Rafael Viera has a breeding facility in the Rosario Islands near Cartagena
Food conversion rates of 1:9 has been reported.
Fingerlings breeded successfully.
Sardines are worthless fish that can not make it to the market - they only have value as bait fish. So the best way to pin a price for sardines is to take the capacity of a canoe (100 kg load) and the labor cost of a fisherman (30.000 COP/day) - if you would place a offer for sardines of 1 canoe load of sardines for 30.000 pesos you could get pretty much any amount of fisherman working on that base and sardines in any amount you would like brought directly to your facility in canoe.
This places a kilo sardines somewhere at 300 COP/kilo - (0,16 USD/kilo).
The mero guasa fingerlings you can get at Rafael Vieiras facility for almost free - they produce them in mass and redistribute them to the natural environment in a eco revitalisation project.
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Mero Guasa sucking in a sardine...
What i like from mero guasa is that it is a "sturdy fish" that is disease free, tolerates water quality and temperature changes, so you can toss them out into a growth cage and never touch or manipulate the animal until it is ready for the market. So it is great aquaculture for dummies - get sardines and trow them into the cages this is pretty much all you need to do.
It is a bit like the aquatic version of longhorn cattle and buffalo - sturdy animals that need little attention no science lab attached.
You put a fishermans wage in to feed them - you get 10 times a fishermans wage out in high quality filet . No market fluctuation involed all works local.
Wil
-- Edited by admin on Monday 31st of October 2011 11:54:46 AM