Sustainable Mariculture

A major threat to the stability of marine aquatic ecosystems is the significant impact of current mariculture practices. Most aquaculture companies pollute the environment by having extremely high stocking densities, resulting in an overload of nutrients that end up in the surrounding environment. To control diseases, many aquaculture companies use antibiotics excessively, which causes changes to the natural cycle of the marine life. Furthermore, they use wild stock but seldom restock wild populations, consequently resulting in decreased wild populations. Thereby, overexploitation and the use of illegal methods like dynamiting and cyanide fishing, are a direct cause of the population decline and habitat destruction of many marine species.

It is time to recognize the negative impact mankind has imposed upon the marine ecosystems. The heritage we leave to our children and grandchildren, is our responsibility here, today. It is time to make a change!

The ultimate target of South Sea Exclusive is to realize a 'green' transition in mariculture in Southeast Asia in the coming decades; therefore sustainability is the driving force behind our mariculture practice. We intend to make a difference in the following ways.

Hatchery

It all starts with the hatchery. At South Sea Exclusive we produce our own stock. As a result, there is no negative impact on the marine resources. The production of stock takes place in land-based, closed recirculation systems, located at our main laboratory.

Nursery

Stock from our hatchery is transferred outside into floating sea cages when the natural cycle determines the proper time. Here, juvenile spiny lobsters (eight juveniles/m³) are being fed three times a day on a diet consisting of 70% fish (trash fish bought from local markets) and 30% green mussels (produced at our facilities as spiny lobster feed, and simultaneously used as a biological filter).

The spiny lobsters are grouped by weight reducing competition between individuals. After six months, the individual lobsters are separated by gender to reduce mating stress for the females. After around one year, they reach optimum size (800 grams) and are then ready for export to China, Japan and Malaysia.

Sustainability

South Sea Exclusive minimizes its impact on the natural environment during every step of the production process.

Water quality

Excellent water quality is of major importance for our production process. In order to meet our sustainability demands and to produce high quality marine products, we maintain an excellent water quality thru the process control of:

Using low stocking densities of spiny lobsters.
Using several mariculture species (green mussels, abalone, sea cucumbers, and Gracilaria species) as biofilters that purify the water. The green mussels are packed in ‘mussel strings’ around the cages. The abalones are kept in small cages alongside the main lobster cage. The sea cucumbers are kept in cages below the lobster cage and the Gracilaria (seaweed) is planted around the facility.
Removing excessive feeds from plates installed below the cages on a daily basis.
Implementing strict monitoring analysers measuring water quality in the immediate surroundings of the production facilities. These monitoring devices have been designed and utilized with a high standard of success by the Vietnamese government to measure water quality around shrimp farms.

Feeds

Unlike most mariculture companies, we do not utilize fishmeal to feed our stock. Fishmeal consists of small dried fish, intentionally caught solely for the purpose of feeding mariculture stock. Fishmeal is caught by large fishing vessels in vast quantities, which directly competes with the availability of fish for the local communities. Frequently, it is the juvenile fish which are caught. As a result, the local communities are deprived of what would in a few months time, become harvested as a mature stock, and then consumed, and/or sold at the market.

The majority of our feed stock is produced at our facilities. The remainder is obtained from local markets, where we will purchase unsold and damaged fish, still of high-quality and fresh, perfectly suitable to use as feed.

By producing our own feeds including the selection of specific fish species, we introduce a method of quality control that virtually eliminates the potential for pollution of outside contaminants, such as heavy metal, in our end product.

Antibiotics

At our nurseries, we do not utilize antibiotics. Instead, we implement natural mechanisms, minimizing the occurrence of any major loss in harvest due to diseases. We accomplish this by:

Using low stocking densities of spiny lobsters.
Providing the spiny lobsters a natural and balanced diet.
Making use of special algae that have antibacterial characteristics (pro-biotics).

Active conservation

In order to restore the depleted, over-harvested wild populations of spiny lobsters in the Philippines, South Sea Exclusive releases 5% of its spiny lobster harvest each year into well guarded Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the Philippines.

Secondly, we contribute 5% of our annual profit to the South Sea Exclusive Foundation, which intends to contribute to the improvement of the 'quality of life' of the local community and environment of the island Palawan, by conducting projects concerning alternative livelihood, nature conservation and environmental education.