Foreigners receiving marine fish hatchery training at SEAFDEC

HARVEST TIME. Participants of the marine fish hatchery training course harvest 21-day old milkfish fries hatched at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center-Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC-AQD) in Tigbauan, Iloilo on Friday (July 13, 2018). (Photo by Perla Lena/PNA)

ILOILO CITY — Participants from Southeast Asian and African countries are undergoing a marine fish hatchery training at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center – Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC-AOD) in Tigbauan, Iloilo.

“The objective of this training course is for them to establish a marine fish hatchery. That’s the main objective, by teaching them how to rear larvae, starting from newly-hatched fry,” said Arsenio R. Pagador, SEAFDEC Senior Information Assistant, in an interview Friday.

Of the 16 trainees, nine are from the Maldives; two from Tanzania; one each from Myanmar and Indonesia; and the rest are from the Philippines.

The delegates from Tanzania have no experience so they are expected to establish their hatchery when they go back to their country, Pagador said.

He said they have marine species in the wild but they have no technical know-how on establishing a hatchery.

“They should be able to establish a marine fish hatchery. That’s the ultimate goal. Hopefully, they would be successful when they go back to their respective countries, rearing the same as what we have here,” he added.

On Friday, the group harvested 21-day-old milkfish fries that were hatched inside SEAFDEC.

In addition to culturing milkfish, SEAFDEC also cultures two grouper species, mangrove red snapper, and sea bass, among others.

The training began last June 19 and will end on July 25.

Pagador said the course will be held for another batch of trainees starting August. The next batch will have two participants from India and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

“We give training fellowship slots to SEAFDEC member countries. At the same time, we also accept private paying participants. We send invitations to SEAFDEC member countries for those applying for the government of Japan training fellowship,” he said.

SEAFDEC is a regional treaty organization mandated to promote sustainable fisheries development in Southeast Asia through research, training and information dissemination.

It has 11 member countries — Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.