Road To Fish Sufficiency! Submerged Fish Cages To Boost Fishing Industry

A low-cost submersible fish cage produced by the little-known Inca Mariculture Plastics Company owned by a Filipino entrepreneur could yet help rehabilitate the fishing grounds of the country.

The submerged fish cage designed for Grouper (Lapulapu) and Lobster growing costs only P65,000, including installation, and could accomodate up to 100 fingerlings of Grouper and Lobster.

By introducing this livelihood project to fishing families in the country, the pressure on the fishing grounds because of overfishing could be eased up.

Over-fishing, even during the spawning period of pelagic fish species like Tamban, has resulted in dwindling catch for fishermen in many fishing grounds of the country, including Saranggani Bay.

This was the problem presented to me by former mayor Raul Danny Martinez when I and Filipino-American farmer-scientist Rocky French visited Kiamba on Saturday.

Mayor Martinez, who was my classmate in college, also told me that the three Saranggani towns in the western coastline have breeding grounds for Groupers and the fingerlings are bountiful.

Right away, we found the solution to the problem.

I called up Jonathan Cabasas, Vice President of Inca Mariculture Plastics and asked him to request owner Ralph Cabrera for 6 demo units of the submerged fish cages for Lapulapu for Maasim, Kiamba and Maitum.

When proven successful, these towns could be the source of tons of live Lapulapu for the lucrative markets in Metro Manila and Cebu.

Malapit lang ang General Santos City Airport and transport would be easy.

More than that, kung merong alternative sources of income ang mga fishermen ng MaKiMa, puede na silang mag-implement ng Closed Fishing Season para makapangitlog ang mga Tamban at iba pang maliliit na isda which in turn will attract the big species.

May successful model na ito and this was done in the Zamboanga Peninsula in 2014 na ipinagbawala nila ang panghuhuli ng Tamban from Dec. 1 to March 1 every year.

Ang resulta ay dumami ang Tamban at bumalik ang mga malalaking isda na nanginginain ng maliliit na isda.

Unang destinasyon palang, tagumpay na agad ang aming adhikain ni Rocky French na ma-discover ang mga problema at solution to achieve Food Sufficiency in the country.

Marami pa kaming iikutin at ano man ang kahihinatnan ng eleksyon, tuloy-tuloy kami sa aming adbokasiya na magkaroon ng sapat na pagkain sa bansa.