MFF to breed giant seabass in Myeik region
July 26 - August 1, 2010
MYANMAR Fisheries Federation (MFF) plans to culture ka ka tit, or giant seabass, for the first time in Myeik Archipelago, an official told the federation’s weekly meeting on July 20.
“MFF wants to start a pilot project of culturing ka ka tit with cages in seawater. Myeik Archipelago is a suitable site,” said U Han Tun, vice chairman of MFF.
“We want the participation of local people in this project. MFF will supply them with fry, culturing technique and money,” he said.
He said MFF would try to get loans from the Myanmar Fisheries Development Bank for the project.
MFF aims to culture 10,000 cages of 75 cubic metres in size in Myeik Archipelago. One cage can produce up to 1 tonne of fish.
“MFF wants this product so that Myanmar can have mass production of this fish,” said MFF secretary general U Win Kyaing.
“Ka ka tit has a big market in the EU and Australia, but Myanmar is not culturing this fish yet. We just export a small amount from the wild catch, and we want to export more,” he said.
“Ka ka tit is carnivorous, and it’s important to supply it with enough food. Myeik Archipelago can supply a large amount of small fish from offshore fishing boats,” he said.
United KMK, Lin Zarni and MFF fry farms will supply the fry for the project. Myanmar used to import ka ka tit fry from Thailand, but it can be produced locally.
U Khin Ko Lay, director general of the Department of Fisheries, under the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, said the department was working on a paper on culturing ka ka tit in ponds. “We want to distribute culturing technology to small-scale fisheries. If MFF can produce leaflets on this, it will be very effective,” he said.
