Thanks to intensive farming, the famed 'pla buek' Mekong is now on the menu everywhere,
Chaiwat Satyaem
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| A young giant catfish proves a bit of a handful for a worker. |
Tasty dishes prepared from pla buek, the famous giant Mekong catfish, are no longer the rare treat they used to be. And there's no need to travel long distances to the provinces along the Mekong river in the North or the Northeast to sample the flavoursome fish.
Thanks to successful efforts to breed them in captivity and large-scale commercial farming, the fish are now on the menu almost everywhere. This not only helps to preserve and increase the number of the fish, but provides enough supplies for consumption all year round.
Not too long ago, the fish were found only in the Mekong river and caught only once a year, with supplies being very limited.
Today, most of the catfish now on restaurant menus are bred and raised in farms, with the central provinces, particularly Suphan Buri, the major farming areas.
Thailand has a worldwide reputation as a country rich in wildlife and marine life resources, including a wide variety of freshwater and saltwater fish.
But the giant catfish stands out among them all, given its reputation as the world's largest freshwater fish. Some of them weigh hundreds of kilogrammes.
The fish is native only to the Mekong river and feeds on plants. In Thailand, most of the pla buek are wild and caught in Ban Had Krai in tambon Wiang in Chiang Rai's Chiang Khong district.
The annual fishing season there begins late in April and continues until the beginning of June.
With the aim of preserving the fish and boosting its numbers in the wild, the Fisheries Department made a successful experiment to breed the Mekong giant catfish in 1983.
The fish is now considered to be of significant economic and commercial value.
Pruet Pichitbanchornchai, 27, is a proud owner of one of the biggest pla buek farms in Suphan Buri's Bang Pla Ma district.
His farm covers 550 rai of land with 26 raising ponds. The smallest pond covers about 10 rai whereas the biggest pond is about 31 rai.
Mr Pruet also raises various kinds of fish in the same ponds with pla buek.
His breeding technique is to keep a small number of fish in each pond to allow enough space for them to grow.
To begin with, he buys young giant catfish aged 30-45 days and releases them into nursery ponds where they are kept for 8 to 12 months.
He usually keeps the young fish in each nursery pond at a proportion of 1,500 fish per rai.
When the young pla buek grow to about 3-4 kilogrammes, Mr Pruet transfers about 150 of them at a time to a bigger pond, which is shared by 150 fish of other kinds.
The giant catfish are sold when they weigh 12-14 kilogrammes. The whole process takes up to 30 months.
Between 1,000 and 2,000 kilogrammes of pla buek are sold each day at 40 baht a kilo.
To keep the water in each pond clean, Mr Pruet has installed a water circulation system connecting each pond. It is designed to get the water flowing between the ponds.
Each pond is filled with fresh water every day to make sure the ponds do not dry up in the sun.
"That's why pla buek and other fish from my farm have cleaner and whiter meat texture than elsewhere," he said.
His wife, Sirikul, said reproduction of the fish in the natural environment remains elusive.
Baby giant catfish are rarely seen in the Mekong river. Only mature giant catfish weighing hundreds of kilos are found, she said.
Mrs Sirikul believes the giant catfish probably swim upstream to mate and produce their young in China. When they grow, they return to the Mekong river.
"People say if you want to sample pla buek, you have to go to the provinces along the Mekong river. That's not necessarily true.
"Actually, the fish are very few in the river now and in some years, not a single one is found," Mrs Sirikul said.
She said things now seem to be the other way round as most of the giant catfish sold in the markets along the Mekong river are in fact sent from farms in Suphan Buri.
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