Marine fish farming Can India
learn from its mistakes?
C. Regunathan and M.R. Kitto 1
Indias marine fisheries production
has reached a plateau and, at best, only
a marginal increase is predicted in the
near future. Most major stocks are ful-
ly exploited and further increase must
come from exploitation of deep-sea
resources. However, inland production
has shown rapid growth, recording an
annual growth rate of 6 percent. Aqua-
culture is the principal factor in this
development. All future additional de-
mand for fish will have to be met from
aquaculture (FAO 2000). Based on ex-
port needs and an optimum per capita
requirement of 11 kg of fish per year,
the marine fish production in India has
to be 5 million tons by 2020, of which
1.62 million tons should come from
aquaculture (Devaraj 1997). Similar-
ly, the projected figure for freshwater
fish production in India by 2020 is 3.1
million tons, which means that fresh-
water aquaculture production should
nearly double the present level of 1.6
million tons (Devaraj 1997). A Center
for Communication and Development
study, Pune, India report, published in
2002 warns that unless, India gears up
for Blue Revolution on a war footing
to increase the fish production, it is im-
possible for the country to answer the
nutritional needs by 2050.
Hornell (1911) realized the scope of
marine finfish culture in India nearly
a century ago, but the edge of the
sea remains largely unfarmed even in
this new millennium. Marine finfish
farming history dates back to 1940, in
Narakkal, Kerala state, where milk fish
and grey mullets were grown and reg-
istered an encouraging production rate
of 1000 kg/ha/yr. The Madras Fisher-
ies Department renewed fish farming
experiments in 1944 by constructing a
farm in the tide fed marshy swamps on
18 September 2007
Krusadi Island, Gulf of Mannar for
the purpose of growing milk fish and
mullets. Such trials in farming efforts
underlined the paramount need for ac-
celerated involvement to develop suit-
able farm management strategies for
different ecological systems. Pioneer-
ing attempts and significant advances
on marine fin fish culture involving
milkfish, grey mullets, sand whiting,
rabbit fishes, pearl spot, seabass, grou-
pers, red snappers and seabreams at
Mandapam, Tuticorin, Madras, Ca-
licut, Narakkal and Mangalore in
coastal ponds, net pens and cages have
been carried out by the Central Marine
Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI)
for the last three decades (Tampi 1960,
James et al.1985, Nammalwar and Mo-
hanraj 1990, Hamsa and Kasim 1992,
Bensam 1993, James et al. 1993).
China and India, the worlds most
populous countries, depend a great
deal on agriculture and fisheries to
provide employment and to feed their
billions. Fish and aquaculture prod-
ucts contribute a substantial amount
of animal protein, playing a vital role
in food and nutritional security. The
contribution of fishing to the foreign
currency earnings of these two coun-
tries is vital to their national econo-
mies (Arunachalam and Jayashree
2001). Dietary habits of the Chinese
have forced the government to fund
and stimulate research towards pro-
ducing more fish through aquaculture
(Arunachalam and Jayashree 2001).
But, only 6 percent of the total funds
allocated to the agriculture and allied
sectors in the ninth five-year plan was
granted to fisheries research in India.
(Sakthivel 1999). The budget outlay
for Indian fisheries research represent-
ed just 2.6 percent of the foreign ex-
change earned from the export of fish
and fish products. India has received
in the past, and still enjoys, substantial
aid from several international orga-
nizations, including the World Bank,
United Nations Development Pro-
gram (UNDP), Danish International
Development Agency (DANIDA),
Norwegian Agency for Development
Cooperation (NORAD) , Overseas
Development Administration (ODA)
UK and Japan. In 1998, the World
Bank granted a loan of US$ 800 mil-
lion for a National Agricultural Tech-
nology Project (NATP), and under
this project several projects have start-
ed operation under Indian Council of
Agricultural Research (ICAR, Minis-
try of Agriculture and State Agricul-
tural Universities. The areas covered
include marine fisheries, aquaculture,
pearl culture, development of cold-wa-
ter fisheries and conservation of germ-
plasm (FAO 2000).
Economic liberalization in India did
not improvise much on the establish-
ment of a fish farming park through im-
port of foreign technologies. Regarding
fish farming expertise, India brought
in Asian seabass techniques from the
Department of Primary Industries,
Australia, for the research facility at
Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture
Development (RGCA). The Rajiv
Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture Devel-
opment was set up by the government
of India to develop commercial culture
technologies for species that command
good market potential, particularly
marine finfishes (Thampi Samraj et al.
2003). Marginal training from the Cen-
tral Institute for Brackishwater Aqua-
culture (CIBA) and from consultants,
Dr. Mike Rimmer and Dr. Les Rodg-
ers from the Department of Primary

Industries, Northern fisheries center,
Government of Queensland, Australia
backed up the program. This first com-
mercial seabass culture demonstration
farm for India introduced imported
knotless nylon net cages from Netcraft
Pvt. Ltd., Tasmania, Australia and im-
ported seabass feed from M/s Ridley
Agri products, Australia. The Lakshad-
weep Shilpi Aquaculture (LSA) project
in Andamans with Danish engineer-
ing know-how2 for Asian seabass and
Groupers did not fair through for lack
of site-specific pre-economic feasibility
test results. Andaman and Nicobar Is-
lands Integrated Development Corpo-
ration Limited (ANIIDCO) has partic-
ipated in the Fish Cage Culture Project
M/s Lakshadweep Shilpi Aquaculture
(LSA) in Andamans and invested$US
90,000 as equity. A Kuwait and Saudi
Arabia-bred, senior FAO expert who
consulted in Andamans for the LSA
project proved the larval production ef-
ficacy and farming outputs for groupers.
This was the first of its kind commercial
marine fish farming venture in India
(James 2000). However the project was
a victim of the environmental threats
and vagaries of Indian ocean tsunami.
Introduction of cage culture for the
poverty alleviation of fishers of Kerala.
Project is funded by the New Zealand
agency for International Aid. Cage cul-
ture trails are conducted at Azheekode
estuary, West coast of India with Asian
sea bass. This project lends support for
the establishment of low-cost cage fish
culture cooperatives among inland fish-
ermen and appears to be an alternative
and feasible income generating source.
Developing low-cost feed for Asian sea
bass from locally available ingredients
is part of the farming program.
With Seabass, farmed product real-
Developing low-cost feed
is part of the program
izes a price double that of the wild-cap-
tured product, reflecting the greater de-
mand for plate-sized fish of up to 700 g.
Wild-caught fish are usually 1.6 kg and
up and are meant for filleting rather
than as a whole table fish. Sales to res-
taurants fetch higher prices because the
farmed fish is live, fresh with a warm
flesh pricing. In niche markets such as
Singapore and Malaysia, fresh chilled,
air-flown rates are accountable. In In-
dian fish markets, wild Asian seabass
fish never gets more than $US2.5/kg.
Big Indian cities fetch $US3/kg. Fresh-
water / brackish water Asian seabass
products are less acceptable because of
flavor taint and dark color. The ability
of eliminating these is still to be con-
firmed through research. Asian seabass
product factors are always assumed
based on their flavor and color issues.
Ambient salinity-cultured Asian sea-
bass have a lighter flesh.
In India, Asian seabass prices are un-
predictable. Force-selling a less familiar
fish, such as Asian seabass, is a futile
exercise jeopardizing the business eco-
nomics of scale (Regunathan and Kitto
2005). The noda virus also is a future
threat to such a mono-species focused
industry. Profit from farmed Asian sea-
bass in India were only marginal, just
above the break-even level.
With a peninsular shoreline and
high population density within a 50
km stretch along the coastline and se-
lectively varied consumption of fish
at low price ranges with anchovy, sar-
dines, kingfish, barracuda and trevally,
an aquaculture investor certainly can-
not produce fish at such a competitive
price, likewise capture pricing values.
High-value capture species, including
groupers, silver pomfret, snappers and
emperors, are export-oriented and of-
ten air-flown as fresh-chilled to UAE,
Bahrain and Kuwait markets to earn
hard currencies. Technology for farm-
ing high-value fishes is still lacking or
far from perfect and this explains the
slow development in the commercial
fish hatchery enterprise in India. The
culture of silver pomfrets, kingfish and
snappers are still many years away from
commercial application because major
advancement is required to complete
the lifecycle in captivity and to fully
understand the bottlenecks in larval
culture.
In India, cage culture experiments
were undertaken by research institu-
tions, agricultural universities, fish-
eries colleges, state fisheries depart-
ments, state fisheries corporations and
a few entrepreneurs. However, most of
the trials were exploratory and have
not led to large-scale commercial cage
aquaculture. Based on natural grou-
per seed resources, M/s Scanet Aqua
Exports Ltd., Tuticorin operated net-
ted cages in the Gulf of Mannar for
captive holding and fattening for live
shipments to HongKong. About 20
t of live groupers, Epinephelus tauvi-
na, E.malabaricus, E.undulosus each
weighing 2-18 kg. were exported live
(Pillai et al. 2002). Assessment of a
proposal to farm European sea bass
and bream in waters off the West coast
of India was conducted by Stirling
Aquaculture, U.K.3. Propositions for
yellow-fin seabream are catching the
interest of marine seafood business
investors as documented recently by
Regunathan and Kitto (2005). Spa-
rids, such as yellow-fin seabream
(Acathopagrus latus), have a high im-
munity to viral diseases, low risk, low
input-requiring (corn, bycatch fish,
trash fish, crude poultry feed) and de-
World Aquaculture 19
pendable breeding success with high
survival (21 percent from egg to 1.3
gram juveniles). Farming temperature
of yellow-fin seabream spans from 14o
C to 32.7o C and grows up to 400-600
grams in 14 months. Wholesale live
fish selling price of $ US 6.5 / kg is pos-
sible. Yellowfin sea bream are landed
in large quantities from Gujarat and
Maharashtra coasts.
Kuwait spent millions of dollars
to perfect grouper rearing technolo-
gies in the past ten years. Bahrain
spent more than five years in advanc-
ing a lab-to-field protocol for Arabian
seabream breeding techniques. Japan
took a span of 20-years to develop a
super breed of Red seabream in cap-
tivity. United Kingdom trod a decade
to reach perfection in salmon farming
and husbandry effects. Similarly, Tai-
wan with cobia, Japan with tuna. Aus-
tralia with kingfish withstood the test
of time before deciphering and/or con-
quering the laboratory culturing pro-
cess. Unsustainable capture fishery and
paucity of stocks have also stimulated
breeding research for sturgeons along
the Caspian in Iran; for cod in U.K.,
silver pomfret in Kuwait and rabbit
fish in Bahrain. India can proceed on
the necessity for grouper; kingfish and
yellowfin seabream breeding, too, in as
much as these species fetch greater de-
mands abroad and inland, respectively.
Yellow fin seabream has been a success
story in Australia, Taiwan and Kuwait
in the last decade.
According to the President of the
Aquaculture Foundation of India
(AFI), China was the first country to
realize that capture fisheries had its
limitations and culture fisheries could
be the only answer for increasing fish
production. Their progress during the
last two decades was remarkable. It is
not research alone that has contrib-
uted to its growth. Their development
plan and open policy with a large fi-
nancial outlay and borrowing technol-
ogy from anywhere in the world has
contributed to this rapid progress in
fish production. The breeding of ma-
rine fish has been successful for most
species under culture in China. For
example, in the year 2000 in China,
the number of artificially produced
fry of the large yellow croaker exceed-
20 September 2007
ed 1.3 billion. Annually, more than 10
million fry each are produced for red
drum, Japanese seabass, redeye mul-
let, cuneate drum, red sea bream and
three-banded sweetlip. Several million
fry each of Japanese flounder, black
porgy, silver sea perch, Russells snap-
per, javelin grunt, miuuy croaker and
skewband grunt are also produced.
However, for groupers, grey mullets,
Dumerils amberjack, ovate pompano
and mudskipper, fry collection from
the sea continues to exist. The crucial
reason for this diversity of fish culture
in China is because they opened up to
the outside world as part of economic
reforms since the 1980s (Hong and
Zhang 2001).
Likewise, India can follow China
and attempt development of larval
rearing experiments for unconventional
species in demand. Initially, growth ma-
nipulation of a particular segment in
the wild marine fish life cycle could pay
off in field results. Technical forums,
such as the recent Indo-Singapore joint
workshop on Aquaculture and Marine
Biotechnology (22-24 April, 2004) with
major thrust on the breeding, seed pro-
duction and culture of marine fin fishes,
help to develop platforms to exchange
knowledge and explore possibilities of
research collaborations in specific ar-
eas of interest. In 1994, Pathak (2000)
claimed that India needs a well-planned
widely acceptable National Aquacul-
ture Policy for the optimum use of its
marine fish resources and contribut-
ing to greater food security and to the
national economy. Biological, environ-
mental and economic feasibility of open
ocean aquaculture is still a challenge to
India on the stormy coasts of Nellore,
Nagapattinam, Orissa, Cuddalore and
Chennai. Full control over all life stag-
es, egg, larvae, fingerlings and repro-
ducing adults, of potential candidates
is still a dream, at least a quarter-centu-
ry away. Coastline states in India must
submit a blue-print of the potential fish
culture sites for evaluation of various
criteria and validation of the factors
on which it is based. India can learn
from its hemi-centennial mistakes of
the past and seriously inspire rigorous
research and development with empha-
sis on multi-species objectives and the
renewing of beneficial dialogues with
relevant marine fish farming experts
around the world, especially the Phil-
lipines, Taiwan, Japan and Indonesia.
The past ten years of exodus of Indian
mariculturists from Indian institutions
of excellence to Seychelles, Kenya,
Madagascar, Jordan, Ghana, Kuwait,
Bahrain, Malta, Saudi Arabia, UAE,
Iran, Singapore, Malaysia, Greece,
Cyprus, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indo-
nesia, Mauritius, Maldives, Oman, Ye-
men are manifold and this brain-drain
should generate concern from the high-
est echelons of power. Quite honestly,
the authors of this manuscript are in-
cluded in the efflux listed.
According to the AFI President,
Dr.Sakthivel, China was successful
in bridging the gap between know
how (research) and do-how (technol-
ogy and creation of employment and
wealth) (Arunachalam and Jayashree
2001). Alas, as truly pointed out by the
AFI President in Indaqua 94 in Chen-
nai in his introductory address, the
Indian ocean tuna is the only tuna in
the world that dies of old age. Let the
Aquaculture Authority of India create
a multidisciplinary national group on
finfish and intensify a serious program
with special grants from the Prime
Ministers Fund for Crucial resource
exploitation issues under national
interests. Over the next five years, it
should be technically possible to pro-
duce industrial quantities of a range
of potential native marine fishes, such
as yellowfin seabream and grouper in
India. The success of development
in fry production will determine the
strength and the scale of marine fish
aquaculture in India for the future and
benefit of posterity.
Fulfilling today and tomorrows
needs through technology and innova-
tion is what the pressing theme of In-
dian aquaculture research in this new
millennium should be.
Notes
1
The senior author was a research faculty
member of the Department of Zoology
and Research Centre, Scott Christian
College, Nagercoil, Tamil Nadu, India.
Presently, both Dr.Regunathan and
Dr.Kitto are experts for the marine fish
farming industry for the West Asian re-
gion and based in Kuwait representing
(Continued on page 72)

Marine Fish
(Conntinued from page 20)
Al Oula Marine Consulting.
oceanbiocare@gmail.com
2
Opal Marine Ltd, Denmark
3
www.atc.stir.ac.uk/staq/StaqProj.html
(3/6/06)
References
Arunachalam, S. and B.Jayashree. 2001.
Fish science research in China : How
does it compare with fish research in In-
dia? Scientometrics 52(1):13 28.
Bensam, P.1993. Prospects of farming
groupers in India. Marine Fisheries
Information Service, Training & Exten-
sion Service 123: 1-4.
Devaraj, M. 1997. The need for promoting
ecofriendly aquaculture. In Souvenir,
National Aquaculture Week - 1997,
Aquaculture Foundation of India,
Chennai, India.
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations). 2000. Fishery coun-
try profile Republic of India. FID/CP/
IND Rev. 5. January 2000. http://www.
fao.org/fi/fcp/en/IND/profile.htm
Hamsa, K.M.S.A. and H.M. Kasim. 1992.
Growth and production potential of
young Grouper, Epinephelus tauvina
(Forskal) reared in fixed net cages. Jour-
nal of the Marine Biological Associa-
tion of India. 34 (1 and 2): 271 276.
Hong, W. and Q. Zhang. 2001. The status
of marine fish culture in China. World
Aquaculture 32(12): 18-21, 67-68.
Hornell, J. 1911. The scope of marine fish
farming in India. Madras Fishery Bul-
letin 6: 63 81.
James, C.M. 2000. Potential of marine fish
farming in India. Network of Aquacul-
ture Centres in Asia-Pacific, Grouper
News Issue No. 5: 1-3, Mar-April.
James, P.S.B.R., R. Soundararajan and J.
X. Rodrigo. 1985 a Preliminary studies
on culture of finfishes in cages in the
coastal waters of Palk Bay at Manda-
pam. Proceedings of the Symposium on
Coastal Aquaculture 3: 910-915.
James, P.S.B.R., V. Sriramachandramurthy
and P. Nammalwar. 1993. Studies on
the Fishery, biology, ecology and culti-
vation of groupers and snappers along
the Indian coast-Exploitation and man-
agement. International workshop on
Tropical Groupers and snappers, 26-29,
October, Campeche, Mexico.
Nammalwar, P. and G. Mohanraj. 1990.
A review of marine finfish culture re-
search in India. CMFRI Bulletin 44(2):
427-435.
Pathak, S.C. 2000. Status of Cage Aqua-
culture in India. Pages 47-51 In I.C.
72 September 2007
Liao and C.K. Lin, editors. Proceedings
of the First International Symposium
On Cage Aqua in Asia, 2-6 November,
1999, TMRL, Taiwan Fisheries Re-
search Institute, Tungkang, Pingtung,
Taiwan.
Pillai, V.N., V. Sriramachandra Murty and
G. Mathew. 2002. Grouper aquaculture
in India. Pages 215 224 In Report of
the Regional Workshop on Sustainable
seafarming and Grouper Aquaculture,
Medan, Indonesia, 17-20 April, 2002,
Network of Aquaculture Centres in
Asia-Pacific.
Regunathan, C and M.R. Kitto. 2005. Yel-
Recent Literature
(Continued from page 70)
desk for awhile, so its appearance
would seem to be timely as there has
been a good deal of new technology
developed in recent years. For exam-
ple, sea cage designs have been chang-
ing rapidly, and that subject seems to
be covered in considerable detail in
Aquaculture Engineering. All types
of aquaculture systems are covered
in the book, but instead of describing
the various systems early in the book,
those discussions appear after a num-
ber of chapters that deal with specific
processes and approaches.
Following an introduction, Chap-
ter 2 is devoted to water transport.
In it are sections on pipes and fit-
tings, water flow and head loss in
open channels and pipe systems, and
the various types of pumps that are
employed by aquaculturists. Chapter
3 provides an introduction to wa-
ter quality and treatment. The next
three chapters deal with pH adjust-
ment, particle removal and disinfec-
tion, respectively. Then come chap-
ters on heating and cooling, aeration
and oxygenation, ammonia removal
and recirculation systems. Classifi-
cation of production units is cov-
ered in Chapter 11. Egg storage and
hatching equipment are the topics of
Chapter 12. Closed systems, ponds
and sea cages are the topics of the
next three chapters. Now were up
to Chapters 16-22 which deal with
feeding systems, internal transport
and grading, transport of live fish,
instrumentation and monitoring,
low fin seabream Aquaculture promises
for India. Fishing Chimes 25 (7): 9-11.
Sakthivel, M.1999. Strategy to increase ex-
port of fish and fishery products from
India. Current Science 76: 405 412.
Tampi, P.R.S. 1960. Utilization of saline
mudflats for fish culture. An experiment
in marine fish farming. Indian Journal
of Fish 7 (10): 137-146.
Thampi Samraj, Y.C., P.N. Vinod, G.Ramar,
A. Maharajan and K.Thandapani.
2003. Commercial sea bass seed pro-
duction RGCA shows the way. Info-
fish International 2 : 8-13.
buildings, facilities design and con-
struction, and finally, planning of
aquaculture facilities.
One might argue that the order of
presentation of material could be im-
proved upon, but since most people
would probably rely on the detailed
index to look for specific informa-
tion, the order may be fairly irrel-
evant. Also, the author indicates that
the material covered has been used
successfully in college level aquacul-
ture engineering courses, where the
order of presentation was likely simi-
lar to or the same as that in the book.
Aquaculture Engineering is loaded
with drawings and photographs,
which are very useful to those who
are unfamiliar with what some of the
things being described actually look
like. While, as one might expect in
an engineering text, there are a large
number of formulas included, most
of them are relatively simple to un-
derstand and you dont have to have
an advanced degree in mathematics
to be able to use them. When design-
ing a water system it really helps if
you know what size pipes to use to get
the amount of water flowing at the
rate you want it too. I learned early
on that two 10 cm pipes dont pro-
vide the flow of a single 20 cm pipe.
If you learn that lesson the hard way,
you can either spend a considerable
amount of money fixing the problem
or have a fairly dysfunctional facility
on your hands.
Robert R. Stickney
Editor