Glory and Crisis in the Grouper Kingdom

At daybreak, when the sky is still dark, more than a dozen people gather at a fishpond belonging to Chen Bing-heng in Jiadong, Pingtung County, a center for aquaculture. It is time to harvest groupers in this 54,000-square-foot pond for the first time since Typhoon Morakot struck on August 8, 2009.

At 6:30 a.m. seven or eight workers, betraying well-practiced technique, jump in, tossing a net to the bottom of the pond. Picking up the ends of the net, they slowly move to the center, -before eventually pulling it to about three meters from the side of the pond. The mass of fish inside are now pulled out individually and sorted into baskets in the pond according to the weight of the fish: one for fish weighing from one catty to one catty and two taels, another for bigger fish up to one catty and five taels, and a third for still heavier fish. (A Taiwanese catty is 600 grams and a tael is 37.5 grams.)

Much to the onlookers' amazement, workers don't have to put the fish on scales: They can gauge which basket to throw them in simply by picking them up. The ones that are too small are thrown back. The men spend more than an hour collecting them, and eventually use slightly smaller baskets to weigh them. They move the sorted groupers to "live fish moving trucks" that are parked at the side of the road. They then collect and sort the fish in the back half of the pond in the same way. By about 11 a.m. the trucks set off for Donggang, where the fish are loaded onto a boat for mainland China.

Farms holding fry, where 3-cm fingerlings grow to 6 or 9 cm, have been devastated by the iridovirus and NNV in recent years. Survival rates have plummeted. The photo shows Pan Jianzhang's 6-cm fingerling farm in Jiadong's Wenfeng aquacultural production area.

He Zhulin, a wholesaler who has come to purchase fish, explains that he plans to buy 3400 kilos from Chen today, and for that purpose rented three trucks that can haul live fish. Each has three or four fiberglass tanks, as well as liquid oxygen equipment to keep the groupers alive and well. At noon the trucks reach the port, where He and his men do the paperwork and load the fish onto the boat. At 3 p.m., the boat leaves for mainland China, reaching Dongs-han Harbor in Fu-jian at noon the following day. Mainland wholesalers will then take the fish to markets or restaurants. Altogether, it takes only a day and a half for the fish to go from the fishponds in Taiwan to the restaurant tables in Fujian and Guangdong.

Chen explains that the price for grouper in early December was NT$210 per catty. With 4200 catties harvested, that meant NT$900,000. But because the fish survival rate has been only about 25% since Morakot, the fishpond wasn't profitable in 2010. If the pre-Morakot survival rate of 50-60% had held, the farm would have been making a profit of about NT$1-2 million per hectare.

In comparison to sea bass, sea bream and milkfish, which range from tens of NT to less than NT$200 per catty, grouper raised in Taiwan sells for as much as NT$250-300 per catty. 70-80% of them are exported to Hong Kong and coastal mainland China.

Taiwan fish farmers have been raising grouper for more than two decades. Early on, farmers raised young fish that had been netted from the wild. Their small numbers put limits on production. The industry has only been able to grow to international prominence because of the introduction of artificial breeding techniques.

Known as the "king of groupers," the giant grouper can reach 20 to 30 catties at maturity and sell for more than NT$10,000.

Taiwan is now artificially breeding seven of 400 grouper species found in the wild throughout the world. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, more than 75,000 metric tons of grouper were farmed worldwide in 2008, with Taiwan accounting for 17,000 tons, or about 23% of world production (see table). In terms of revenue, that amounted to about NT$4 billion, or 58% of global revenue for grouper. It's worth noting with pride that little Taiwan produces only about 40% of what mainland China does, but its value is twice the mainland's. These figures clearly demonstrate the high economic value of the island's grouper crop.

Taiwan mainly exports green and giant groupers, and is particularly well known for the latter, which is known as "the king of groupers." Viewed as "the godfather" of fish by the aquaculture industry, a single mature giant grouper typically weighs 20-30 catties. The largest specimens can weigh 200 catties. The artificial breeding techniques used for giant groupers are also a source of great pride for Taiwan. An eight-centimeter young fish can reach three to five catties in a year. Growing rapidly, it can weigh 15 catties in its second year and double that in its third. Giant grouper retails for as much as NT$3-400 per catty. What's more, the largest fish are the best tasting, cherished for their succulent meat and skin with abundant gelatin.

Fish wholesalers hire live-fish trucks when they purchase a farmer's stocks. These trucks then move the fish to harbors, where they are exported to Hong Kong or mainland China. (left:) A basket of green groupers is weighed before being deposited into a small tank aboard one of these trucks. (right:) The blue container on this truck is a specially constructed fiberglass fish tank.

The process of growing one grouper begins with the insemination of fish eggs, and continues through incubation of larvae, the birth of a young fish, the growth of a mature fish and shipping for export. Over the course of this process, a single fish passes through five or six different owners, and at each stage the technology differs. Having accumulated experience over the years, businesses at each stage have developed their own unique skill sets.

The first link in the production chain is the fish hatchery, which is responsible for breeding and propagation. It pro-duces bowls of fertilized eggs, with about 500,000 eggs per bowl. There are two or three stages to go before these become fry. From egg fertilization, it takes about a month to raise a three-centimeter fingerling. At this stage, the hatchery makes use of deep pools (1-1.7 meters), wherein the temperature of the water is set at 28°C. The fish are fed roti-fers, brine shrimp, and copepods. Survival rates typically hover in the 10-20% range, but total loss is not uncommon. Three-centimeter fingerlings are placed in special pools designed to hold them until they reach 6-9 cm, when they begin to receive some processed feed. The water has to be frequently changed to eliminate the waste, and dead or diseased fish have to be removed. The rates of survival vary greatly depending on climatic conditions and the techniques used. When the fish reach farms for mature fish, they are almost all reared outdoors (as opposed to the early stages when most fish are inside). At this point, the techniques are focused on controlling water quality and protecting against disease.

Chen Shengtai, director of the Pan-zi-lun production area of Fang-liao, Ping-tung County, explains that the division of labor for grouper production developed naturally when the aquaculture industry in various locales was groping its way forward after a crash in shrimp farming production. The advantage of a highly delineated division of labor is that companies at each stage have their own expertise and economic competitiveness. But the segmented chain poses its own challenges-especially with regard to the lack of an overarching body to make decisions. It's a deficiency that can result in major losses.

During Morakot, dikes collapsed along on the Linbian River, unleashing large quantities of mud, which contained unfamiliar organisms and organic materials. As a result, the quality of seawater used to supply the fishponds has fallen. The fish have proven ill-adapted to their new environment, and survival rates have plummeted.

According to Tai Kun-tsai, chairman of Long Diann Marine Bio Technology, who is known as the "grouper em-peror," Taiwan's grouper industry is flourishing due to a combination of favorable circumstances, including the right climate, a good location, and talented and well-organized people. First of all, its geographic placement is excellent, being closer than competitors in Southeast Asia to Hong Kong, the world's largest consumer market for groupers. Ships from Taiwan can reach Hong Kong in a day and a half, as opposed to three days from the Philippines or five days plus from Vietnam and Malaysia. Even mainland Chinese producers on Hainan Island need two days to reach Hong Kong.

Taiwan straddles the Tropic of Cancer. With relatively moderate temperatures in all four seasons, it has a better climate for growing grouper than mainland China (groupers can't live in temperatures below 10°C). What's more, the Hong Kong real-estate mogul Li Ka-shing purchased for tourism development much of the area along Hai-nan Island's east coast that is highly suited to farming grouper. "The future looks really good for Taiwan," says Tai.

Along with the favorable natural conditions, Taiwan fish farmers also possess various aquacultural techniques and technologies that aren't available elsewhere. "These include artificial propagation, high-density breeding and live-fish shipping," says Tom Hsiao, a professor at the Graduate Institute of Aquaculture at National Kaohsiung Marine University. "These have helped Taiwan earn a reputation as the 'grouper kingdom.'" The major fishing nations of Norway and Japan are, respectively, artificially breeding two and 15 different species of fish, whereas Taiwan is engaged in large-scale artificial breeding and farming of 50 different species. Among these are seven of the eight wild grouper species being artificially propagated anywhere in the world.

A leading figure in Taiwan's grouper export market, Tai Kun-tsai has developed techniques for breeding seven different species of grouper-at a time when only eight grouper species have been artificially bred anywhere in the world. The photo shows giant groupers in Tai's aquarium at home.

"A difficulty in breeding groupers is that they are 'protogynous hermaphrodites,' first female (at two to three years) and then male (at six to eight). Consequently, hormone treatments are necessary." Tai, who has acquired international renown for his grouper propagation techniques, says that he plunged into developing giant grouper breeding techniques in 1992, when he spent large sums to hire several researchers and buy batches of fish for experimentation. The result: either the fish would die the day after hormone treatments, or the eggs from the females and the sperm from the males didn't come together, so that the eggs were never fertilized.

By 1995, Tai had already invested NT$50 million, and his friends urged him to cut his losses, but he wouldn't quit: "At dusk every night, I would pull up a stool beside the tanks, gaze at the fish and mull things over. I'd think back to how my wife and I used to like to go to beautifully lit restaurants with nice atmospheres when we were young." Unable to conceal his pride, Tai says that despite inspiring the mockery of cooperating academics, he tried "changing the atmosphere" in the fish pools. Surprisingly, it worked: The fish eggs finally were getting fertilized, and the eggs were hatching into fry. That year groupers grew from fingerlings to weighing over a kilo. The major breakthrough not only brought him hundreds of millions of NT dollars over the coming years but also heralded the rise of Taiwan's grouper industry.

As for details about how to create a properly romantic breeding environment, Tai says that information is classified. All he will divulge is that similar to the artificial breeding of bluefin tuna in Nan'ao, Yilan, they employ the natural rhythm of changing light in nature caused by the rising and setting of the sun. Later, Tai went a step farther to change the egg-laying habits of the giant grouper, so that they lay eggs every day instead of once every two weeks. After taking these measures to increase breeding, he then had to convince Hong Kong restaurants, which had previously only bought wild grouper, to purchase his farmed and artificially bred fish.

Fish wholesalers hire live-fish trucks when they purchase a farmer's stocks. These trucks then move the fish to harbors, where they are exported to Hong Kong or mainland China. (left:) A basket of green groupers is weighed before being deposited into a small tank aboard one of these trucks. (right:) The blue container on this truck is a specially constructed fiberglass fish tank.

Apart from the excellent breeding techniques developed by Taiwan's aquaculture industry, the island's fish farmers have also pioneered technology to allow for farming fish at the highest densities found anywhere in the world. "The density is 10 or 20 times higher than that of other nations," says Hsiao. In order to raise density, fish farmers pump oxygen into their ponds 24 hours a day with waterwheels, including "vertical waterwheels" that create vertical movement of water, allowing for deeper ponds. By increasing pond depth from 60 to 180 centimeters, they have moved from five to 15 times the densities found in other nations.

With such high densities, increasing vigilance about water quality becomes key to achieving high survival rates. Those in the field need only to look at changes in the color of the water to know what steps to take. "Fish farmers can become so obsessed with potential water problems that they won't leave even for three hours to see a movie."

The "live-fish ships" that have been developed over the last two years represent another Taiwanese specialty. Lee Fu-chen, a fish farmer from Jia-dong who created the first live-fish ship, explains that the slightest mishap when shipping live fish can cause the entire haul to die. There's a high level of risk. Early on, there simply weren't any shipping companies that would dare to accept this kind of business, so fish farmers had to make do themselves, jimmy-rigging the holds of fishing boats into live fish receptacles. Pipes were placed through the hulls to create water circulation. The boat would expel water when rising on waves and take in water when falling on waves.

Those jimmy-rigged boats were used up until two or three years ago when new and improved specially licensed boats began to be used instead. Lee invested NT$40 million to build the first completely new 160-ton live-fish transport boat, with a 40% greater carrying capacity. The boat has a pump to bring in seawater, and aerating equipment. With these new boats, the rate of fish losses during shipping has dropped to 5-10%.

Taiwan has excellent aquacultural breeding techniques and natural conditions that are well-suited to farming grouper, but in recent years viruses afflicting fry have posed serious obstacles. The breeding and rearing environments need general overhauls, and a good export plan needs to be drawn up before Taiwan can confirm its title as the "grouper kingdom."

After Morakot, the fish farmers of Jia-dong and Lin-bian spent several months digging out mud and repairing their equipment. The fishponds in the area have been brought back into use one after another, but many farmers, either scared off after the flood or lacking sufficient funds, switched to raising other fish. For those who have stuck with groupers, harvests are substantially lower than before.

The Pingtung Fishery Development Association lost more than 10,000 giant groupers to Morakot. Huang Zai-tuan, its chairman, says that the survival rate used to be 60% during the mature stage but has dropped to only 30% since Morakot. "Groupers have been hard to farm since the flooding," he says. It used to take a kilo of feed to create a catty of fish. Now that catty of fish requires 1.3 kilos of feed. The main reason for the change is that the flooding brought in a lot of new microorganisms and organic matter. Silt accumulations were pushed out to sea, changing the coastal ecology. The seawater and the ecology of the fishponds have changed, and the fish haven't adapted well to the new circumstances.

To add to farmers' miseries, many of their chief expenses, such as manufactured feed, bycatch feed, and electricity, have risen in price. Even the costs for repairing waterwheel motors have risen, so that fish farmers are facing a tough economic climate.

What's more, "grouper emperor" Tai points out that there are growing epidemics of nervous necrosis virus (NNV) or iridovirus among fry. In 2010 the production of fry dropped 30%. Because fish farms intake and expel water at the same place, it is very easy for infections to spread. For many years, Tai has been urging the government to pay more attention to these issues, but water problems are hard to resolve. There has also been a lot of talk about vaccines over the last nine years, he says, but no concrete results yet.

After a year, green groupers have reached maturity! The several hundred fish in the net gathered at the pond's bank are pulled out by experienced hands, sorted according to size, and then weighed before being sold.

"The environmental changes have also made the disease situation worse," says Tom Hsiao. He explains that because the fish-rearing environment has changed, it has led to weaker fish that are naturally more susceptible to illness, and the high-density environment leads to more rapid transmission of viruses. Consequently, academics have recently been suggesting that the fish be brought indoors, where controlling conditions such as temperature, water quality, and pH is easier.

Hsiao has spent a year at experimentation, bringing one-to-four-month fry inside. By attaining greater control over water quality and preventing the entry of parasites and viruses, the rate of survival for fingerlings has risen to 80%. (Currently, the survival rate for 6-cm fingerlings outside is 30-40%.) Unfortunately, fish farmers themselves have shown little interest in these new approaches. Instead, interest has come from outside the industry.

"With environmental degradation and the havoc wreaked by viruses, as well as the problem of insufficient capital," say many farmers, "how can we achieve the government's goal of doubling the value of grouper production?" Since Morakot, grouper producers have repeatedly complained about the government's loan policies.

Lee Fuchen explains that after Mo-ra--kot, grouper growers in Pingtung -County, despite accounting for two-thirds of ROC grouper production, received only NT$700 million of the NT$2 billion in low-interest loans issued to the aquaculture industry. Many former grouper farmers were turned down as a result of various restrictions (such as requirements about aquaculture registration certificates, proof of water rights, and assessed property values). Consequently, they switched to raising other kinds of fish.

In particular, loans based on acreage are unfair to those who rear immature groupers. Pan Jian-zhang, who has a farm for 6-cm fingerlings in Jia-dong, explains that his farm is altogether only 10,800 square feet, so he can only mortgage it for NT$500,000. But this provides scant help for an operation that requires frequent outlays of millions of NT dollars. "If you don't have any fish fry, how do you expect to multiply your stocks?" He says that grouper farmers will only be able to pass through these hard times if the government provides special assistance for hatcheries.

Apart from present-day production problems, there are also concerns about the very viability of the grouper industry in the years to come.

Although many have held high hopes for the mainland market since the signing of the ECFA, quite a few industry insiders are worried about blindly putting all their eggs in one basket. "The mainland will end up dictating the price!" says Li Jiongyi, a member of a new breed of fish farmers and shippers in Jia-dong. Despite Bei-jing's huge push to expand tourism by hosting the Olympics, the Asian Games and other events, its consumption of grouper did not rise as much as anticipated. Given that fact, along with the mainland's rampant inflation, will consumer demand there really be that robust? If Taiwanese fish farmers swarm to raise supply but demand doesn't rise as much as expected, the price will collapse and losses will be unimaginable.

Li explains that unlike mainland consumers, who prefer meat, the Japanese love fish, particularly fresh fish. Thus Japan is a market well worth developing. The government ought to develop a comprehensive production and marketing plan, providing information about international competitors, and assistance in breaking into new markets, so as to avoid the risks of over-reliance on one export market. And even more importantly, the government should encourage producers not to focus on just a few star species. They should gradually start cultivating other kinds of fish to increase the overall competitiveness of aquacultural exports.

In an era of growing emphasis on healthy eating, when more and more consumers are switching away from red meat despite the depletion of natural stocks of fish, aquaculture offers the advantages of high quality and low pollution. With the outstanding level of aquacultural skills and technology in Taiwan, the potential for the industry here is great. Will various groups be able to link hands to overcome the obstacles left in Morakot's wake and revitalize the grouper industry in Taiwan, which is still known as "the grouper kingdom"? It's a matter that should be of concern to more of Taiwan's citizens.

unit: metric ton source: FAO