Things had always looked good for farmers raising grass prawns. Ever since the large-scale commercial culture of grass prawns became possible in 1977, production continued to improve. It was a profitable venture, and farmers reaped profits from both the domestic and foreign markets. Production peaked in 1987 to 80,000 metric tons, valued at US$426 million. Then came 1988.
That year, a mysterious disease hit the ponds like an angry typhoon. Farmers awoke in the mornings to find their ponds encrusted with dead prawns. Production took a steep fall, to 30,000 metric tons in 1988 and 9,000 metric tons in 1990. Many of the farmers were forced to abandon their ponds. "The disease in itself should not have been so devastating," says Liao I-Chiu (廖一久), director-general of the Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute (TFRI). "But it spread quickly because the ponds were overcrowded and polluted."
The disease was the first of a string of crises that hit aquaculture in the late 1980s. The intensive cultivation of certain species, especially the lucrative ones like eel and grass prawns, had a debilitating impact not only on the industry but also on the environment. Profit begot over production, which begot loss. And the water table was depleted by the overuse of ground water, leading to salt water seepage and sinking land.
The industry in 1991 is barely above water. Production is up, but profits are down. This was unimaginable during aquaculture's heady rise to prominence in the last two decades, when research breakthroughs made the intensive culture of tens of species possible, and farmers were eagerly absorbing new techniques and improving on them. But scientists and policymakers are certain that the industry will continue its long trail of triumphs. Says Liao: "Our experience shows that we are flexible and capable. And Taiwan has the potential to raise a great variety of species."
Liao knows. In 1968, he returned to Taiwan after receiving his Ph.D. in agriculture from Tokyo University to head the shrimp culture research program in the coastal town of Tungkang, located in Pingtung county, southern Taiwan. In the nineteen years that he served as director of the Tungkang Marine Laboratory, he led his research team to significant achievements. Among them were the artificial propagation of grass prawn and milkfish; the cross-breeding of two species of tilapia to produce a sterile hybrid, which grew bigger and faster; and the artificial spawning of grey mullet, the roe of which is a cherished food in Taiwan and Japan.
Appointed director of the TFRI in 1987, Liao now views the direction of aquaculture from a wider perspective. He points out that fish consumption will continue to increase, and that aquaculture, which now contributes 23 percent of total fish production, will have to fill the demand for seafood. "Young people these days are less likely to become fishermen," he says. "And on the international level, countries are now more rigid about enforcing their exclusive fishing rights in their own territorial waters."
Liao adds that aquaculture concerns go far beyond the propagation and cultivation of species. He says that it has become a specialized area that demands a national policy, organization and management, a marketing system, and an appreciation of its own economics. And as he sees it, research will continue its major role. "We'll modernize," he says. "And we'll use biotechnology to achieve better species."
But, as Liao also stresses, difficulties have to be solved quickly. The unbridled development of Taiwan aquaculture, and the problems that resulted from it, makes it necessary for researchers to leap faster than the farmers. To be able to stay ahead, Liao says, "First of all, we need more people." The TFRI has been working with some aquaculture junior colleges so that students can participate in research pro grams. But, according to Liao, they eventually take jobs elsewhere. He says, "What worries me most is that fewer and fewer young people are interested in aquaculture."
The history of the research institute, which concentrates on developing aquaculture and deep-sea fishing technology, goes back to the Japanese occupation. In 1913, the Taiwan Viceroy Office of the Japanese imperial government established a research station for freshwater species in the northwestern coastal town of Hsinchu. And in 1918, it established a station for marine species in Tainan, on the southwestern coast. Both stations were merged with two other units to form the Taiwan Fisheries Research Station in 1929. It assumed its present name in 1945, when Taiwan was handed back to the Nationalist government. In 1949, it was brought under the administration of the Taiwan Provincial Government's Department of Agriculture and Forestry.
The institute's headquarters are located in the northern port city of Keelung. It has five departments: marine fisheries, fish biology, aquaculture, processing, and information. Research areas are divided among seven laboratories, which are spread around the island. For example, in the south, the Kaohsiung branch concentrates on ocean fishing, and the Tungkang Marine Laboratory on prawns, some brackish water species, and stock enhancement. And the Chupei branch in northern Taiwan does the research on freshwater species.
The technique the Chupei branch developed in 1963 for the artificial propagation of carp set a precedent in the fry production of freshwater finfish. But the widespread intensive cultivation of freshwater species led to two major problems: the depletion of ground water, and the overproduction of most freshwater fish. To solve these problems, the government has recently made it a policy to reduce the number of inland ponds, and to move the industry closer to coastal waters. "That limits our research area considerably," says Liu Fu-guang (劉富光), director of the Chupei branch. "But we've made adjustments." The branch has developed a water system that will use chemicals to clean waste water and is now testing its effects on fish. It is also doing research on freshwater species native to Taiwan, and working at con serving and building up the fish stock in the island's lakes and rivers.
One of the most notable successes of the Chupei branch is its stocks enhancement of the sweet fish. Seafood lovers swear by the delicate taste of its meat, and the thrilling bittersweet taste of its in nards. According to Liu, a live sweetfish smells like watermelon. The fish, also called a yearfish because it lives no longer than twelve month." was once abundant in the cold water lakes and rivers of northern Taiwan's mountain region.
Every November, the fish swim down river to warmer waters to spawn, and then die. But pollution, overfishing, and the construction of dams led to the near extinction of sweetfish by the mid 1970s. In the hope that it could save the species, the Chupei branch began the artificial propagation of sweetfish in 1977. Fry were raised in ponds and fed with special formula feeds. After about four months, the fish were released in reservoirs. Sweetfish can now be found in the rivers surrounding these reservoirs.
The techniques of artificial propagation were transferred to the private sector for the commercial culture of sweetfish. In 1990, total production was only 63 metric tons, valued at US$854,000. "That's only a small fraction of the domestic market's needs," says Wu Chia-sung (吳家松), who raises sweetfish in Chupei. "There's plenty of room for more aqua farmers." Wu was not simply being optimistic. In 1990, Taiwan imported more than 640 metric tons of sweetfish from Japan.
But the Chupei branch is already looking into improving the sweetfish. In 1989 it began work on a technique that will produce asexual sweetfish by preventing the female chromosomes from splitting before fertilization. Thus the nutrition that goes to the development of the reproductive glands will be diverted to growth.
Algae is being raised at the Tungkang Marine Laboratory as food for fry.
The carp is another species undergoing improvement. There are about five types of carp being cultured in Taiwan. The Wuchang carp has a high resistance to disease, high survival and fast growth rates, is full-bodied, and is appreciated for its sweet taste. Its only shortcoming is that it has too many bones. Meanwhile, the grass carp is prone to disease, but has very few bones. In 1986, a hybrid was created by fertilizing eggs from the grass carp with sperm from the Wuchang carp. But according to Chupei branch director Liu, the results have not been ideal. "It's somewhere in the middle, between the Wuchang carp and the grass carp." Researchers are now studying the characteristics of the new fish, and testing its growth response to different feeds, levels of algae, depths, and water temperature.
The Penghu branch is experimenting with creating an environment conducive to natural spawning for grouper. Because grouper spawn only under specific water and light conditions, artificial fertilization had been the solution in the past. But the eggs had to be squeezed out of the adult female, and they had to be fertilized by sperm suctioned out of the male grouper. The method often caused injury or even death to the fish, and grief to the pond owners since a pair of grouper costs an average of US$2,000. Moreover, the female grouper refused to lay eggs in outdoor sea water ponds.
Then in 1989, the researchers moved eight female and nine male grouper to an indoor sea water pond, three meters in depth. They also placed hollow cement blocks on the bottom of the ponds. That year, the females laid eggs—33 million altogether—in the hollow blocks. After ten weeks, over 75 percent of the eggs had been fertilized. Natural spawning in sea water ponds has remained in the experimental stage. Says Chen Chung-hui (陳春暉), director of the Penghu branch, "We need at least three consecutive successes before we can accept the results of an experiment. We have to keep observing. The better we understand a species, the smaller our chances are of failing."
Grass prawns already have much improved chances for survival. In 1988, the Tungkang Marine Laboratory was able to determine which germ was responsible for the disease that almost wiped out grass prawn culture in 1987. The germ, which they called monodon baculovirus, is released in the water through the mother prawn's waste, and contaminates the eggs after they are discharged. The cure was simple. Researchers discovered that clean sea water washes off the germ from fertilized eggs or larvae. The laboratory has since been providing the healthy larvae to aqua farmers. Grass prawn culture is no longer done as intensively, and the techniques for the artificial propagation of the sturdy kuruma prawn have been passed on to the farmers.
From atop a raft, an aqua farmer in Penghu feeds the sea bream and grouper he is raising in net cages. Aquaculture has led to the profitable manufacture of formulated fish feed.
The training of fish farmers has been one of the TFRI's most laudable contributions to the development of aquaculture. The TFRI gives the farmers the fry, and teaches them the methods and techniques for culturing the fish. Then they track the growth of the species. For example, Wu Chia-sung has been coordinating with the Chupei branch on raising sweetfish for ten years. And Cheng Mao-yuan, a grouper farmer in Pingtung county, is working closely with the Tungkang Marine Laboratory. He had begun by taking classes on grouper culturing from the laboratory. Classes at the laboratory are usually devoted to new skills and techniques and to disease prevention. In 1990, the laboratory held six classes, each lasting from four to eight weeks. A total of 180 farmers attended the classes.
In Liao I-chiu's view, Taiwan aquaculture is now in what he calls the outreach stage. "We are now capable of sharing our experience with the rest of the world," he says. In fact, since the 1970s, aquaculturalists from neighboring Southeast Asia to faraway Africa. have been coming to Taiwan to observe the laboratories and the ponds. According to Liao, sharing Taiwan's experience in aquaculture is now one of the institute's major aims. He says, "Most of the presentations I do now for international conferences are on the history of Taiwan aquaculture, because it serves as a model for the new aquaculture industries of many developing countries."
Last April, a group of eighteen aquaculturists made up of researchers, students, and farmers from South America and the Middle East visited the Chupei branch to learn artificial propagation of carp. "For us it was an old trick," says Liu, the branch director. "But it's very special to people from other countries. The group was fascinated by our techniques and were very eager to apply them back home."
TFRI is now experimenting with commercial crocodile culture in Lukang. The meat of the reptile is winning the favor of gourmets.
The TFRI also works with foreign research institutes. The Technical Assistance in Finfish Aquaculture was set up in 1991. It is a four-year project under the joint administration of the Tungkang Marine Laboratory and the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii, a nonprofit research organization which is encouraging developing countries to tap ocean resources for economic development. Funding is provided by the International Economic Cooperation Development Fund of the ROC and the United States Agency for International Development. The project aims to provide technical assistance to developing countries in expanding their food sources, specifically aquaculture. Says Su Mao-sen, director of the Tungkang Marine laboratory, "The purpose of the technical assistance program is to improve aquaculture production in developing countries, and as a result, accelerate their economic development."
Initially the project will concentrate on milkfish and mullet culture, because both fish have a very wide geographic distribution, are able to tolerate wide fluctuations in salinity and temperature, and have been cultured in many countries for centuries. Moreover, Taiwan has perfected the techniques for their intensive culturing.
"Aquaculture will continue to grow and expand," Liao says. There are presently thirty-five high-value species that are candidates for joining the list of seventy species already under commercial culture. And that's good reason to be optimistic—if, as Liao points out, the policy, management, and marketing systems are in order. Then, Taiwan's fish baskets will be brimming with valuable harvests.