With the increasing demand of quality fry for milkfish aquaculture, the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) partnered with the University of the Philippines Visayas (UP Visayas) and ALT Fisheries and Aquaventures, Inc. to meet the 88.7- million (M) milkfish fry demand per year in Davao del Norte.
ALT Hatchery is the only bangus hatchery in Davao del Norte founded by Dr. Alex L. Tan in 2008. It focuses mainly on marine fish cage production and sees potential in bangus hatchery and fingerlings production as a solution to the perennial problem on scarcity of bangus fingerlings or 'garungan' supply. The company produces bangus fry for fingerling producers in Davao del Norte and to stock in ALT Fishpond for fingerlings production to support the ALT Marine Fish Cage Project at Panabo City Mariculture Park.
In 2020, ALT Hatchery experienced massive mortalities of bangus broodstock that resulted in small collection of eggs. From the 7.69 M eggs that were collected, only 353,500 pieces of bangus fry were produced or 5 percent (%) survival rate (egg to fry). This cannot support the required stocking density of 2.5 M pieces of bangus fingerlings per year for the Company’s marine fish cages at Panabo City Mariculture Park.
Aside from the fact that ALT Hatchery cannot meet the fingerling requirement for their cage project, BFAR-National Mariculture Center, Panabo Center said in 2018, the bangus fingerling production in Davao del Norte is also 68% lower than the target production of the province. The estimated annual bangus fry requirement for Davao del Norte corresponding to the available fishpond areas engaged in bangus fingerling production is 130.5 million pieces per year and compared to the actual fingerling produced, there is an annual supply and demand gap of about 88.7 M pieces of bangus fry.
To address the challenges and seize the opportunity, ALT Bangus Hatchery collaborated with the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) to improve its technical capabilities and to achieve higher fry production. UPV researchers, led by Mr. Fredson Huervana, proposed to improve the milkfish fry production of ALT Hatchery through the DOST-PCAARRD’s Collaborative Research and Development to Leverage Philippine Economy (CRADLE) Program. Research will intensify milkfish hatchery operations through broodstock feeding and water management and application of alternative feeds and supplementation of probiotics in larval production.
Series of experiments on different water exchange volumes and feeding rates will be done to solve problems in broodstock mortalities and increase egg production. Algal paste will be used as an alternative for live algae in rotifer production and determine its effect on the growth and survival of milkfish fry. Also, the effect of different larvae stocking densities and use of probiotics on the growth and survival of milkfish fry will be evaluated.
The proximity of ALT Bangus Hatchery to fishpond areas in the province provides the company a competitive advantage compared to other fry suppliers from Sarangani Province. Transport plays a role in survival rate of fry. Longer transports may negatively affect the condition of fry resulting to lower survival of fry during stocking. Records from ALT Bangus fry buyers show that survival rate of fry to bilang-bilang is more than 70% compared to 40-60% survival rate of other fry suppliers.
The existing infrastructure has a capacity to produce 5-10 M bangus fry per year. The company desires to improve its existing capabilities on bangus hatchery management to generate more jobs through the assistance of DOST PCAARRD’s CRADLE Program and UPV.
With this, the “Sustainable Bangus Fry Production of ALT Hatchery, Panabo City, Davao del Norte Project” was initiated. Supported by the Council’s CRADLE Program, this project aims to enable technological advancement and innovation of local companies. The collaboration between the private company, ALT Hatchery and researchers from UP Visayas not only aims to translate the research outputs into viable and feasible products in the market but also to further elevate the Philippine Bangus Industry.
CRADLE for Research and Development Institutions (RDIs) and Industry Program is one of the four programs of Science for Change Program (S4CP) under the Accelerated R&D Program for Capacity Building of R&D Institutions and Industrial Competitiveness.
S4CP is DOST’s initiative to significantly accelerate Science, Technology & Innovation (STI) in the country through massive increase in investment on S&T Human Resource Development & R&D.
The other three programs of S4CP are Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D (NICER) Program; R&D Leadership (RDLead) Program, and Business Innovation through S&T (BIST) for Industry Program.