kolkata: The state Fisheries department has initiated cage culture of fishes at Kangsabati reservoir in Mukutmanipur in Bankura district. This is for the first time in Bengal when the Fisheries department has adopted this technique for pisciculture.
“We have identified a number of places in the large waterbody at Mukutmanipur and in four of these places, we have placed cages with plastic sheets underneath them to keep them floating and have released fishes in them. We have started with four cages and in the next three - four months we will be adding another 16 such cages taking the total count to 20,” Biplab Roychowdhury, state Fisheries minister who launched the project recently said.
He added that food, medicines and oxygen, if needed, will be provided to the fishes for their good growth. “A number of states in the country have been successful in cultivation of fishes by cage culture and we are hopeful that it will augur well in Bengal too,” the minister added. The cage culture of fishes will also emerge as a major attraction for tourists as the boats that take people around the Kansabati reservoir will make them behold this unique technique of fish cultivation.
The department has started with Pangas (Pangasius pangasius) which has a very good market in the area. “We have taken up research regarding this initiative so that this method can be adopted in other places too. We have future plans of cultivating Bhetki fish through cage culture. However, any future endeavors towards spreading this method in other places in the state will depend on the success of the ongoing one,”Roychowdhury added.
The state Directorate of Fisheries in March had signed an MoU with ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore to push cage culture in March. The objectives of this development project are dissemination of table fish production in cage culture; strengthening the capacity of Directorate of Fisheries, the resource user communities, and cooperatives.