Fish cage culture has developed rapidly in South East Asia however the majority of production is undertaken in small cages located in sheltered coastal locations, shallow waters and close to supporting coastal infrastructure. This is in contract to cage culture development in other regions which is based on larger companies growing fish in larger cages in deeper more exposed locations.
Countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines have long coastlines with suitable depths relatively close to shore for large conventional floating cages where as other countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia have less areas with suitable depths located close to shore but have the potential for using newly developed sinking cage technology.
Large cage technology has been developed for Salmon and Seabass and Seabream and is available for use in South East Asia. Some pioneering companies have started to use this technology but have yet to reach the production levels seen in other sectors. Storms and typhoons are a risk mainly for the strong winds and for the resultant waves and currents generated in the sea. The typhoon belt is located above 10o latitude North and below 10o latitude South and affects north Philippines and Vietnam and North Australia. This typhoon risk may mean that submersible cage technology will need to be used.
There are a number of potential tropical species that are suited for culture in large cages, that have hatchery production of juveniles and have a relatively well developed market demand and reasonable market price. The leading species are those that have been farmed are Japanese amberjack, Japanese seabass, Asian Seabass, Cobia and more recently the production of emerging marine species such as kingfish, snapper and pompano.
South East Asian countries also need to establish regulatory processes that clearly identify where cage culture facilities can be located and for how long. This will give Investors confidence that they have sufficient time to get profitable return on their investment.
The expansion of development of larger cages located in more exposed waters off the coast is more challenging from a technological, logistical and investment requirement viewpoint. This paper makes recommendations on how the private sector together with the regulators can establish large scale cage culture allowing South East Asian countries to continue the expansion of production in the near future.