Project Name：Aquaculture Project (Palau)

Project status：Projects in Operation

Cooperating Country：Palau

Project Description：

Palau is an island country. To meet the requirements of Palau government in its food security policy in expanding aquaculture scale for more food fish production so as to reducing capture fisheries for sustainable fishery resource management, this project is to assist Palau National Aquaculture Center (PNAC) of Bureau of Marine Resources (BMR) to increase rabbitfish fingerling production; to develop milkfish broodstock for artificial propagation; to study on the aquaculture of local black tiger shrimp, and to conduct capacity building of cooperation counterparts, in order to supply sufficient rabbitfish fingerling and black tiger shrimp fry for aquaculture production, and through extension efforts to improve technical skills and production efficiency of aquaculture farmers to enhance overall aquaculture technology as well as production.

The main contents of this project include: (1) increase of fingerling production for aquaculture extension: production of 270,000 rabbitfish fingerlings, and 120,000 black tiger shrimp fry if after survey the broodstock shrimp source can be identified and ensured; (2) the development of 50 milkfish broodstock fish as the basis for future artificial propagation to produce milkfish fingerlings; (3) capacity building to enhance the technical capacity of Palau National Aquaculture Center of Bureau of Marine Resources in broodstock development and research on farming new species(ex: Sea Cucumber ); (4) extension work to improve aquaculture farmers’ technical skills and production efficiency; (5)Resource integration and policy advice

Implementation Start Date：2021-01-01

Implementation End Date：2025-12-31

Project Objectives：

1. Increase of fingerling production

(1) Rabbitfish: produce 40,000 fingerlings in 1st year; 50,000 in 2nd year; 60,000 in the 3rd, 4th, 5th year, with a total 270,000 fingerlings in 5 years.
(2) Black tiger prawn fry: In 1st year, conduct survey and research on broodstock source, seasonality and broodstock maturation. If the broodstock source can be identify and ensured, artificial propagation trials will be carried out to produce shrimp fry. 30,000 fry will be produced in 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th year, with a total 120,000 fry.

2. Development of milkfish broodstock: Collect and develop 50 broodstock fish as the basis for artificial propagation.

3. Enhancement of BMR technical capacity

(1) Capacity building for two BMR technical staff or counterparts on broodstock (ex: milk fish,tiger prawn and sea cucumber)development management, live food culture, artificial propagation, fingerling nursery management, growout management, nutrition requirement, disease control and aquaculture extension skills.
(2) Development of BMR’s own milkfish broodstock; prepare technical manuals on broodstock fish management, fingerling and shrimp fry production, grow-out production management.

(3)Carry out the Palau sea cucumber breeding experiment and release benefit investigation, and a production and culture experiment and investigation report, including the investigation of the sea cucumber field baseline value and the release benefit assessment.

4. Aquaculture extension

(1) Hold 10 aquaculture training workshops to train farmer and improve farmer’s aquaculture skill on basic aquaculture concept and good working manner, feeding management, water quality management, growth sampling, nutrition requirement, disease prevention and control and harvest management.
(2) Extend 18 farmers in 5 years.

5.Resource integration and policy advice
Assisting Palau to understand the existing fishery resources, evaluate the fishery management policy suitable for Palau, and provide professional advice from its government organization structure, production strategy and target species.

Executing Agency：

Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Palau / Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and the Enviroment (Republic of Palau)

Current Progress：

To the end of Dec. 2023, the following activities have been completed:

1. Increase of fingerling production:

(1) Rabbitfish: produce 144,900 fingerlings.

(2) Black tiger prawn fry: produce 174,898 Black tiger prawn fry.

2. Development of milkfish broodstock

Collect 47 broodstock fish as the basis for artificial propagation.

3. Enhancement of Bureau of Fisheries (BOF) technical capacity

(1)  Capacity building for one BMR technical staff counterparts on broodstock development management.

(2) Completed 11 sites of sea cucumber field survey and compiled 1 ecological data report for release sites.

4. Aquaculture extension

(1) Hold 4 aquaculture training workshops.

(2) Assisted 5 farmers to raise rabbit fish.

Project Performance：

1. Increased rabbitfish production by 100% at the end of the project.
2. Construct tiger prawn breeding technology milkfish breeding system and promote the commercial production model of sea cucumber, increasing the additional income of fishermen by 30%.

Project Contact：Yi, WEI

Phone：886-2-28732323 ext.6141

E-mail：y.wei@icdf.org.tw

Mission：Taiwan Technical Mission in the Republic of Palau