Young people of the Batumanga Seaweed Growers Association and the Salisit Multi-purpose Cooperative, both composed of MNLF former combatants and their families, spend part of their weekend helping pack abalone juveniles or “spats” into sawed-off PVC pipes for transport to the co-ops’ underwater cages in Panglima Sugala, Tawi-Tawi. The ex-combatants, who have been trained in high-value mariculture by USAID’s Growth with Equity in Mindanao (GEM) Program, purchased the spats from the multi-species marine hatchery operated by Mega Fishing Corp in Tawi-Tawi. The 1.5-centimeter spats will be reared in the cages until they are 6 centimeters long, and then sold for export, for as much as US$25 per kilo. The China market alone requires at least 1,000 metric tons of adult abalone annually, worth approximately US$14 million
