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Our Bureau

Kochi Aug 24

Culture of the popular seabass, a fish which is found along India’s coastal waters is gaining ground and popularity along the country’s vast sea coast. The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture had organised a harvest mela in which 12 tonnes of seabass with an average size of 600 gm were harvested. The fish was grown in 107 cages at the RCA demonstration farm in Karaikal and the harvest mela attracted 200 farmers from the region.

The Marine Products Export Development Authority has reported that an additional four tonnes of seabass were produced through pond culture and a demonstration of cage culture was held at Kannur in Kerala. Six short term courses on seabass culture and more demonstrations were held in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

The increasing focus on seabass culture comes at a time when finfish is gaining growing importance India’s export basket. Finfish exports grew from 10 per cent of India’s total marine exports in 2003-04 to 17 per cent in 2007-08. In rupee terms, finfish exports have doubled from Rs 620 crore to Rs 1,298 crore while dollar returns grew from $135 million to $325 million during the same period.

Sources in the seafood export industry said that the growth in finfish exports would give greater diversity to India’s marine export basket and provide a buffer to international price fluctuations in shrimp cuttle fish and squid, which constitute the most significant component of the country’s marine exports.

The seabass production was supported by the RGCA hatchery and seed supply.

In 2007-08 the RGCA produced 1.10 million seeds and sold them to farmers in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

For ensuring the continuous operations at the brood stock husbandry and hatchery at Thoduvai, installation of recirculation systems were also completed during the year.

More Stories on : Aquaculture

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