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Mariculture park By ARNIL C. EMATA, WILFREDO G. YAP, and GIL A. ADORA
THE concept of Mariculture Parks (MP) in the Philippines came about as a tool in coastal resource management which was adapted by the Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR). With declining growth in the commercial and municipal fisheries sectors in the country, the sustainable growth in aquaculture is the only hope for the Philippines for increased fish production. And with a moratorium in the development of mangrove areas into fishponds was imposed so expansion to the open waters of the sea became the only option for expansion of the industry to keep up with population growth. Patterned like an industrial estate, MPs are similar in concept with the establishment of an industrial estate in land areas where raw lands are made accessible by putting up the basic infrastructure such as roads, power, water, communications and other basic facilities. BFAR provides the infrastructure such as mooring systems, harvests areas, parking lots with loading and unloading areas for materials and supplies, and even fish processing plants and security when necessary. It also creates a man-
power pool by training fisherfolks and other villagers for mooring construction, net fabrication and mending, cage frame construction and repair, fish handling, feeding and harvesting. In order for fisherfolks to become active participants in the MPs rather than merely passive observers, livelihood cages have been established. These cages are awarded to deserving fisherfolks together with all the inputs required for one crop such as fingerlings and feeds. It has provided the fisherfolks a promising opportunity to have a regular income, above and beyond what they earn from fishing. The Mariculture Park (MP) is a technical achievement in itself. It is the logical technical solution of the recurring fish kills in milkfish culture areas due to over-crowding and overstocking and complete lack of order in the existing areas. By applying to the sea long established practices in land development and management, namely zoning
and provision of defined areas for roadways, housing lots, and setbacks, the MP prevents the development of the marine equivalent of slums. In the Mariculture Park development program, sustainability of intensive fish cage culture operation is of highest priority. To greatly minimize or even totally prevent the occurrence of fish kills and to minimize environmental degradation strict regulation in the number and area for cages are enforced in the mariculture park. By design only 10% of a designated mariculture zone is designated for marine cage farming. In the Mariculture park the number of cages and their positions are fixed by the position of the mooring blocks. Only 36 units of 10 x 10 cages can be accommodated per hectare and the cages are to be installed in an alternate alignment for better movement of water and exchange of dissolved oxygen. Such design is implemented in MPs through the Execu-
Milkfish production from marine cages in the Mariculture Parks have significantly contributed to the country’s annual milkfish production. tive Management Council (EMC). It prevents the unregulated proliferation and crowding of cages leading to environmental degradation, fouling and even fish kills. Other activities in MPs that are regulated by the EMC is the minimum stocking size, the maximum stocking density, proper disposal of dead fish as well as proper disposal of wastes. With the regulation in place, the MPs can be considered models of good aquaculture practice. Furthermore, with the synergy of cages in MPs, the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization in 2010 has recognized MPs as having transformed threat into opportunity. The move of milkfish aquaculture in the Philippines from reliance on natural primary production in ponds to the use of formulated feeds as practiced in marine cages is a timely shift that in itself is a climate change adaptation. Traditional brackishwater fishponds for culture of milkfish rely heavily on
lablab – a complex of blue green algae and detritus which grows well only during prolonged dry season. Lablab is extremely sensitive to rain. It is extremely difficult to produce lablab in ponds in a situation where sudden rains occur in the midst of what is expected to be a dry season. Thus the development of mariculture parks for farming fish in net cages where the fish stock is given formulated feeds is in itself a form of climate change adaptation. With the difficulty in growing lablab, brackishwater fishpond productivity is greatly affected unless feeding is resorted to. But in order to grow milkfish with artificial feeds, deeper ponds and pumping are necessary. Physical improvement requires a high capital outlay that may not be fully recovered. Thus, the best use for existing brackishwater fishponds is as nursery to grow the post fingerlings required for stocking in cages especially since the existing mariculture parks
require a large number of post fingerlings. It is for this reason that nursery operation is considered an ancillary activity for mariculture parks and is eligible for financing under the existing BFAR-Landbank Partnership Program for the Promotion of Mariculture Parks. A fingerling production technology transfer is being accelerated to urge pond owners to venture into this highly-profitable enterprise. In areas where flash floods and storm surges are becoming more frequent due to climate change, both fish cages and coastal fishponds that have been converted to nurseries are vulnerable. It becomes necessary to have contingency measures to ensure the constant availability of fingerlings to immediately stock fish cages after such extreme weather disturbances. One such contingency measure is the development of fingerling banks in protected areas with ample seawater supply. Story on page 2