Plan for deep-sea fish farming hits snag

Only commercial farm here in the business has not been able to find suitable sites around Singapore

By Dawn Wong

SINGAPORE'S plans to launch a new type of fish-farming industry by putting big money into rearing fish in cages in deep seawater have run aground - at least for the moment.

This is because the only commercial farm here in that business has not been able to find suitable sites in the waters around Singapore to use the special technology it has developed, to expand its venture.

As a result, Seabass Farm, which has been working with the Agri-food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), stopped operating last December.

Unable to use its special technology, Seabass Farm, off St John's Island, ceased operations lat year.

Despite this setback, AVA said it will still try to realise its plan to build up a $200-million deep-netcage fish-farming industry here over the next six years.

It plans to set up 40 such farms here and in the region.

With these farms, it hopes to eventually produce 40 per cent of the 100,000 tonnes of fish consumed in Singapore each year.

With the deep-netcage method of farming, the space required to produce the projected 40,000 tonnes could be as little as 40 per cent of that needed for shallow-netcage fish farming, which is the method used here currently.

Production from a deep-netcage farm is also higher. It can reach 2 1/2 times that of a shallow-netcage farm.

According to the AVA, there are 85 shallow-netcage farms in the Johor Straits, and these produce a total of about 1,000 tonnes of fish annually.

In Norway, deep-netcage farms are used to breed salmon and, in Greece, seabream.

Meanwhile, the AVA is continuing its research into deep-netcage farming at the Marine Aquaculture Centre on St John's Island.

Mr Leslie Cheong, AVA's head of technology development and services, said investors have expressed interest in setting up such farms.

Seabass Farm started operating in 1997 off St John's Island as a four-year-long joint research project with the AVA.

It used cages which were 7 m - 8 m deep and 12 m - 19 m in diameter to rear such fish as seabass, pomfret and snapper in waters which were 15 m - 20 m deep. Each cage can hold about 60,000 young fishes.

During its four-year run, the farm produced 200 to 300 tonnes of fish a year and sold its harvest to NTUC FairPrice and fish wholesalers.

Seabass director Thomas Ng said the company would have liked to continue farming but could not do so because it had nowhere nearby to expand its business.

''For a business to be viable, we need economies of scale,'' he explained. ''If we expand overseas, there are other external environmental and social factors to consider.''

However, he did not rule out the possibility of farming in Malaysia.

The company is still working with the AVA to find suitable locations where it can use its technology.

AVA's Mr Cheong said there are currently 70 ha of water off Pulau Senang and Pulau Semakau available for deep-netcage fish farming.

Seabass Farm has tested its technology in these waters, but found conditions there unsuitable for its method.