LGU, PACPI, FISH VISAYAS Project Improve Efforts to Increase Stocks of Blue Swimming Crabs in Bantayan

 


Cebu City, Cebu – A stakeholder meeting with the LGU of Bantayan, Philippine Association of Crab Processors, Inc. (PACPI), and the FISH Visayas Project was conducted on the 23rd of January 2023 to discuss the improvement and sustainability of the Blue Swimming Crab Hatchery located in Guiwanon, Bantayan, Cebu.

The partners agreed to improve the interventions exerted on the number of released blue swimming crabs in the wild. Since February 2022, the Blue Swimming Crab Hatchery facilitated the hatching of over 80 million zoeae released in the wild for grow-out.
In order to validate the effects of the hatchery establishment, the partners agreed to conduct a research study in February 2023. The study would look into the correlation between the initiative and how it has shaped the number of stocks in the wild since its inception. Further, the study will provide information on the success rate of the released zoeae, focusing on interventions that would result in the highest rate of stock survival.

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The blue swimming crab hatchery initiative was implemented in November 2021 and officially launched on February 2022. From then on, the partners have continuously collected berried crabs and released them back into the wild upon hatching to zoeae.