 37,100 of that number are women, while 27,031 are men. The biggest number of men is practicing fishing at the lakes. The women are more involved in fish farming," Dr. Rutaganira reveals.

He further explains that these members formed over 155 cooperatives accross the country.

"It is through these cooperatives that resources are directly delivered by the coordinating office, thus making the work of the fish farming project easier," Dr. Rutaganira acknowledges.

The cooperative of fish farming in Gasabo District (Copamaga) which is situated in Mulindi town, is made up of 22 members, eight of them women. The cooperative has over 10 fishponds of fish with close to 15,000 Tilapia being reared.

According to Costatine Mujawayezu, the treasurer for Copamaga, the fish will be harvested in a months' time.

"The fish take six months to grow. The species of the fish we are rearing is tilapia and we start rearing it when it's 30 grams. The tilapia is big enough to be harvested at the weight of 1 kilogramme," Mujawayezu explains.

She further said that their fishponds vary in size; some are 50 by 25 square meters or 20 by 25 square meters.

"The number of fish in each pond varies depending on the size of the pond. When the fish grows, it reproduces. We are planning to start selling young fish to people who want to start fish farming," she discloses.

Besides fish, the cooperative also rears rabbits. The houses are built above the fishponds.

"The rabbit litter is nutritious for the fish. Rabbit litter supplements the manure and other food compliments that the fish feed on. With proper and nutritious feeding, the fish grow bigger in a shorter time," Mujawayezu explains.

Written by Doreen Umutesi. Read more@allafrica.com 

Fish Farming In Nigeria

If you have a product to sell you want to go where the buyers are.

The fact that Nigeria is the largest importer of frozen seafood in the world shows there is a ready market for fish farmers

What more does an investor want … than where there is a ready market that is willing and has the capacity to pay

Nigeria imports over 7 million tonnes of seafood every single year

Lagos State alone is ecologically equipped with land mass, 22 percent of which is covered by water, which includes streams, creeks, rivers, lagoons and swamps delineated in the south by 180 km coastline.

These natural endowments make the state rich in species diversity with great potential for fish farming and ecotourism.

There are some major constraints facing fish farming in the country which could easily be overcome in my view.

Some of the current constraints affecting the fish farming industry in Nigeria include:

• insufficient production of fingerlings,
• lack of sufficient and least cost effective fish feeds,
• and high cost of earth moving equipment for pond construction

Watch the video below and see how Lagos State tries to address the problem…

Notwithstanding…still a perfect opportunity for fish farming investors who know what they are doing to make money.

More information available@FishFarmingBusiness.com 

Tanzania: Fish Farming Expected to Curb Poaching in Serengeti District By Mugini Jacob

                                     Serengeti villagers show off fish caught from Robanda village dam

SINGITA Grumeti Reserves through the Grumeti Fund supports the introduction of fish farming in two rural villages of Serengeti District in Mara Region in a bid to improve the diets of families and increase incomes.

It is hoped that the dependency on wild game found in Serengeti National Park for consumption and business is greatly reduced.

The villages are Bonchugu and Robanda which have highest number of poachers in the district. Both villages are adjacent to Grumeti/ Ikorongo game reserves in the western Serengeti. But a section of Robanda village is also within the Ikoma Wildlife Management Areas (WMA) that is potential for photographic tourism.

The project started in late 2010 when SGF provided the villages with 15,000 fish fingerlings that were placed in dams constructed in the villages several years ago. Bonchugu got 10,000 fish fingerlings and Robanda 5000. "The aim is to give our neighbours the villagers an alternative animal protein and we believe they will also sell some of the fish and boost their incomes", SGF Programme Outreach Programme Co-coordinator Mr Richard Ndaskoi said.

The villagers have been trained on fish farming best practices provided by experts from the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute (TAFRI). Bonchugu village government chairman Mr Makena Mwikwabe said four groups made up of women and men engage in fish farming in his village.

"Already one group comprising 16 people will soon be able to fish the mature fish," Mr Mwikwabe said. Serengeti is the only district in Mara region which does not access Lake Victoria unlike Rorya, Bunda, Musoma and Tarime districts. Bonchugu village chairman welcomed the project, saying that it will play a crucial role to reduce poaching incidents in the area."

People will sell fish at the village market and those who will continue killing wild animals looking for bush meat when there is fish will be taken to task", the village chief warned. Mr Kenyatta Richard Msoke, one of the beneficiaries of the project from Robanda village described the fish as tastier than game meat.

"This is good project because it will also help us to generate income", Mr Kenyatta told the 'Daily News' recently. He said that the price of fish weighing at 400 grams is 3,500/- in the area. "We will sell fish to the tourist tented camps operating near our village", Mr Kenyatta pointed out.

Robanda village has the highest number of tented camps which attract visitors from all over the world who flock western Serengeti to view the wild life. An official with Shirati TAFRI office, Mr Athanas Mbonde, estimates that there is over one ton of fish ready for harvesting in both villages.

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First Commercial Offshore Aquaculture Harvest in U.S. Raises Red Flags

                            A free-floating cage adrift off the coast of Hawaii. Photo by Kampachi Farms

The following is a statement from Food & Water Watch Fish Program Director Mitch Jones:

“Kampachi Farms Founder Neil Simm’s self-congratulatory announcement of the company’s first successful harvest from the first commercial offshore aquaculture facility in federal waters in the United States is an attempt to paper over the company’s problems. The announcement should have mentioned the lawsuit that was filed by Honolulu-based KAHEA—The Hawaiian Environmental Alliance and Food & Water Watch against federal agencies for allowing Kampachi Farms (formerly Kona Blue Water Farms) to operate their aquaculture farm in federal waters with an illegal permit.

“The suit alleges that under federal law, federal agencies can only issue a fishing permit if authorized to do so under a regional Fishery Management Plan, which they were not. Federal agencies—in this case, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS)—lacked the statutory authority to issue a fishing permit for Kona Blue’s aquaculture venture. The suit also addresses the fact that NMFS should have required a more rigorous environmental analysis than they did.

“Curiously, despite initial claims that the project would produce 1,600 fish at 8,000 pounds total, the company’s release is completely silent on how much fish was produced, leading us to question how much of a success it actually was. The public has a right to know all the facts. After all, the project, which was partly funded with U.S. tax dollars—$500,000 from the National Science Foundation and $242,889 from NMFS.

“Factory fish farms use and deplete wild fish stocks to feed farmed fish. Since these fish farms contain their stocks in free-floating cages, the fish live in close quarters—just like factory farm pens on land—which breeds disease, threatening both the farmed fish and the wild populations. Fish escapes and equipment loss can also reap havoc on the environment immediately surrounding fish farms. In the summer of 2011, Kampachi Farms reported that they lost two of their empty net pens while towing them out to sea.

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