USSEC conducted a Milkfish and Offshore Marine Fish Cage Farming Risk Management Workshop in Mariculture Park Zones on January 24 in La Union, Philippines.
About 60 aquaculture stakeholders, including representatives of the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resource (BFAR), local government units (LGUs), provincial fishery office (PFO), cage farm owners, investors, and fish cage and feedmill technicians attended this seminar.
Levy Loreto Manalac, USSEC Philippines Technical Manager – Aquaculture & Southeast Asia Regional Feeding Demonstration Coordinator, introduced USSEC’s Soy in Aquaculture Program in SEA and Philippines and presented USSEC’s Risk Management in Milkfish Cage Farming.
Hsiang Pin “Sean” Lan, USSEC Asia Marine Aquaculture Specialist, presented and discussed USSEC’s Milkfish/Marine Fish Farming and Offshore Fish Cage Culture – Planning and Considerations and USSEC’s Fish Feeding Managements (2x, 3x, 4x feeding; Skip Feeding/Feeding every other day).
Participants recognized that USSEC feed-based technologies can help improve their production efficiency and help to address environmental issues associated in mariculture fish farming near shore. One participant remarked, “Thank you for the seminar [and for] all the knowledge that we gain to improve our production.”
For aquaculture-fed species in the Philippines, milkfish is the biggest in volume. The workshop’s objective was to share information on how to improve the production efficiency and profitability of milkfish and marine fish cage faring of fish farmers and growers in the mariculture parks zones of La Union and Pangasinan through USSEC feed-based technologies and feeding management in Batangas, Philippines, thus increasing the use of U.S. soybean meal and other U.S. soy products.
Currently, the inclusion of U.S. soybean meal in milkfish diets is about 35 to 40 percent.