Taiwan Today

An enormous 150-kilogram giant grouper fish swimming in the large marine aquarium at the Eastern Marine Biology Research Center in Taitung County, southeastern Taiwan, is living proof of the nation’s successful grouper fish artificial breeding program. The 2-meter long, 17-year-old giant fish already has four generations of descendants. “This fish was one of the first artificially inseminated giant groupers we produced,” researcher Ho Yuan-hsing said of its importance as the grandfather of the center’s groupers. “When he was born in 1997, he was just 1.65 millimeters long. In human years he would now be 70 or 80. He has countless descendants, evidence of the success of the nation’s grouper breeding program.” From the 1980s onward, the center, part of the Fisheries Research Institute under the ROC Council of Agriculture, has been at the forefront of efforts to turn Taiwan into a Grouper Kingdom, Ho said. Fellow researcher Tai Kun-tsai imported almost 100 of the fish in the early 1990s, and beginning in 1995, he worked with Ho on the artificial breeding program. According to Ho, the program has had several notable successes, including the use of hormones to accelerate maturation. A special characteristic of giant groupers is that they can change sex. They usually remain female until eight years old, when a small percentage of female groupers become male. The team also found a way to bring this sex change forward to three years so as to increase the number of males in the population. In 1996 they had their first successful artificial insemination, but the reproductive rate was low. It was not until 1997 that they refined their techniques, and boosted the rate to produce more than 800,000 minnows. The market grows with the fish becoming more affordable. Ho said that artificially inseminated eggs are usually sold by the 400-gram bowl. In 1997 a bowl of eggs was worth NT$60,000 (US$1,960), but this has fallen to NT$20,000 today. In 1999, the first year artificially gown giant grouper was sold commercially, it was priced at NT$1,250 per 600 grams. A mature fish of 6 kilograms or more now sells for about NT$200 per 600 grams. . Giant groupers grow very quickly, reaching almost 2 kilograms within a year and 6-8 kilograms within 2 years. Major export markets are Hong Kong and mainland China, with annual production of NT$7 billion. (SDH)