By: Tassia Dickenson
Under the government’s cage culture fishing project, the Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) community of Capoey has now set its eyes on a larger market after harvesting a successful first batch of Tambaqui fish.
This was revealed by Councillor in charge of Tourism, Jumol Allicock during a telephone interview with this publication on Monday.
Allicock shared that the first of three batches was caught about three weeks ago and the community has successfully sold approximately 63 fish at a cost of $80,000.
He explained that they received 8000 fingerlings from Brazil for the first batch, however, they were significantly small and some of them did not survive to the end of the harvest.
“We have three cages; each cage has different size or you can say a different batch. One cage has fingerlings, one cage has medium-size and one cage has the big ones. The project is 98 per cent feasible; we don’t have a 100 per cent survival rate, we have at least a 48 per cent survival rate. [In] the first batch of fingerlings we got 8000 and out of 8000, just over 100 survived and was able to grow into one pound [or] a pound and a half the biggest,” Allicock explained.
He noted that when the project first started, they experienced challenges with the inconsistent water flow, which resulted in the cages being clogged with moss.
“The water wasn’t flowing that much and the cage was getting a lot of moss and so on, so they had to be cleaning the cage like every week or every two weeks. The biggest problem was that the first batch…of fingerlings was too small and the travelling…or getting them here was a rough journey. The second and the third batch came bigger,” Allicock outlined.
According to Allicock, in the future, the project will be expanded to other areas as well and eventually to larger markets out of Capoey and Guyana. He explained that the first batch was not enough to sell out of the community so they were only sold among residents.
The cage fishing initiative was first rolled out in October last year after the Government purchased four marine cages from Brazil in an effort to boost the aquaculture sector within the country.
Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha said last year, “We purchased four marine cages from a company in Brazil to commence the trial of our marine cage initiative. Once those cages arrive, we will begin almost immediately with the trial. It will take about six or seven weeks to assess the progress made with the trial but given the research done on the project and the training that our officers received from the Chinese Government, I am very optimistic that this trial will be very successful and that we will be able to move forward and have more persons come on board.”
Mustapha had further stated that two areas in Region Two had been earmarked, with three species of fish being identified for the trial.
“So, we’ve identified two areas in Region Two to do the trials. Capoey and Lake Mainstay. We’ve also identified Tambaqui, Mullet, and Tilapia for the initial phase of the project given the demand for these species and the high prices they attract. As I mentioned before, our officers received some amount of virtual training back in June that was organised by the Chinese Embassy and we are looking to have another round of training sometime next year. When the cages arrive and are installed, we’ll have some physical training done by the supplier and then go straight into the trials,” the Minister is quoted as saying in a release from the Agriculture Ministry.
Upon assuming office, the government announced that it was exploring the possibility of introducing cage culture given the impact climate change was having on the global fisheries sector. President Dr Irfaan Ali had said his Government is moving ahead with the rollout of a number of innovative solutions, to ensure the livelihood of fisherfolk is maintained.
