Assessing cage culture potentiality of long whiskers catfish, Mystus gulio (Hamilton, 1822) in relation to climate change adaptation in Bangladesh coast

ABSTRACT

Climate change-induced sea-level rise, salinity intrusion, sudden water surge, natural calamities, etc. affect the fish biodiversity, food security, and coastal livelihoods that highlight the necessities of developing climate-resilient strategies e.g. adaptive aquaculture techniques. Cage culture of salinity-tolerant fish may be an adaptation strategy to compensate for the losses of freshwater fish production by climate change in coastal areas. Therefore, a 120-day long field experiment was conducted to evaluate the cage culture potentiality of Mystus gulio in the coastal region of Bangladesh. Three treatments at the stocking density of 90 (T₁), 135 (T₂), and 180 (T₃)/m² were stocked in nine cages (1.115 m²). Significantly (p<0.05) higher growth performance and feed utilization were recorded in T₁ followed by T₂ and T₃. In return, considering overall growth, survival, production, coast-benefit analysis, T₂ was found more profitable followed by T₃ and T₁. This result revealed that the culture of M. gulio in floating net cages might be a potential climate-adaptive aquaculture technique in the coastal region. However, further research works are necessary for optimizing stocking density, nutrition, social acceptance, etc. before conclude it as a viable climate-resilient adaptive aquaculture practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Mystus gulio
• climate change
• salinization
• adaptation
• cage culture

Acknowledgments

We would like to extend our sincere thanks and appreciations to the Infrastructural Development and Research Strengthening of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute Project (IDRS-BFRI Project) under Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute for research fund and Sylhet Agricultural University Research System for assistance & coordination to carry out this research. We are grateful to Mohammad Mahmudul Islam, Department of Coastal and Marine Fisheries and Mohammad Mehedi Hasan Khan, Department of Biochemistry and Chemistry, Sylhet Agricultural University for proofreading and editing, and anonymous reviewers for their very useful comments for improving the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research project was carried out with financial support from Infrastructural Development and Research Strengthening of Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute Project (IDRS-BFRI Project), Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute, Bangladesh.