Status of Pangasiid aquaculture in Viet Nam

Wild caught river catfish  (Pangasianodon hypophthalmus) from the Mekong River have been an extremely popular food fish in Viet Nam for centuries. This report details the developments that have produced impressive increases in cultured production of river catfish over the last two decades.  

 

Information is provided on the wild seed fishery, technical developments in breeding and nursing of river catfish and culture methods, including pond and cage culture systems, illustrated with photographic examples. Cultured river catfish production data by culture systems are also listed for provinces in the Mekong River delta area of Viet Nam.  

 

Culture of river catfish, first reliant upon wild seed caught seasonally each year, has also been conducted for centuries. As pond and cage culture operations expanded in Viet Nam and also Cambodia, wild stocks of river catfish seed were decimated through over-fishing and destructive fishing methods.  

 

In the early 1980s hatchery operators in Viet Nam first mastered spawning and later in the 1990s nursing of river catfish. As a result cultured production of river catfish soared, reaching an estimated 20,000 metric tonnes by 1999.  

 

This report synthesises in a single readable volume, important information only previously available in Vietnamese and French reports and scientific papers. The historical information and the present status of river catfish culture in Viet Nam are of national and regional significance to both technical staff and policy decision makers within the aquatic resources sector. In addition this report gives specific examples of the interaction between wild capture fisheries and aquaculture, neither of which can be considered in isolation.