The project “Development of Marine Aquaculture and Assessment of Fishery Resources in the Andaman Sea, Thailand” is a follow-up to the Norwegian-Thai post-tsunami project of 2005-06. According to the Institute of Marine Research (IMR) the project aims to enable the Thais to run fish farms that use modern aquaculture technology on their own. The project is being run by the Thai fisheries authorities in collaboration with IMR.
IMR informed that the project consists of two sub-projects: “Development of Marine Aquaculture” and “Assessment of Fisheries Resources in the Andaman Sea”. It is said that in line with the wishes of the Thai authorities, the running of a pilot cage facility has been at the heart of the project. IMR will transfer know-how about running fish farms and modern aquaculture technology, as well as to enable the Thais to run the facility on their own.
Department of Fisheries chose cobia as the first species to be farmed because cobia plays an important role in the development of new species for use in aquaculture. It is informed that the new project facility is in Phuket, producing 82 000 kg of cobia with low mortality rates and rapid growth. The fish are harvested, slaughtered and in most cases processed into fillets. The fresh fish is sold in Phuket, Bangkok and Singapore, whilst fillets are frozen and shipped to Germany or Singapore. This means that cobia can perfectly well be farmed in Thailand using Norwegian cage technology.
The Department of Fisheries in Thailand also wanted the project to look at the regulation of large cage farms. DFO said that the three cages that constitute the pilot farm in Phuket are the very first large cages to be used in Thai aquaculture. It also said that sharing Norwegian experiences of governance and fish health is good thing that benefits Thailand in big way.
Marion Stamnes and Anne-Karin Natås from the Norwegian Directorate of Fisheries, Ragnar Thorarinsson from the Norwegian Food Safety Authority and Pia Kupka Hansen and Rolf Engelsen from the Institute of Marine Research, are participating in the project to present Norwegian system of environmental monitoring and evaluation.
