The need for compounded (pellet) feeds to replace the feeding of ‘trash’ fish is widespread throughout the Asia–Pacific region.
Issues regarding the use of trash fish have been identified in detail in several publications (for example New 1996) and include: competition for fishery products with human nutritional requirements and with other agricultural sectors;
relatively low efficiency of utilisation of ‘trash’ fish (dry matter FCRs typically range from 5:1 to 10:1, compared 1:1 with 2:1 for pellet diets); and localised pollution due to losses of feed material during feeding (Phillips 1998).
Because using ‘trash’ fish for feed is not economic in Australia, marine finfish aquaculture relies on the development of suitable cost-effective pelleted feeds.
In addition, Australia’s strict environmental regulation of aquaculture requires feeds that minimise nutrient release to the environment.
The grow-out diet component of the project was addressed in a structured way, acquiring nutritional information on feeds available for diet manufacture, characterising the requirements of groupers for key nutrients and demonstrating the cost effectiveness of the compounded feeds.
Major research areas within this overall structure were:
- Inventory and categorise the composition of feed ingredients in Indonesia.
- Determine the apparent digestibility of a range of feed ingredients available in Indonesia, the Philippines and Australia.
- Determine the requirements of groupers for critical nutrients, with emphasis on protein and energy requirements.
- Assess the capacity to replace fishmeal in grow-out diets for groupers with terrestrial protein sources.
Research results from the grow-out nutrition component were validated through trials using experimental pellet diets in comparison with ‘trash’ fish, and later through trials using commercially produced diets. Results of this component of the project are detailed in Section 3 of this publication.
Epinephelus fuscoguttatus is widely distributed in the Indo-Pacific region, including the Red Sea, and occurs at most (probably all) of the tropical islands of the Indian and west-central Pacific oceans (east to Samoa and the Phoenix Islands) along the east coast of Africa to Mozambique, and it has also been reported from Madagascar, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the tropical coast of Australia, Japan, Philippines, New Guinea, and New Caledonia.
Tiger grouper is a medium-priced species in the live reef fish trade and juveniles are in demand by farmers in Southeast Asia because this species survives well and grows rapidly in culture. Widely known as tiger grouper, this species is called flowery cod in Australia, kerapu macan in Indonesia, and lapu-lapu in the Philippines.
Although there has been considerable research and development effort extended on developing sustainable grouper aquaculture in the Asia-Pacific, at the start of the project it was apparent that this effort had been relatively fragmented and uncoordinated. Discussion with other grouper aquaculture researchers indicated that most felt that they were working in isolation.
This lack of communication and coordination between research and development institutions in the region caused overlap, and in some cases outright duplication, of research effort, which diluted the overall research progress in this field.
The third component of the ACIAR project targeted this issue by improving communication between grouper aquaculture researchers worldwide, but with particular emphasis on the Asia-Pacific region.
The primary mechanism for this component of the project was the development and maintenance of the Asia-Pacific Grouper Network, coordinated through the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA).
Participants at the Grouper Aquaculture Workshop held in Bangkok in April 1998 (Rimmer et al. 2000) committed to reducing duplication and overlap of research effort by participating in a Grouper Aquaculture Research and Development Program to be coordinated by NACA.
This component of the project was augmented with an APEC Fisheries Working Group project Collaborative APEC Research and Development Grouper Network . Section 4 of this publication outlines the activities of the Asia-Pacific Grouper Network and its successor, the Asia-Pacific Marine Finfish Aquaculture Network, and provides examples of how a networking approach can more widely spread research and development benefits in the region.
Author:
M.A. Rimmer
