ABSTRACT
The supply of invertebrate seed remains a constraint for the establishment of marine aquaculture in the Pacific Nations. While governments and partners have made significant investments in appropriate facilities and staff, productivity remains low. Without private sector development (for profit and jobs), in part caused by the lack of secure marine tenure arrangements in the Pacific Nations, the role of seed supply remains largely a public sector activity.
Communities are willing recipients of marine invertebrate seed (giant clams, sea cucumber (BDM) and oysters). But without any capital (their traditional tenures are often not recognized as a financial asset by the banking sector), this seed is mainly given without cost, making centralised public sector hatchery production unsustainable.
Developing larviculture strategies with live feed alternatives (freeze dried and microalgae pastes, greenwater microalgae cultures with copepod and artemia harvesting), along with solar powered seawater pumping solutions, might permit the absolute simplification of marine invertebrate larval techniques and facilities. This may allow their use in isolated communities in the Pacific Nations.
While capital remains a major constraint to initiating even a remote “mini” hatchery, the benefits of establishing community “marine gardens” for both improving nutrition and allowing the regeneration of invertebrate reef ecosystem components, may attract funding from a variety of sources. Operational costs may be manageable at the scale and technology proposed, although diets remain a major hurdle.