Fish culture at the Pucallpa Navy Base in the Peruvian Amazon

William N. Camargo, Christopher C. Kohler, and Susan T. Kohler Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIUC) E-mail: wcamargo@siu.edu Mariano Rebaza A., Carmela Rebaza A. and Sonia Deza T. Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazona Peruana IIAP Pucallpa. Per Eliana Villafana S. and Carlos Alvarez J. Marina de Guerra Ucayali Pucallpa, Peru

The Institute for the Investigation of the Peruvian Amazon (IIAP), along with two parttime Ucayali navy biologists, Eliana Villasana Salinas (Fig. 1) and Carlos Alvarez Janampa, has been leading an applied aquaculture training program at the Ucayali Naval Base (Pucallpa, Peru) since 2001. Through this program, fish culture of the most prominent and highly accepted fish species (gamitana Colossoma macropomum, paco Piaractus brachypomus and paiche Arapaima gigas) are being promoted in the Peruvian Amazon region to increase the supply of cultured fish and to mediate overfishing of wild populations (these fishes now represent only 0.7 to 2.0% of the total landings in the region). This program seeks to train navy privates, particularly those from the Amazon region, techniques used to culture native aquatic species. In addition to making the naval base more self-sustaining with respect to food supply, it is anticipated that when these privates conclude their tours of duty, they will have the experience to successfully initiate subsistence levels of aquaculture production, or find employment as technicians in the growing fish culture industry in the region.
Ucayali Navy biologist Eliana S. Villafana is one of the individuals responsible for the administration of the Ucayali Naval Base aquaculture station (center). (Photo: W. Camargo)

The Ucayali Naval Base is located in the outskirts of the city of Pucallpa (Peru), and has a total of seven hectares of ponds (3 ponds of 0.1 ha, 2 ponds of 0.35 ha, 3 ponds of 0.5 ha and a reservoir of 4.3 ha) constructed in 1994 by the National Fund for Fisheries Development (FONDEPES) (Fig. 2) and reactivated in 2001 by the Ucayali Navy and IIAP. The training program, which is entirely voluntary, takes place over three months out of the two-year tour of voluntary military service (Fig. 3).

Figure 2. The Ucayali Naval Base aquaculture ponds, near the city of Pucallpa (Peru). (Photo: Marina de Guerra Ucayali)

Figure 3. IIAP Ucayali Director Ing. Fausto Hinostroza Maita (left, holding fish bag), Mariano Rebaza A. (IIAP Aquaculture Production Director, left), Vice-Admiral of the Ucayali Naval Base Jorge de la Puente Ribeyro (center, holding fish bag), President Edwin Vazquez Lpez (Ucayali Regional President, right) and volunteer navy privates ready to stock a pond in the Ucayali Naval Base (Peru). (Photo: W. Camargo).

Biologist Mariano Rebaza Alfaro (Fig. 4), the Aquaculture Production Director at IIAP/Pucallpa, is responsible, together with his two colleagues, Carmela Rebaza Alfaro and Sonia Deza Taboada, for the theoretical and practical training of the navy privates at the IIAP research station in Pucallpa. The two part-time biologists are in charge of the daily reinforcement of the concepts learned through IIAPs three-month technical training program. To date, approximately 100 navy privates have matriculated in the program.
Figure 4. Mariano Rebaza A. (IIAP Aquaculture Production Director, left) holding a paco, President Edwin Vazquez Lpez (Ucayali Regional President, center) holding a gamitana, and Carlos Alvarez J. (right) holding some acarahuazu in the Ucayali Navy Base (Peru). (Photo: W. Camargo).

The species cultured (Fig. 5) at the Ucayali Naval Base are: paco, gamitana, paiche (only maintaining broodstock for the posterior fingerling production), acarahuazu Astronotus ocellatus, pacotana (hybrid between male paco and female gamitana) and paiche. The paco, gamitana and paiche are highly accepted because they are very popular native fish among rural as well as urban inhabitants, while acarahuasu (commonly known as oscar) is less accepted as food fish by the urban inhabitants. In the case of pacotana (hybrid), this species is still under research, and it is a

very promising species to be cultured only in enclosed environments because of their larvae low-temperature resistance and their very rapid growth.
Fig. 5. Navy privates sampling some of the fish species being cultured semiextensively in polyculture at the Ucayali Naval Base (Peru). (Photo: W. Camargo).

The Ucayali navy program has successfully produced up to 8,000 kg/ha of fish (semiintensively) feeding a 28% crude protein diet with supplementation of some local fruits (camu-camu, starfruit, pijuayo, etc.) in 10 months from fingerlings (Fig. 6) donated by IIAP under Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program United States Agency for International Development (A/CRSP-USAID) sponsorship or purchased in the case of gamitana from the Instituto de Investigaciones Tropicales y de Altura (IVITA) in Pucallpa. A similar program is underway at the Loreto Naval Base under the direction of FONDEPES in Iquitos, Peru. The fish produced by the Ucayali Naval Base are either consumed in the navy base or sold (winter: October through April) in San Martn, Aguayta, Tingo Mara, Alto Huallaga and even in Lima, in which case the profits are reinvested.
Figure 6. Volunteer navy privates stocking a pond in the Ucayali Naval Base with fish donated by IIAP under SIUC-A/CRSP (USAID) sponsorship (Peru). (Photo: W. Camargo).

The paiche being raised in some of the ponds will serve to increase the broodstock number available in the region for production of fingerlings to be used for both culture and for governmental stocking programs.