The Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Aquaculture (RGCA), the R&D arm of the Marine Products Export Development Authority (MPEDA), has achieved a breakthrough in large-scale production of fingerlings of the Tiger Grouper in India under controlled conditions.

This has been achieved at RGCA's hatchery facility in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, MPEDA said in a release here.

This breakthrough in large-scale seed production of Tiger Grouper for the first time in India has opened up new avenues for the Indian entrepreneurs to exploit, it said.

This huge Aquaculture business opportunity in the field of Ocean Cage Culture and mass production of Tiger Grouper for exporting live would help the Indian producer/exporter in gaining a near 10 fold advantage over selling chilled ones caught from the wild, the release said.

Though several attempts had been made over the years by several research institutions to attain large-scale seed production through captive breeding of the Tiger Grouper in India, under controlled conditions, it was only recently that RGCA has been able to develop the technology for large scale production of fingerlings of this fish.

Successful natural and induced spawning of the Tiger Groupers was carried out at the shore-based facility and sea cages. The young larvae hatched from the eggs were grown successfully to fingerling stage (50 mm) in the hatchery. The standardisation of the larval rearing techniques and the trials for the commercial-scale production of Tiger Grouper fingerlings was progressing, it said.

The trials have evolved methodologies for the consistent production of Tiger grouper fingerlings (4-8 cm size) in hatchery for undertaking commercial farming of groupers in open sea cages farming in India.

Epinephelus fuscoguttatus, commonly known as the Tiger Grouper, is one of the most relished finfish that demands excellent price in the live fish markets of the South East Asian countries such as Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Indonesia and Malaysia.

At a regular price of 20?25 USD a Kg (sold live), this fish is embarrassingly higher priced than most other popular seafood like Shrimp and Lobsters. In comparison, wild catches from India are presently exported chilled at a meagre price of 3-4 USD a Kg.

RGCA now proposes to develop a technology package for production of Tiger Grouper seed in hatcheries, grow the seeds to fingerlings in cages and finally produce marketable size fishes in open sea cages using these fingerlings. This technology development will also help to reduce the pressure on exploitation of natural wild fishery of the fish and conserve its natural stock.

The hatchery produced fingerlings could also be ranched to the sea to replenish the declining natural stocks. Besides, the export of live Tiger Grouper would fetch additional foreign exchange to the Indian exchequer which has already recorded an income of Rs 8,304 crore for 2008-09 from export of Seafood, the release said.

India is blessed with abundant fishery of Tiger Groupers in its vast stretch of coral reefs and rocky areas along the Gulf of Kutch, Gulf of Mannar, Kanyakumari coast, Palk Bay and the seas around Andaman and Nicobar Islands.