PHOTO RELEASE
Low production of green mussel (Perna viridis) or tahong due to inadequate supply of spats or seeds has been a perennial problem in the country. In 2014, the University of the Philippines Visayas (UPV) launched the Mussel Hatchery Project, thru the funding of the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD) to address such concern.
According to Dr. Mary Jane A. Amar of UPV, the project achieved a survival rate of 94% from early spat to a nursery-stage spat (1cm). Moreover, hatchery-produced spats transported to different culture sites as far as Aparri, Cagayan attained a high survival rate of up to 100%.
Further development and refinement work on hatchery and nursery techniques towards the establishment of seed production technology of Perna viridis are underway throughout the country.
The research results were presented in her paper “Development of Green Mussel, Perna viridis Hatchery and Nursery Techniques in the Philippines: State of the Art” during the First Philippine Mussel Congress. The event was organized by UPV through DOST-PCAARRD support, in Iloilo City on October 25, 2018