Cage farming of mullet gains popularity

KOCHI: Fish eaters on the western coast have something to cheer about. The local delicacy mullet joins the list of high valued fishes like cobia, pompano, sea bass and lobster, which have been successfully cage farmed in open sea.

With the gourmet fishes becoming popular in Indian restaurants, demand has outstripped supply as wild catches are declining. The cage culture technology developed by the Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute (CMFRI) is expected to bridge the gap.

"More people will be able to afford these fishes as they are likely to become cheaper when the cage farming concept spreads,'' said G Syda Rao, director of CMFRI. Mullet retails around Rs 400 a kg in local markets. Rao points out that it will be remunerative for farmers even if the fish sells at half the price. A group of farmers in Kerala reaped about 2,500 kg of mullets worth around Rs 7-8 lakh from a floating cage in open sea of about 6m in diameter and 8m deep, on instructions from CMFRI. It took about six months for about 5,000 fingerlings collected from the wild to grow to full size.