More fishes to fry

Feb 25, 2009 Editorial

While we Guyanese have one of the highest consumption of fish and shrimp in the world, excepting for our hinterland citizens, most of that catch comes from the ocean. However, in line with trends across the globe, this catch has been steadily decreasing and it is now generally conceded that the oceans have passed their Maximum Sustainable Yield. From a peak of 120 million tons in 1970, ocean haul plummeted to 92 million tons by 2000 and has remained stuck there.
Aquaculture, the rearing of fish and shrimp in controlled conditions inland, generally became regarded as the answer to the Tragedy of the Oceans, from the standpoint of providing protein to humans. Not only was the natural population increase fuelling demand but also the awareness that fish is a healthier alternative to red meat. In 2003, world aquaculture seafood production contributed about 40 million tons, or about 30% of total world fisheries production of about 130 million tons. A decade ago, aquaculture contributed merely 17 million tons, making it the fastest growing food production branch worldwide.
During the last two decades, in which ocean yields continued their decline, a number of private companies here went into commercial fishing, which flourished for a while in our previously unexploited waters. They focused on the export market and hopes ran high for this new sector. However, reality soon caught up with it and presently many trawlers are now lying idle.
Back in 1958, during the PPP stint under colonial rule, some “Mozambique” tilapia had been introduced from Malaysia to get aquaculture going but that venture quickly petered out. We are not sure whether the PNC regime was moved by the then fresh news of the dwindling marine catch but in the 1970s, as part of a programme to diversify GuySuCo away from sugar, they launched an aquaculture initiative.
The Nile tilapia was imported but this effort collapsed under conditions of poor management. One problem that had not been catered for was the interbreeding of the Nile and Mozambique species, resulting in the severe drop in the productivity of the ponds.
But the idea of aquaculture, which had been brought in from indentured days, persisted on the coast – albeit on a small scale. On the Corentyne, brackish water had long been let in, with fingerlings and shrimp, on the flat coastal plain and contained in ponds. Hassar had also been reared in this manner. We produced at the most approximately 600 tons of fish, which were all sold in local markets. But in the nineties, the present administration decided to reintroduce aquaculture in a systematic fashion.
It was seen both as a source of rural employment and a future source of foreign exchange. Aquaculture was potentially much more lucrative than either rice or cane farming. The strategy was for government to be the facilitator of a private-sector driven and sustained endeavour.
The Mon Repos Freshwater Aquaculture Demonstration Farm and Training Centre was established to disseminate the technology – for that is what it had become in the last few decades – to farmers and other interested investors. The Nile tilapia was selected as the lead product for our new push. Just before Minister Satyadeow Sawh’s assassination, he spearheaded an initiative to combine aquaculture with rice cultivation, as has been practiced successfully in several Asian countries.
This newspaper has already called upon the government to issue the results of this experiment.
A National Aquaculture Association of Guyana (NAAG) was been launched and has received much funding and support from both the government and foreign sources. The Association released last year an ambitious plan that if executed, could see aquaculture surpassing both sugar and rice in export earnings by 2015.
It is hoped that the plan, which is projected to unfold in several phases, receives more than high-flying rhetoric. One solid accomplishment has been the transformation of a local facility into a fish-feed entity that can potentially supply the entire burgeoning industry. The Mon Repos facility has absorbed the technique to breed the supermale tilapia, which leads to the most efficient production and this has been augmented by a recent British gift of a large supply of fingerlings.
We wish the sector well.

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