Development of prawn culture and its related studies in Taiwan

Abstract

The year of 1968 is regarded as epoch-emaking in the history of prawn culture in Taiwan. Prior to that year, prawn culture was based on an extensive culture style. The prawn fry were collected from coastal and estuarine areas and poly- cultured with milkfish, Chanos chanos, and seaweed, Gracilaria spp. Prawn culture was hardly an economic enterprise at that time. The success of artificial propagation of both grass prawn Penaeus monodon, and sand prawn, Metapenaeus monoceros, in 1968 (Liao et al. 1969 a,b) was followed by the successive establishment of the propagation technique of other important prawn species such as bear prawn, Penaeus semisulcatus, white beard prawn, Penaeus teraoi, and red tail prawn, Penaeus penicillatus. It created a new era in the prawn culture industry. By the and of 1968, the first private commercial prawn hatchery was established with the assistance of scientists. More and more hatcheries have been reported engaging in juvenile production. By the end of 1982, there were about 100 private hatcheries operating on a commercial scale. Taking P. monodon as an example, the annual production of juveniles in 1977 was 100 million and exceeded 300 million since 1979, The annual yield of marketable prawn was 1,100 tens in 1977 and exceeded 8,000 tons with an amazing export quantity of over 2,000 tons in 1982. Although it is net higher than the total yield of several prawn species culture in Ecuador, Taiwan is considered as the most successful and most productive country as far as the culturing of a single species and cultivation from artificial propagation. It is expected that production would reach or exceed 50,000 tons within a few years because of the development of improved techniques and the expansion of farm area. Besides P. monodon, P. japonicus, P. penicillatus,P. semisulcatus, and M. ensis are indigenous species with successful trial or commercial production results. Among them, the annual yiel of two Metapenaeid prawns is a high as 1500 tons. They are of medium size but tastier than larger-size prawn and thus have larger domestic demand. Regarding exotic species, farming of Macrobrachium rosenbergii which was introduced from Thailand has developed into one of the important prawn industries (Chao 1979). In 1982, annual production was 20 million for juveniles end 250 tons for marketable prawn. This production ranked third among the countries which produce prawn from cultivation, with Thailand and Hawaii as the top producers. In addition, Penaeus stylirostris, Ponaeus vannamei and Penaeus brasiliensis have been introduced from Latin America in recent years. They have proved to be good aqua-culture candidates with high potential in Taiwan although it is rather difficult to reproduce a second generation so far. Culture status, related studies, problems, and potential prospects of prawn culture in Taiwan are outline and summarized. At the same time, they are compared with other countries and species, respectively.