Field visit to multi-species fish cage culture units at Honnavar, Karnataka

    A field visit was organized to the multispecies fish cage culture farm at Honnavar, Uttara Kannada coastal district, Kerala on 5 October 2024. Since last 10 years, the farmers practice multispecies fish culture in cages including seabass, red snapper, pompano and trevally with the support from CMFRI, Karwar and Department of Fisheries, Govt. of Karnataka. A total of 13 farmers were present during the interaction including five SC farmers. Farmers operate two tier system for cage culture using grading protocol for nursery and grow out culture. Dr Parveen Kumar, Director, ICAR-CCARI, Goa interacted with the farmer and discussed regarding the issues in the cage culture. There are incidences of disease outbreaks and high water turbidity when the salinity drops due to the discharge of freshwater from the Dam in upper Sharavathi River. The scientific advisories on the management of stock and disease control were provided to the farmer. The discussion also included the collection of natural fish seeds from the estuary and starting the novel crab fattening units using designed HDPE barrels near the cages to improve the income from the given area. The package of practices on piggery, poultry, and duck farming were also shared among the cage farmers, who have shown interest to integrate diversified agriculture activities. Dr. Gokuldas PP, Dr Sreekanth GB, and Shri Trivesh Mayekar, the scientific team of CCARI coordinated the field visit.