New Caledonia’s Northern Province has been selected for the establishment of the new Mariculture Technical Development Centre (CCDTAM) on the Foué peninsula in Koné, the administrative capital of the Northern Province.

The construction of CCDTAM was a partnership between the local government and New Caledonia’s three provinces (Northern, Southern and Loyalty Islands). CCDTAM is currently being managed by ADECAL (the territory’s Agency for Economic Development) as part of the activities of an innovation and technological park created in 2011 (Technopole de Nouvelle-Calédonie).

Mariculture promotion and development is among the key priorities of the New Caledonian government, as an economically viable and technically feasible alternative to other income generating activities, such as capture fisheries or mining activities. For that reason, and in order to support such development, CCDTAM has been recently equipped to assist mariculture-related development, research and training activities, and will be fully operational in early 2013.

The main objective of CCDTAM is to develop technically feasible farming operations for local, marine reef finfish species of high commercial value (for the domestic and export market), such as the humpback grouper, Cromileptes altivelis, and the emperor red snapper, Lutjanus sebae, in order to transfer and disseminate these technologies or farming strategies to future local farmers and investors.

SPC’s Aquaculture Section has been involved in facilitating a technical exchange between different Indonesian mariculture centres and CCDTAM in 2012. As a result of this fruitful exchange, an expert on marine finfish broodstock management and breeding, Suci Antoro, a researcher at the Lampung Mariculture Centre in Indonesia, has travelled to Koné on two separate occasions (the last one for three months), in order to provide technical assistance on marine finfish breeding and larval rearing technologies.

At the beginning of December 2012, emperor red snapper (Lutjanus sebae) individuals, collected in 2012 from different coastal areas of New Caledonia, reached maturity and spawned in captivity at the facility. The larvae obtained from this spawning event are currently reared at CCDTAM, using Indonesian larval rearing protocols, with promising results for survival and growth.

In parallel, the production of microalgae and rotifer, used as food for the emperor red snapper larvae, has also been very successful. It is an essential component for the successful production — both in terms of quantity and quality — of a steady volume of larvae destined to be distributed to private farmers.

The next step will focus on grow-out strategies. In 2013, CCDTAM experts are planning to deploy floating cages where emperor red snapper juveniles will be stocked and reared. Survival, feeding, conversion and stocking density trials are planned to be carried out at this forthcoming stage.

For more information:

Adrien Rivaton, Head of Adecal Technopole: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Bruno Noguerra, CCDTAM Director: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Ruth Garcia Gomez, SPC Aquaculture Officer: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it