Bringing the fry to the reservoirs in Las Tunas is an obsession for mechanical engineer Alberto Marrero Velázquez, who, as a maintenance specialist in the Development and Technology Department of the Las Tunas Fishing Company (Pescatun in Spanish), leads a team that has worked—and continues to work—tirelessly on an interesting project that will fulfill this desire.

Marrero Velázquez explains what motivates him: “As you learn about the beautiful biological process that these species, the cyprinids, go through, you become immersed in that world and can no longer turn away,” he says.

He sums up the evolution: “The females spawn, the sperm is extracted from the male and mixed, and then the water recirculation system in the incubator promotes the hatching of the egg, that is, fertilization, and within 24 hours you can see the larva formed. It's beautiful and very interesting.”

With enthusiasm that reveals sensitivity, he cherishes this reason as one of the motivations that encourages him in the generalization project that will provide Pescatun with its incubator, now in the testing phase, and whose implementation will bring many benefits.

FINGERLINGS AT THE EDGE OF THE PONDS

All efforts are focused on modifying and manufacturing an incubator for cyprinids, which will bring the larvae closer to the banks of the reservoirs from Las Tunas. Once this is achieved, it will be possible to increase production and bring more fish to the family table.

He recalls that there were two incubators at the Gramal dam, but in the 1990s, during the Special Period, they deteriorated and have not worked since, and “the company's management gave me the task of generalizing the results that exist today in Camagüey, where an incubator of this same type is in operation and is almost a reality,” he emphasizes.

"We went and learned from their experience, and we modified the water recirculation system of one of the incubators we had in disuse, which should operate clockwise, and that was a problem to be solved, and we solved it.
"It didn't have a filter, which is essential to prevent the larvae from escaping through the drain, and because it helps reduce the water pressure on the eggs against the walls of the incubator, ensuring greater reproduction, and we manufactured it.

"The well we had had high calcium content in its water and algae contamination that harms the survival of the fry. A new well was drilled and a filter system was installed," and so, step by step, they are getting closer to achieving their goal.

THE ECONOMY MOTIVATES...

They have invested more than a million pesos in the work carried out, but “it will pay off in multiple benefits,” says the enthusiastic engineer, expressing his confidence that they can recoup their investment in the first year of production.

“Half of the investment, almost 550,000 pesos, would be saved by no longer purchasing larvae in Camagüey—their main source of supply—whose transport to our units carries the implicit risks of stress and death for the larvae,” he points out.

He confirms that around 44 million larvae are purchased in Camagüey, and “a thousand cost around 12,000 pesos, so we spend more than half a million pesos each planting season.”

“This is just one of the benefits of this generalization,” he argues, "because in the territory we consume 80 million larvae a year when we add up the demand from Agriculture, the Ministry of the Interior, and Azcuba.

“When we have the incubator up and running, we will obtain the larvae needed by our base business units, and we will be in a position to market the surplus to those other entities and agencies, which will diversify our income,” he explains.

“From my position of responsibility, I see a universe open to the use of science and technology, an innovation that makes it possible to face current challenges and look to the future with more enthusiasm and optimism, a task that has the full support of management.”

Bringing the fry to the banks of the reservoirs from Las Tunas has become a priority for Pescatun, aware that its implementation will help to safeguard the economic health of the company and result in more offers for the population, a mission that its managers and workers are not giving up on, no matter how hard times are.