CMFRI plans to rear marine fish in Ganjam, Puri dists

Bhubaneswar: The ICAR-Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) is planning to rear Indian pompano, a marine fish species, in cages off the coast in Ganjam and Puri districts.
“There is a plan to grow the marine fish species through cage culture off Puri and Ganjam districts. These two coasts are ideal for cultivation of Indian pompano (Trachinotus mookalee).More species like grouper, cobia, Asian seabass and snapper will be added in future for rearing,” said Shubhadeep Ghosh, head of Visakhapatnam regional centre, CMFRI.
He said they have started cultivating Indian pompano on a pilot basis off Bahabalpur coast in Balasore district. “We have successfully harvested this fish species on May 1. It was a first of its kind marine cage farming demonstration programme conducted by the ICAR-CMFRI with funding from the National Fisheries Development Board (NFDB) at such a massive scale in Odisha to increase awareness about the livelihood opportunities in mariculture (marine farming) among the fishermen community of the state,” he added.
Ghosh said this successful execution of the demonstration programme will definitely instil confidence among the fishermen community of the state. The community can improve their socio-economic status by adapting the innovative open sea mariculture techniques developed and standardized by CMFRI, he added.
Under the demonstration programme, a total of 30 cages were deployed in the sea off Bahabalpur. Each cage was stocked with about 2,500 seeds of Indian pompano. The fish were grown from December to April (about five months) and they grew from an average size of 10 gm to around 400 gm, registering a phenomenal increase in weight within 150 days.
“They got a good market price of Rs 300 per 1 kg. Excluding the input cost, a minimum profit of about Rs 90 per kg of fish was realized from the farming of Indian pompano,” said Gyanaranjan Dash, head of Puri field centre, CMFRI.