A 30 feet wide and 70 feet long water tank equipped with aeration and filtration system has already been completed by Northern Marianas College’s Cooperative Research, Extension and Education Service, according to aquaculture extension agent Michael M. Ogo.
Funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the $50,000 re-circulating facility was constructed to evaluate the growth rate of red grouper.
It also serves as a dry-run for growing in captivity one of the most lucrative fishes in the market.
Ogo, in an interview last week, was expecting the fry — one-inch baby groupers — to arrive either Friday or Saturday.
Once these fry are released to the tank, it will take 10 months for them to grow.
Data will be collected and shared with local farmers.
Ogo believes growing red groupers through a re-circulating facility is a feasible project.
Groupers usually caught through spear and bottom fishing can be produced through the use of technology, he said.
Experts who spoke during the Economic Restoration Summit last week said aquaculture must be environmentally stable so it can be profitable.
But this agriculture activity is relatively new so more research is required.
The idea of investing in aquaculture in the CNMI is not new, summit organizers said.
But it is the “urgency of the economic times we are facing,” that makes aquaculture one of the four industries that government and the local private sector now want to develop.
Shawn M. Moss of the Oceanic Institute in Hawaii identified the CNMI’s “assets” that will allow aquaculture to thrive here.
These include access to clean and abundant sea water, constant year-round warm temperature, bio-security due to the islands’ geographical isolation, and proximity to Asian markets.
However, Moss said the CNMI needs to acquire expertise in culture technology for marine fish.
But technology driven, aquaculture can be sub-contracted to the private sector, he added.
Moss said the CNMI also has to increase the level of bio-security, impose tighter restrictions on imported live or frozen food items and establish a regional disease surveillance program.
