WIO Mariculture Forum

The FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia and the Pacific (NACA) and the Department of Fisheries of the Royal Thai Government will co-sponsor the “Global Conference on Aquaculture 2010″.

It will be held from 9-12 June 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand and back-to-back with the 5th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries, Sub-Committee on Aquaculture to take place from 14-18 June 2010.

For more information click here

A new publication, “A Guide to Milkfish Culture in the Western Indian Ocean Region by E. Requintina, A.J. Mmochi and F.E. Msuya, is out! This book provides an overview of low-cost, low-impact milkfish farming methods, based on emerging lessons in adapting Asian production methods to the Western Indian Ocean region context. New information presented in this is based on experience gained through trials aimed at developing milkfish farming methods in Tanzania through a USAID-funded program, “Sustainable Coastal Communities and Ecosystems (SUCCESS).

 The publication is available online at www.wiomsa.org/mariculture and www.wiomsa.org 

When it started as trial alternative income generating activity in 2006, financed by USAID through SUCCESS project, no one could imagine that one day it would grow and attract more people to engage in growing half pearl (Mabe).

Farmed pearls were for the first time harvested in November 2007, generating more than $3000 from selling 29 good pearls. It was the gained profit which opened peoples’ minds and attracted more villagers living in Fumba peninsular and the neighbouring villages to engage in growing oysters for pearl production.

In 2006, there was only one site; Bweleo, currently, with additional fund from  ReCoMaP programme financed by the European Union, other two sites have been established within the area, one in Unguja Ukuu and another at Nyamanzi. These farms are owned by a formal group of community members. The Nyamanzi site was formely used by a MSc student conducting a study on the feasibility of Black lip oysters (Pinctada margaritifera) focusing on spat collection and is now fully operated by the villagers. Unguja Ukuu, is a new site.

Presently, this type of culturing marine bivalve to produce pearls has been replicated in other coastal areas of the country. The number of small individual owned farms has also increased tremendously.

In Unguja, the market for pearls is quite substantial, the island receives hundreds of thousands tourists a year. Villagers sell their products to tourists in Kwale isles; a famous island in Menai bay. They also participate in different trade fairs in the country and region, in various festivals and cultural celebrations. All these events offer them an important opportunity to sell their prestigious pearls.

Increased group owned farms and individual farms as well as the increased number of people engaged in pearling pose enormous threats for oysters’ population in Menai Bay Conservation Area. This is because the growing of pearl oysters in the island relies entirely on the collection of adult animals from deep water. If too many adults are taken for pearl farming, they will become very rare or disappear and the whole industry would collapse.

To mitigate the risk, we resorted to spat collection (a way of harvesting young pearl oysters to avoid over fishing of the adult population). Spat collection is used as a main source of providing enough young pearl oysters that produce better pearls anyway; while avoiding harming adult oysters which are left to breed for sustainability of the initiative in the area.

30 metres spat collection lines, with several spat collectors have been installed in all the sites. Since spat are attracted by the nature of substrate, three different spat collectors made by rice bags pieces rolled together, coconut shells and rubber are deployed. Spat prefer settling on dark places so the rice bags are painted with black colour to influence the settlement of spats. Since pearl oysters spawn at different times each year, new spat collectors will be hung every month to test the right season to collect the most spat and to test different locations.

Regional Program for Sustainable Management of the Coastal Zones of the Indian Ocean  Countries (ReCoMaP), after awarding the first round of proposals this September is again calling for proposals. To read the call for proposal please click the link ReCoMaP. ReCoMaP has requested that you circulate the call to colleagues.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Rufiji-Mafia-Kilwa (RUMAKI) Seascape Programme aims to improve the socio-economic well-being of coastal communities in Rufiji, Mafia and Kilwa through promoting sustainable, participatory and equitable utilisation and protection of marine & coastal resources. The programme is implemented by WWF in partnership with the National Environment Management Council (NEMC), the Fisheries Division of the Ministry of Livestock & Fisheries Development; District Councils in Rufiji, Mafia and Kilwa, Mafia Island Marine Park, and local coastal communities. The programme is co-ordinated from DSM, but mainly operates through two field offices in Mafia and Kilwa. Community livelihoods projects, including mariculture initiatives involving pearl oysters, milkfish and mangrove crabs are an important component of the overall programme. The programme is seeking for a mariculture officer to work with communities in the RUMAKI area. For more details on the job opportunity please click mariculture-officer-job-ad-aug082

Since the launch in November we have been working hard with putting together these two websites, and we are pleased to announce that now they are up and running. To help us keep the Forum updated we have 9 authors from Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique and Seychelles, who will post questions and moderate the discussions. We welcome any additional authors from countries in the WIO region, especially those that are not already represented, as well as authors from outside the WIO region. The role of the authors is to suggest discussion topics, upload publications, and to approve comments from the subscribers. The authors also develop and update the lists of experts and the experts’ respective fields of specialization. Furthermore, the authors maintain a list of small scale mariculture projects in the region.

The Forum website is accessible through a link at WIOMSA website, where you will also find a link to the Mariculture Network. As a member of the Network, you will receive automatic alerts to your e-mail account whenever a post, publication, announcement or any other important change is made.

We hope that you will find the Forum and Network websites useful, and that you will contribute with comments and posts on a regular basis in order to exchange information on mariculture development in the region and beyond.

ALL THE BEST AND GOOD LUCK,

Aviti J. Mmochi

Forum Co-ordinator

Introduction

A group of women seaweed farmers in Kidoti,  North Zanzibar known as “Tusife Moyo” translated as “We should not loose heart” has started to use the seaweed in the country. This work is done under the Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Initiative of the Innovation Systems and Cluster Programme in Tanzania (ISCP-Tz). The seaweed cluster which started its activities in 2006 is one of the first 8 cluster initiatives. Up to now, the cluster has 3 groups in the villages of Bweleo, Kisakasaka, and Kidoti, all in Zanzibar and working in various aspects of seaweed farming. Seaweeds farmed in Zanzibar are mainly Eucheuma denticulatum and Kappaphycus alvarezii and to a smaller extent K. striatum. The groups have adopted a new method of farming seaweed –the deeper water floating lines method- as a way of combating Kappaphycus die-offs.

The direct use of the seaweeds in the country as a finished product has been a dream of scientists, the government, and other stakeholders. The Kidoti group which also produces spice soaps of cinnamon, clove, eucalyptus, sweet basal, and lemon grass, has recently made seaweed soap for the first time in Zanzibar. The farmers were helped by mainly the Small and Medium enterprises (SMEs) Competitiveness Facility (SCF). Other help came from Tanzania Commission for Science and Technology (COSTECH) and ISCP-Tz. The funds were used for training, acquisition of soap making machines, initial production of seaweed soap and initial market survey.

Acquisition of seaweed soap making machines

The machines acquired are: seaweed solar drier, seaweed grinder (disk mill), kettle with a stove and mixer for boiling and mixing the soap mixture, soap extruder for producing soap bars, and soap moulder for cutting soap bars into pieces. The machines were made at the College of Engineering and Technology (CoET) of the University of Dar es Salaam during May – December 2007. The machines were shipped to Kidoti on 29^th December and the training on the use of the machines was conducted between November 2007 and March 2008 when the first seaweed soap was made in Zanzibar. The soaps were placed in specially made seaweed soap packaging boxes which were designed by the cluster and printed by a commercial printing company. The first production was of 600 soap pieces.

Official launching of the technology transfer

The technology of producing seaweed soap was officially launched on 19^th February 2008 by the Chairman of the Board of SCF, Mr. Ibrahim Seushi and the SCF Manager, Mr. Sosthenes Sambua. The launching was witnessed by cluster members from Kidoti, Bweleo, and Kisakasaka, as well as the Kidoti village leadership.

Other products from seaweeds

The Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster has also made trial making of seaweed desserts (3 types) and is in the process of producing seaweed candies, biscuits, and soft drink. The cluster will also make liquid seaweed soap and shampoo.

For more information and purchase of seaweed soap contact:

Dr. Flower E. Msuya, Zanzibar Seaweed Cluster Facilitator at flowereze@yahoo.co, mmsuya@ims.udsm.ac.tz, or flowerem@hotmail.com.  OR

Phones: +255 786 629374, +255 777 490807, +255 777 220165

Pearl farming is a new initiative in Zanzibar which is barely 2 years old but already it has proven to be successful and has become a big attraction to researchers, entrepreneurs, politicians and communities both nationally and internationally. The pearl farming activity has shown that scientific research can be translated to ecologically and economically friendly projects. The pearl farming idea started in 2006 when an expert from the University of Hawaii USA, Dr Maria Haws visited Fumba under the SUCCESS project through WIOMSA and IMS and offered a training on pearl farming technique and jewelry making to community members of Fumba peninsula. Since its inception the project has gained a lot of recognition and many people visit the site to see for themselves the developments taking place. A total of 28 very good pearls were obtained. A number of these were sold fetching $3600 during the auction. The activity which also involved an exhibition of the products made by the women of Fumba peninsula, posters and videos was officially launched by the Minister of women and youth MS Asha Abdulla. The member of parliament Dr Mwinyihaji Makame and the Director of IMS, Prof Dubi were also present The main organizers of the function were from IMS (Dr N.S Jiddawi and Dr. Mmochi A assisted by Omar Amir, Salum Hamed, Saleh Yahya and Ngowo Redfred). Participants from WIOMSA were Dr M. Osore who gave a speech on behalf of the executive secretary of WIOMSA. Farhat Mbarouk and Semba M also assisted in the organization. The project is funded by SUCCESS through WIOMSA and facilitated by IMS.

Please post any comments or questions in the response section on new topics you would like to discuss, news, or information requests. The Authors of the forum will address them with new posts.