ARE CRABLETS FOR CRAB GROWING TAKEN FROM MANGROVE FORESTS?

ARE CRABLETS FOR CRAB GROWING TAKEN FROM MANGROVE FORESTS?

I keep seeing advertisements on social media for what are sometimes called crab “condos” or cabinets, where people raise mud crabs for fattening.

This made me ask a very simple question:

Where do the crablets come from?

The answer is both interesting and worrying.

Yes, a significant portion of the crablets used by the Philippine mud-crab industry still comes from the wild. SEAFDEC/AQD says the industry remains largely dependent on wild collection, although hatchery technology has been developed to provide an alternative.

And where are these tiny crabs found?

Mangroves, tidal flats, estuaries and other coastal nursery areas.

Now I have another question:

If these are the natural nurseries of our mud crabs, how much can we take out before we start damaging the resource itself?

I am not against crab farming. In fact, I am very much in favor of livelihood programs that allow communities living near mangrove forests to earn from them while protecting them.

SEAFDEC itself has demonstrated mangrove-friendly crab culture, including cage and pen systems in mangroves.

But there is a big difference between using a mangrove sustainably and treating it as a free supermarket for crablets.

SEAFDEC reports that wild crablets have become increasingly difficult to find, and some Philippine local governments have already imposed restrictions on wild crablet collection.

So I wonder: Are our regulations being properly enforced everywhere?

And are DA-BFAR and DENR-BMB talking to each other enough about this?

I realize that their mandates may overlap in some areas. But the crab does not care which government agency has jurisdiction. The mangrove ecosystem does not care either.

What matters is whether the resource survives.

There is actually good news.

SEAFDEC/AQD has developed hatchery technology in which mature crabs are used as broodstock, their larvae are raised under controlled conditions, and the resulting crablets are transferred to nurseries.

More importantly, SEAFDEC says hatchery-reared crablets can perform comparably to wild crablets.

So why not accelerate the transition?

If we want crab farming to become a sustainable livelihood, shouldn't we gradually make hatchery-produced crablets the preferred source?

And if communities are going to earn from mangrove crab farming, why not make them protectors of the mangroves at the same time?

That would be real bayanihan.

I also see another issue. Those tiny crabs are living creatures. As we develop aquaculture, perhaps we should also pay greater attention to animal welfare and to the way crabs are confined, transported and raised.

For me, the principle is simple:

Let us earn from the mangroves without destroying the mangroves.

Let us produce more crabs, but not by taking away the future breeding populations.

Let us create more crab farmers, but also more mangrove protectors.

And perhaps the most important question of all is this:

Can we make every crablet that goes into a crab “condo” come from a responsible hatchery rather than from a natural mangrove nursery?

If we can do that, we may be able to have both livelihood and conservation.

Why should we choose one when we can have both?

RAMON IKE V. SENERES

www.facebook.com/ike.seneres  iseneres@yahoo.com  senseneres.blogspot.com  09088877282/09-17-2027

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