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After spending a few days together in produced in the hatchery, and frequent spaw-
a dark room, close to 400 reproductively ning throughout the year.
ready male and female teenagers conceive
more than 800,000 babies. Then the newborns After separation, the fertilized eggs
are separated while the young parents re- take five to eight hours to develop further into
main in the room for up to seven days to con- swimming larvae. They are fed on benthic
tinue to reproduce until they reach a satis- diatoms until they reach five millimeters in
factory amount of five to six million babies! length (shell size). As the young abalone
grow larger, they are weaned on artificial
This incident is common and occurs diets until they reach two centimeters in
twice a month in a cultured abalone hatchery length. Then they are moved to a land-based
and nursery on Sichang Island, Chonburi_ farm in the Angsila Marine Biological Research
the Sichang Marine Science Research and Station of Chulalongkorn University in Chon-
Training Station of Chulalongkorn University, buri, where they are raised to market size.
under a commercial abalone cultivation project
supported by the Thailand Research Fund. Within eight to twelve months,
abalone will develop into “cocktail size” with
Like in many countries, this aquacul- an average length of five centimeters and
ture facility was founded to experiment captive weight of 30-50 grams, ready to be sold to
breeding of abalone, a sea animal that suffers restaurants and factories for canning. But if
from a bad case of over-popularity. The main you can wait for another six to twelve months,
culprit includes overfishing, combined with they will grow to “steak size” with double the
high demand from those who relish their distinct average weight of the cocktail-sized abalone-
flavor, especially Asians. As a result, the wild that is around 100 grams each.
abalone population has been on a drastic de-
cline whilst the demand remains constant. To The future of tropical abalone com-
bridge a widening gap between supply and de- mercial cultivation in Thailand is indeed propi-
mand, cultured abalone husbandry was initiated tious given the hatchery’s high capacity in
in Japan and China in the late 1950’s and early producing abalone fry_approximately 10,000-
1960’s and has later spread across the globe. 20,000 a month at present, yet can be pushed
to 100,000. The trend is also supported by
There are reportedly more than 100 many research studies, for instance, bio-
abalone species in the world categorized into diversity of natural abalone, genetics (selec-
two distinct classifications_tropical and tem- tion and hybridization) of Thai abalone, and
perate. For cultivation, tropical abalone have experimental manufacture of canned abalone
many advantages over temperate abalone, in favor of encouraging domestic abalone
though smaller in size. Three species of tropi- farming. It is very likely that Thailand will de-
cal abalone found in Thai waters are Haliotis velop its potential to feed Thai abalone into the
asinina, Haliotis ovina and Haliotis varia. The first world market, capturing 10-20 percent of the
is the most commercially promising for many remaining global demand. That means the sup-
reasons_its ratio of meat to total weight, its ply will be translated into annual income of
growth rate, successful maturation of stock 1.5-3 billion baht.
Story: Jakkapan Kangwan
Photos: Pravej Tantrapirom
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