Coconut crab project awarded $10K grant

The Northern Marianas College Cooperative Research Extension and Education Service on Rota has been selected to receive a grant from the Western Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.

The project, entitled Coconut Crab Production Using Recycled Food Sources, was one of the several project proposals submitted by local farmers through NMC-CREES Rota to receive funding worth $10,000.

Project coordinator Alejandro Badilles said the grant intends to increase the captive coconut crab populations that are found in ranches of indigenous people on the island of Rota.

According to the proposal, the fund will be used for major project expenses that include personnel cost, materials and supplies, travel costs and printing and publication of brochures and other related materials.

Department of Lands and Natural Resources Secretary Ignacio T. Dela Cruz commended project coordinators Henry S. Atalig and Badilles in a letter he sent to Rota last week.

Dela Cruz said the project has merit and would benefit many CNMI residents, especially those already raising coconut crabs using the “confinement system.”

“It is hoped that the results of this project would be published as proposed, with good records on feeding, watering, reproduction, housing, mating system, recycled foods used, molting duration, frequency, and suggested materials to be used, etc.,” he said.

Studies such as this one would lead to better production systems, including the type of rearing system that is best and most productive and complete from mating or reproduction, to hatching of the eggs, growing of the larvae to post-larval stage, to juvenile rearing and on to the mating stages, and a repeat of the life and reproductive cycle.

The project narrative said that about 5 percent of local ranches have been growing captive populations of coconut crabs for several decades now on Rota.

“However, these part-time farmers and ranchers have not applied scientific techniques of animal husbandry to increase the yields of their coconut crab livestock.”

It added that the demand for this product has by far exceeded the annual production of farm-raised livestock, the reason why the bulk of the consumption comes from wild-hunted animals.

The major food item of both captive and wild coconut crabs has been the mature coconut fruit in the husk. The proposal said the farmers would just toss the coconuts into the crab pen.

“These crabs have long suffered from nutrient deficiencies due to lack of protein, vitamins and minerals,” said the proposal, adding that compared to the wild coconut crabs, they feed on dead birds and fish, wild fruit and high mineral content rocks.

Thus, the project will provide crab nutrient supplies such as vitamins, minerals, and additives. It will also provide crab medicinal products from aquaculture suppliers like antibiotics. Hand tools for maintaining crab pens will also be purchased for the project.