September 29, 2010

 

Brunei sees booming fishing sector

Following the success of Biornarine Sdn Bhd's offshore fish cage culture project at Pulau Pelong-Pelongan, Brunei's fisheries sector has big export potential.

 

The company is expected to produce about 400 tonnes of fish annually for export and is eyeing countries such as China, Hong Kong and Taiwan either for the live fish market or frozen and processed markets.

 

The company's first harvest since it began operations in November 2009 took place yesterday (Sep 28).

 

Minister of Industry and Primary Resources Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Utama Dato Seri Setia Awg Haji Yahya bin Begawan Mudim Dato Paduka Haji Bakar led the harvest of the fish.

 

Out of the 60 tonnes of fish produced, a total of 0.5 tonnes of Tiger Grouper and 1.2 tonnes of Pompano were harvested yesterday. The remainder of the fish will be harvested later in phases.

 

The fish has an average body weight of one kg for the Tiger Grouper and 640g for the Pompano. The fish are the right size to be marketed. Based on the data collected, the growth rate of the fish has been very encouraging, which is five times than normal.

 

Biomarine Sdn Bhd is a joint venture company between Brunei Darussalam and the People's Republic of China at the offshore fish cage culture site at Pelong-Pelongan, which is a 15-minute boat ride from the Fish Landing Complex in Serasa, Muara.

 

There are two types of fish species bred at the offshore cage project site, namely, Tiger Grouper or locally known as "Kerapu Harimau" and Snubnose Pompano (Pahatpahat).

 

Up to now, Biomarine Sdn Bhd has a total of 36 HDPE cages for the culture of Tiger Grouper and Pompano. The cages are stocked with Tiger Groupers, Pompanos and Snappers. The company expects to produce about 400 tonnes of fish annually for export.

 

The company started the offshore fish cage culture project in November 2009 using eight HDPE round cages for grouper culture. And in April 2010, the company brought 28 additional cages -16 units of square types and 12 round-shape units.

 

According to the company's schedule, fish will be put into the cages in stages for breeding.

 

In May 2010, more than 2,000 Pompano fishes were released into the square-shape cages and at the same time there are a total of 15,000 Red Fish and another 32,000 of Pompano fish.

 

In June 2010, the company released another 50,000 new stock of Golden Pompano into two cages. Currently, there are a total of 1,800 Tiger Groupers and Pompano ready to be harvested and marketed.

 

Biomarine Sdn Bhd is one of the local companies that entered into a joint venture with a company from China in the offshore fish cages project which covers an area of 40.5ha of deep sea off Pulau Pilong-Pilongan.

 

The establishment of an export market network will pave the way for more Bruneians to be involved in offshore aquaculture ventures.