Get rich by cage farming of fish in open sea

Over decades, many households in Hai Minh village, Hai Cang Ward (Quy Nhon city, Binh Dinh) has changed the economic life thanks to cage farming of fish in open sea.

It has brought about stable income, job opportunities for hundreds of local workers

It has brought about stable income, job opportunities for hundreds of local workers. According to Mr Truong Thanh Hung, Chairman of Fishermen Association in Hai Cang Ward, previously without cage farming of fish, farmers in Hai Minh village exploited coral to earn their living. Then, this job is abandoned due to its serious impacts on natural environment as well as its danger to marine ecosystem. Therefore, they have switched to aquaculture. They usually raised fishes that generate high yield and price such as grouper, cobia, pomfret, sea bass, red snapper,…

Currently, there are 86 households doing cage farming of fish with more than 1 ha of water surface area. The initial capital depends on financial capacity of each household and varies from 70 million VND to 200 million VND. Mr. Nguyen Van Dien (60 years old, leader of the group) said “Several years ago, we concerned about the quality of fish seed. Now, fish seed suppliers support well in providing stable inputs for us. Each crop, we spend 50 - 60 million VND for fish seed and harvest rotaionally 2-3 times per month”.

According to local households, if there is favorable weather and water source, their income could be 100 – 150 mil VND per annum.

Fish sale with high price

The main feed for fish is mostly fresh small fish. Mr. Dien said “Fish raised by fresh feed would have more delicious meat than fish raised by commercial pellet. The price of these two fish types has 15000 VND spread but traders prefer fish raised by commercial pellet because it is more salable. However, fresh feed requires hard work and creates lower yield than commercial pellet”.

Mr. Truong Thanh Hung realized that cage farming of fish depends on water source significantly, “In 2013, there was oil spill incident which caused serious environment pollution and all fish are dead, the estimate loss is 2 billion VND. If the factories discharge wastewater into the sea from upstream, fish will be in danger. Or else, some kind of fish like grouper cannot survive in flood so farmers will possibly lose in case of unfavorable weather”.

Although there are both advantages and disadvantages, it is obvious that cage farming of fish has brought about many changes for households in Hai Minh village, helped them have better off and stable living standard. 

Dung Nguyen 

Source: Thanh Nien Online