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Ihalas, Vonne Bryan B.

Tabag,, Kenneth John Anthony D.

Seaweeds are marine plants that grow abundantly in shallow reef flats and in lagoons with a water
depth of less than two meters at high tide. They differ from plants because they lack the stems, leaves,
roots, and vascular systems that are common in higher plants.

The route we took for our education trip was in fact too exhausting yet too fruitful and blissful,
three sites were visited and all of those offer research ideas that were in line to our field. Sites were
BFAR-Panabo, Panabo City, Compostela Valley Provincial Hatchery, Nabunturan, Compostela Valley and
Sta. Cruz Seaweed farm, Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.

BFAR Panabo Mariculture

First stop was at BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources),Panabo City. The said facility
was established last 2006, having a total area of 80 ha(intended for bangus, grouper and seaweed
production) with a purpose of promoting and preserving marine aquaculture to the area. Local
fishermen also gained benefits that they were given jobs for the production and maintenance by the
investors that came from all over the country and even abroad.

The steps required for the whole production are as follows:

Fingerlings Acclimatization

-Before the transferring of the fingerlings to the cage where they will be grown, fingerlings were placed
in the coastal zone. Fingerlings were placed into a cage and will stay there until they can adjust to
a change in its environment (such as a change in altitude, temperature, humidity, photoperiod, or pH),
allowing it to maintain performance across a range of environmental conditions.

Grow-out transfer

-The grow-out stage is the final and most expensive part of the fish farming process. It is extremely
sensitive to feed, feed conversion, nutrient retention, health and bio-security with feed and health
costs. In BFAR- PCMP, they monitor the water quality of every cage. Some of the water quality criteria
for marine fish culture are stated below:

 Temperature 2˚C above maximum ambient temperature of 27-31˚C


 Salinity 15 - 34 ppt
 pH 6.5 - 8.5
 Dissolved oxygen > 4 ppm
 NO2 < 4 ppm
 NH3 < 0.5 ppm
 PO4 < 0.045 ppm for estuaries < 0.015 ppm for coastal waters
Feeding Management

-BFAR-PCMP feed the fishes manually and by broadcast every two or three times a day. As an
agricultural engineering students, we find it uneconomical rather they must consider using an
automated feeder for them to make use of their time in other works in the field.

Harvesting

-Before milkfish were harvested, divers will check them whether they are ready to be harvested or not.
Fisherfolks have already estimated when to harvest these fishes. After they have confirmed that it is
ready to be harvested, they will pull out the nets and will collect the fishes. Harvested milkfish were put
directly in chilled or iced water and were ready to be delivered at the Panabo port.

Sorting

-In our educational trip, we have found out that fisherfolks in BFAR-PCMP are still under the era of
manual sorting. Hence, it was still amazing to see them that they are able to differentiate the weight of
each fish by just holding it and placed in the bucket with the labeled containers.

Marketing

-Sorted fishes were ready for transport to some public markets while other fishes were used in making
processed goods by women hired and trained by BFAR-PCMP as a livelihood assistance.

BFAR-Panabo really have help a lot of fishermen along the coastal barangays of Panabo City. The
localities gained permanent jobs for their livelihood as a support for their family. The problem is that
mechanization is not that well known in the area, maybe because the facility primarily wanted to help
the local fish folk and mechanizing the fishing process means less jobs for them. For a more efficient
production, many process can be modernized. It was discussed by the group that the sorting phase be
easily done if machines are made as an automated sorter. For the processing of milkfish, drying can br
mechanized to accelerate the process.

Com-Val Provincial Hatchery

The Compostela Valley Provincial Hatchery serves for the purpose of helping potential
freshwater fish farmers, they provide education about raising and handling freshwater fish and free
fingerlings depending on the propose size of pond and of course the farmer must communicate first to
LGU and Provincial offices for the legal basis. The land area used for the facility was not elaborated by
the personnel in-charge of the hatchery. But there were approximately 18 ponds that was used for the
grower stage of tilapia and catfish.
Based on our actual observation, the hatchery has the organized segregation of fishes based on
age, they separate the fingerlings from mature and those breeder (mother). Each of the fishes is kept in
contact with other fishes which means in a single container it is just one variety of fish are being put.
The location is also preferable for hatching fish because of having plenty of available water and the
caretakers are very highly skilled. The Sta. Cruz seaweed farm is relatively smaller than expected; the
farm is having a rough problem on handling the odor of seaweed extract as it annoys the caretaker and
to us visitors. The farm’s method of extracting seaweed’s juice is not that having efficiency, it is so
simple that design did not consider evaporation.

Regarding to the site visited, lot of things comes to my mind in line with the improvement and
assessment for each site except for ComVal Provincial Hatchery, we don’t see any problems in there. On
Sta. Cruz seaweed farm, the caretaker always says about the benefits of seaweed extract, so we want to
expand my knowledge about the overall potential benefits of seaweed extracts, this include culturing,
post-harvest handling and processing.

Sta. Cruz Sea Weed Facility

Seaweeds are marine plants that grow abundantly in shallow reef flats and in lagoons with a
water depth of less than two meters at high tide. They differ from plants because they lack the stems,
leaves, roots, and vascular systems that are common in higher plants. In the Philippines, there are over
800 species of seaweeds. However not all of it is cultivated since some of the natural habitat are hard to
be made artificially.

Seaweeds are good food source for both humans and animals. Now that food shortage is
present in some areas of the world, it is important to discover additional food source for the future. As
mentioned by a marine biologist in our educational tour, seaweeds also have a good environmental
effect. It absorbs large amount of carbon present in the ocean that might contaminate and harm other
marine life. Processing of seaweeds is also possible and can be used as fertilizers for land plant
propagation.

As what we have observed and also stated by the personnel in charge of the seaweed facility,
local fishermen are not that attracted to sea weed farming. The reason was because they were used to a
quick money for their farming, meaning they expect to have their money by the end of the day, whereas
in seaweeds you have to wait for 6-8 weeks for total production.

Overall Impression

The whole activity has brought lot of things, it was very fun and useful to us as a future
agricultural engineers. The activity expose us the real occurring though simple problem but yet had to
be notice. The activity also revived our trust to the government that they really care for us, the program
and the purpose of BFAR-Panabo as well as ComVal Provincial Hatchery are the evidences. We
recommend that every agricultural engineering subject must conduct the same experience, it is very
functional and informative effort to find new research ideas.

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