The 28 million kina (US$12.7 million) Western Province Sustainable Aquaculture Project is the first sustainable fisheries project to be delivered in Papua New Guinea’s Western Province and it incorporates public, private and community partnerships with a strong regional development focus.

Located next to Daru Airport, its main site includes a barramundi hatchery, storage, administration building and staff accommodation. A world-class bio-filtration and aeration facility, with customised water supply equipment, is capable of producing up to 500,000 ‘fingerlings’ (young fish that have developed to about the size of a finger) per annum.

Western Province is synonymous with barramundi but growing local and international demand for barramundi has led to overfishing and the depletion of fish stocks in the Fly River system. Thus the fingerlings reared in Daru will underpin a restocking project to rejuvenate the Fly River barramundi stocks, as well as a ‘cage culture’ project empowering the rural communities in the Middle and South Fly to farm barramundi.

The project commenced in late 2007 and is currently operating on a trial basis, with the first batch successfully spawned in November 2010.

This article first published in PNG’s Western Province Business and Investment Guide 2012