Lobster Aquaculture Development in Vietnam and Indonesia 12

Lobster Aquaculture Development in Vietnam and Indonesia 12 Clive M. Jones, Tuan Le Anh, and Bayu Priyambodo Abstract Development of spiny (rock) lobster aquaculture is of special interest because market demand continues to increase while capture fisheries production remains static and with little likelihood of any increase. This chapter provides a synopsis of infor- mation about the history, development, status and future of tropical spiny lobster aquaculture with a particular focus on Vietnam and Indonesia, where considerable development has already occurred. Vietnam is the only country in the world where farming of lobsters is fully developed and commercially successful. The Vietnamese industry is based on a natural supply of seed lobsters – the puerulus stage, as hatchery supply is not yet available due to the difficult technical demands of rearing spiny lobster larvae in captivity. Vietnam currently produces around 1600 tonnes of premium grade lobsters, primarily of the species Panulirus ornatus, that are exported to China where the price is higher. The industry is valued at over $US120 million. This success led to significant interest in Indonesia where a fishery for seed lobsters has become well developed, with a catch 10–20 times greater than that of Vietnam. However, growout of lobster in Indonesia remains insignifi- cant due to adverse government policy and lack of farmer knowledge and skills. The seed lobsters available in Indonesia are primarily Panulirus homarus, a species with excellent production characteristics like P. ornatus, although with lesser value. Extraordinarily high abundance of naturally settling seed lobsters is appar- C. M. Jones (*) Centre for Sustainable Tropical Fisheries and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Cairns, QLD, Australia e-mail: [email protected] T. Le Anh Nha Trang University, Nha Trang, Vietnam B. Priyambodo Marine Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Centre, Lombok, Indonesia © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2019 541 E. V. Radhakrishnan et al. (eds.), Lobsters: Biology, Fisheries and Aquaculture, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-32-9094-5_12 [email protected] 542 C. M. Jones et al. ent in selected areas due to a confluence of suitable conditions that create a high concentration of late-stage larvae near the coast. These areas have been termed hotspots, as the availability of settling seed is much higher than other areas. Such hotspots are now recognised in the central northern coast of Vietnam – supplying their growout industry – and the central southern coast of Indonesia. Natural mor- tality of the seed lobsters in these areas is correspondingly high due to insufficient settlement habitat and fish predation. Consequently, responsible fishing of these seed is sustainable, providing a valuable resource that can be on-grown for benefit of impoverished coastal communities. Innovative and inexpensive techniques have been developed to effectively catch the seed as they swim towards the coast seek- ing suitable habitat. In Vietnam, the seed are typically sold by fishers to dealers, who aggregate supplies and then on-sell to nursery farmers. Nursing consists of rearing the seed lobsters in small suspended or submerged cages, with a diet of fresh seafood – crabs, mollusc and fish. Advanced juvenile lobsters are produced that are in turn on-sold to growout farmers who stock them to larger floating cages, suspended from simple floating frames. The economics involve relatively low capital and operating costs and production of high-value product that provides significant economic and social benefit to the communities involved. Although several health and disease issues have impacted spiny lobster farming, they can be effectively managed through good nutrition and husbandry. Market demand for spiny lobster from China is strong and growing, far exceeding supply. There appears to be great scope for much larger farm production of spiny lobsters with little impact on price. The future for tropical spiny lobster aquaculture appears to be very positive, particularly for developing countries in the Asian region, where seed are available, suitable growout locations are present and where costs of production are relatively low. It is expected that lobster aquaculture will continue to develop in the region, expand- ing beyond Vietnam and Indonesia. Keywords Rock lobster · Aquaculture · Panulirus · Vietnam · Indonesia 12.1 Introduction Interest in farming lobster to meet growing demand has been evident for several decades, but has developed commercially to only a small extent due to biological constraints (Jones 2009). Supply of lobsters from fishery sources is largely static or in decline for all commercial species across the world (Phillips 2013). For spiny or rock lobsters (Palinuridae), there have been several cases of well-managed fisheries, declining sharply with uncertain attributions to the causes. The western rock lobster Panulirus cygnus (George 1962) fished commercially along the southwestern coast of Australia, for example, experienced a significant decline in catch in recent years, with revised quota now less than half what it once was, and despite a very well- credentialed management regime (Plagányi et al. 2017). Meanwhile, the demand [email protected] 12 Lobster Aquaculture Development in Vietnam and Indonesia 543 from markets for spiny lobster continues to grow – particularly from China (Jones 2015a). It is clearly evident that the only option for increasing spiny lobster supply is aquaculture. To date the only significant aquaculture production of spiny lobsters has come from Vietnam (Jones et al. 2010). The on-growing of the ornate lobster, Panulirus ornatus (Fabricius, 1798), has been a successful village-based industry along the central south coast of Vietnam since 1995, based on an abundance of naturally settling lobster seed and the establishment of up to 49,000 lobster sea cages (Hung and Tuan 2009). According to advice from Nha Trang University in Vietnam (Dr. Le Anh Tuan, September 2017, pers. comm), production of cultured lobsters in 2016 was estimated to be about 1600 tonnes, worth more than $US120 M. The success of the Vietnam industry has led to a similar interest in Indonesia, where there is potential for an equivalent, if not larger, lobster farming industry. To date there has been little development elsewhere within the natural distribution of the preferred species, although this may change, particularly if hatchery technology is commercialised. There is strong evidence of significant positive impact of lobster farming on impoverished coastal communities (Bell 2004), and thus great interest in extending such benefit to other poor areas (Petersen and Phuong 2010). Although the Vietnam lobster farming industry is successful, it has experienced significant challenges from disease and environmental degradation (Anh and Jones 2015a; Jones 2015b). Ongoing research (Jones 2015c) is working to resolve problems and support extension of sustainable practices to new lobster farming areas. This chapter describes the development of tropical spiny lobster aquaculture in Vietnam and Indonesia. 12.2 History Development of lobster aquaculture has been keenly sought for many decades (Jones 2009; Wickins and Lee 2002), and several commercially important fishery species have been intensively researched to assess and develop their commercial aquaculture. The clawed lobster Homarus americanus (H. Milne Edwards, 1837) from the north-west Atlantic, which supports the world’s largest lobster fishery, has been comprehensively researched to develop aquaculture technology. Due to biological constraints, primarily aggressive behaviour, and unattractive economics, efforts to establish clawed lobster aquaculture have been largely abandoned (Addison and Bannister 1994; Aiken 1988; Aiken and Waddy 1995; Tlusty 2004; Wahle et al. 2013). Nevertheless, a number of Homarus hatcheries in North America and Northern Europe (Homarus gammarus Linnaeus, 1758) continue to produce juveniles for restocking purposes. Interest in developing aquaculture of spiny lobsters (Palinuridae) has grown strongly in recent decades (Groeneveld et al. 2013; Jeffs and Hooker 2000; Jeffs and Davis 2003; Jones 2009; Kittaka and Booth 1994, 2000), although advances have been constrained by the protracted larval phase of all species and the difficulty of managing this phase in aquaculture systems. Commercial rock lobster hatchery [email protected] 544 C. M. Jones et al. technology has reached proof of concept, but is yet to become a commercial reality. Based on recent progress, commercial production of hatchery-produced pueruli may be realised in the next few years (Smith 2017), but its economic viability is yet to be tested. The only established and significant lobster aquaculture industry in the world is that of Vietnam, based on the growout of wild-caught juveniles (Jones 2015c). Its development dates from the late 1970s in response to growing demand for lobsters from China (Jones et al. 2010) (Table 12.1). In its earliest iteration, smaller sub- adult lobsters were held in cages and fattened over a period of weeks or months to achieve larger and higher priced sizes. This rapidly expanded to full growout from the post-larval phase to 1 kg + lobsters with more advanced husbandry and feeding. The primary species representing more than 90% of lobsters farmed in Vietnam is P. ornatus, which is the most readily available along the Vietnam coastline as a settling puerulus. This is fortunate,

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