The man who makes squid… thrives!

Hearing my younger brother introduce that in Tuy Phong district there was the first person who successfully raised cuttlefish, I immediately tried to contact and meet him...

From incubating squid…

Returning to Phuoc The fishing village in the last days of May, the first rains of the season in recent days did not ease the dry heat of the coastal area. It is the southern season so the sea here is calm, boats from all over come to buy and sell seafood in the crowded and bustling fishing village. Phuoc The fishermen are famous for diving, catching anchovies, and especially squid fishing.

This season, traders sit in the fishing village waiting, occasionally fishing boats come in, bringing with them fresh, curved, shiny squid, all of which are purchased by traders at stable prices. However, according to long-time fishermen here, the source of squid is getting less and less each year while the demand for consumption is increasing. Seeing that, a son of Tuy Phong district has researched through books and newspapers, watched ocean exploration programs and discovered that: Squid is very easy to raise and has pioneered the experiment of breeding squid and raising commercial squid. He is Mach Van Quang (born in 1973) in Ward 5 - Lien Huong town.

Mr. Quang's cage area is raising squid and fish.

Taking us to visit 12 cages anchored in Phuoc The fishing village, where Quang is raising squid, the man with a tanned face shared with us the process of getting to where he is today. Having worked in shrimp farms in Vinh Tan commune, Quang has some understanding of the techniques of raising juveniles, but when applying them to squid, it is not simple. “In 2021, I tried it for the first time, buying squid eggs from fishermen, then putting them in oxygenated cement tanks and incubating them. After about 5-7 days, the eggs slowly hatched into baby squids. I thought it was a success, seeing the tiny squids swimming around, I was very happy. But after only 1 month, the baby squids slowly died.”

Mr. Mach Van Quang shared with us the process of getting to where he is today.

Recalling that difficult time, Mr. Quang pondered and continued: “Not discouraged, I researched the habits of squid, found out the cause and made my own seawater filter to remove residue and impurities, keeping only clean water to incubate squid eggs. When the eggs hatched into tiny ones like toothpicks, I started feeding them live foods such as artemia, post-larvae shrimp... These are foods with high nutritional content, used as live food for larval crustaceans. Thanks to improved techniques and farming methods, after 2 months of incubation, the first batch of squid seeds gave birth to healthy ones.” As he spoke, Mr. Quang could not hide his joy in his eyes marked by time. After many failures, he successfully incubated squid seeds and sold them to fishermen in areas specializing in squid farming such as Cam Ranh, Phu Yen , Binh Dinh... At that time, he both abandoned the seeds and went to the rafts to instruct people on commercial squid farming techniques.

Mr. Quang successfully incubated squid eggs after many failures.

The commercial squid fry are growing and developing well.

Come to commercial squid farming

By 2023, Mr. Quang had teamed up with a friend to build the first squid cages at sea in Binh Thuan . Leading us to 4 cages where squid were more than 1 month old, Mr. Quang slowly fed them and continued: “When the squid are about 25 - 30 days old, I will bring them to the cages to raise them directly at sea into commercial squid. The most important thing in raising squid is that the food source must be abundant and uninterrupted because the squid must be fed 3 - 4 times a day. If not provided with enough food, the squid will eat each other, depleting the source of seeds. In particular, farmers need to be patient when feeding squid. Because squid only eat floating food, if you rush to spread a lot of food, the food will fall to the bottom, leading to water pollution while the squid have not had time to eat. Therefore, each time feeding squid, it takes more than 1 hour to ensure that the squid are full and have enough nutrition.”

If not provided with enough food, squid will eat each other.

After 3 successful farming seasons, Mr. Quang did not hesitate to share: “Because of the high initial investment capital, many people are still hesitant to switch to raising animals. Actually, raising squid is easier than raising fish and shrimp. Squid has few diseases, just need to proactively provide food sources, the squid will grow well. With 500 juveniles raised in a cage, after 5 months I harvested an average of 1.7 - 1.9 quintals, at that time female squid weighed 3 - 3.5 grams/piece, male squid weighed 5 - 6 grams/piece and are being purchased by traders at a stable price of 500,000 - 600,000 VND/kg”.

Squid has few diseases, just need to proactively provide food source, squid will grow well.

Compared to other sea areas, Binh Thuan sea area has many favorable factors for developing aquaculture. Here, there are few storms, little affected by river water, the bottom layer is mainly rocky reefs, corals, so spilled food will be washed away by the ebb and flow of the tide, very suitable for marine farming. However, most of the coastal communes of Tuy Phong district are flat, making it difficult for cage aquaculture, forcing fishermen to spend more money to move their rafts between the two seasons of the south and north. "In the south season, the fishing village in Phuoc The is calm, so I move my rafts here. In the 10th lunar month of the north season, I have to pull the rafts to La Gan - Binh Thanh beach, because fish or squid raised in cages need calm water with little wind and waves," Mr. Quang explained further.

In the southern season, he pulled the rafts back to Phuoc The fishing village, and in the northern season, he returned to Binh Thanh sea.

Tuy Phong sea area also has the rare phenomenon of upwelling, rich in nutrients from the deep sea rising to the surface. The cool and nutrient-rich upwelling water helps many organisms develop, making the sea area of ​​Binh Thuan in general and Tuy Phong in particular have abundant, fresh and high-value aquatic resources. Therefore, Tuy Phong squid raised or caught in the wild will certainly be crispier and sweeter than those in other sea areas.

Sustainable marine farming trends

He is also the first fisherman in the district to experiment with raising brown rabbitfish, in parallel with raising cobia before. “Currently, I only invite friends and acquaintances to visit and fish on the raft on weekends. When the model develops stably, I also want to combine bringing tourists to experience squid fishing, fishing on the spot and serving food and drinks at the raft like Phu Quy district is doing. If Binh Thanh commune has more interesting destinations like this, it will stimulate local tourism development. Above all, from successfully raising squid, I want to guide local fishermen to switch to sustainable aquaculture, reducing exploitation when marine resources are increasingly depleted…” - Mr. Quang shared about his plans for the future.

Friends often go to the raft to fish for silver pomfret and squid.

In recent years, marine aquaculture in the province has developed quite strongly, concentrated in Tuy Phong, Ham Thuan Nam, Phu Quy districts, Phan Thiet city... The main aquaculture species are marine fish such as cobia, grouper, pomfret, and lobsters, with a total annual harvest of about 500 tons of fish and shrimp. Therefore, marine aquaculture will become a trend in the future. Mr. Nguyen Van Chien - Deputy Director of the Department of Agriculture and Environment said that the potential for marine aquaculture in the province is very large, especially in the context of increasingly depleted aquatic resources, raw materials for export processing depend on imports from foreign countries... In the coming time, the province's fisheries industry will sharply reduce the means of exploiting coastal aquatic products, contributing to solving the problem of converting occupations from coastal aquatic exploitation to more sustainable marine aquaculture. Marine aquaculture is also a great opportunity to restore overexploited ecosystems, ensuring the livelihoods of local people...

Marine aquaculture is also a great opportunity to restore overexploited ecosystems.

Mr. Quang happily shared about his future plans.

Leaving Quang's raft when the sun was already at its peak, we suddenly thought that if his raft area had the conditions to welcome guests like Phu Quy, we would be sitting on the windy raft, enjoying the crispy, fresh squid instant noodles that we caught ourselves, what could be better! Surely that is also his not-so-distant dream when the squid resource is increasingly abundant!

Source: https://baobinhthuan.com.vn/nguoi-dan-ong-lam-muc-la-sinh-soi-130684.html