DEVELOPING HATCHERY TECHNOLOGY OF ABALONE Haliotis asinina FOR GERM PLASM PRESERVATION

Haliotis asinina generally known as "seven eye" snail is a local species that is commonly found along the coast of West Nusa Tenggara. The demand of this commodity is continuously increasing. Meanwhile, its supply through wild stock is gradually declining due to massive exploitation, slow growth, and also limitation of their habitats. Therefore, there should be a proactive actions and working together to develop this marine commodity. To solve the problem, there were some efforts that can be done such as implementation technology in hatchery and grow out production, and development of aquaculture system which easily adopted by the fish farmers by providing production input, especially seeds to support the development of business.

In supporting the continuity population of abalone, Marine Aquaculture Development Centre, Lombok has attempted developing of hatchery technology through production trial in semi- controlled hatchery. Larvae rearing were undertaken in concrete tank with 10 tonnes capacity feeding with multi species benthic diatom and water flow through sand filter. H.asinina larvae were stocked with the density of 500.000 - 1.000.000 trochopore and after 4 month of rearing resulted abalone size of 1 cm as much as 8.000 - 15.000 individual (survival rate, SR = 1,4 - 2,0 %).  Through the result of continuously mass production of abalone seed from the hatchery, it was expected it could immediately attract public interest in developing abalone aquaculture as an alternative business and also an effort to conserve germ plasma.