Safeguards and regulations for operation of crab hatcheries

REGD. No. D. L.-33004/99 The Gazette of India CG-DL-E-04072025-264375 EXTRAORDINARY PART II—Section 3—Sub-section (ii) PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY No. 2827] NEW DELHI, MONDAY, JUNE 30, 2025/ ASHADHA 9, 1947 MINISTRY OF FISHERIES, ANIMAL HUSBANDRY AND DAIRYING (Department of Fisheries) NOTIFICATION New Delhi, the 26th June, 2025 S.O. 2894(E).—In pursuance of section 3 of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005 (24 of 2005), read with clause (h) of rule 3 of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Rules, 2024, the Central Government hereby notifies the following guidelines, namely:- 1. Short title and commencement.- (1) These guidelines may be called the Hatcheries and Farms for Seed Production and culture of Crab Guidelines, 2025. (2) They shall come into force from the date of their publication in the Official Gazette. PART I Safeguards and regulations for operation of crab hatcheries 1. Application criteria for crab hatchery.- (1) The hatcheries engaged or intending to be engaged in seed production of crabs having the required biosecurity facilities and in-house quarantine facility as specified by the Coastal Aquaculture Authority shall be eligible to apply for registration under the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Act, 2005 (24 of 2005) (herein after referred as the said Act) and the Coastal Aquaculture Authority Rules, 2024 (herein after referred as the said rules) for collection, conditioning, and induced breeding of crab in marine or brackish water from Indian waters for seed production, nursery rearing and sale of megalopa or instars or crablets. (2) The hatchery operator shall submit an application in Form II of the said rules to the Authority enclosing therewith the required documents as specified in Schedule II of the said rules and payment of registration fees of rupees ten thousand in accordance with the procedure laid down in rule 9 of the said rules. (3) A detailed project report indicating the infrastructure, bio-security measures, production capacity, technology support, employment generation, economics of operation, etc., shall be submitted along with the application. (4) Approval of the hatchery for seed production of crab shall be given by the Authority after due inspection of the hatchery facilities by a team constituted by the Authority for this purpose in accordance with the procedure laid down in rule 11 of the said rules. (5) The hatchery facilities shall have strict biosecurity control through physical separation or isolation of the different production facilities or isolation through the construction of barriers and implementation of process and product flow controls. (6) The hatchery facilities shall have a wall or fence around the periphery of the premises, with adequate height to prevent the entry of animals and unauthorised persons to help to reduce the risk of pathogen introduction in to the culture system. 2. Sanitary requirement.- (1) Entry to the hatchery shall be restricted to the personnel assigned to the work exclusively in this area and a record of persons entering the facility to be maintained by the security personnel. (2) The entry of any person including staff shall be compulsorily passed through shower and allowed only after taking shower and wearing working clothes and boots before entering into the facility and the same procedure shall be followed at the end of the working shift. (3) A provision shall be made for disinfection of vehicle tyres (tyre baths at the gate with > 100 ppm of active ingredients Sodium or calcium hypochlorite solution), feet (foot baths containing 50 ppm of Potassium permanganate/ 20 ppm of hypochlorite solution), and hands [bottles containing iodine-PVP (20 ppm and / or 70% alcohol)] to be used upon entering and exiting the unit. (4) All the cleaning chemicals, sanitary chemicals and other inputs materials should be stored separately with proper labelling outside the production area. (5) Hatchery surroundings should be maintained hygienically throughout the production cycle without any accumulation of waste materials. 3. Water intake.- (1) Each functional unit of the hatchery shall have independent water treatment facility isolated from all other water supply systems and separate recirculation systems may be used for each functional unit of hatchery to reduce water usage and improve biosecurity, especially in high-risk areas. (2) Water for the hatchery shall be filtered and treated to prevent the entry of vectors and pathogens that may be present in the source water by initial filtering through sub-sand well points, sand filters (gravity or pressure), or mesh bag filters, into the first reservoir or settling tank. (3) After primary disinfection by chlorination or ozonation and after settlement, the water shall be filtered again with a finer filter and then disinfected using ultraviolet light or ozone before the water is being utilised in the concerned section. (4) The water supply system shall include the use of activated carbon filters, ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid, along with temperature and salinity regulation. 4. Water treatment and discharge of wastewater.- (1) The discharged water from the hatchery shall be held temporarily and treated with hypochlorite solution (>20 ppm active chlorine for not less than sixty minutes) or other effective disinfectants prior to discharge. (2) The seawater to be used in the facility shall be delivered into a storage tank where it will be treated with hypochlorite solution (20 ppm active ingredient for not less than thirty minutes) followed by sodium thiosulphate (1 ppm for every ppm of residual chlorine) and strong aeration. (3) No wastewater shall be released out of the hatchery without chlorination and dechlorination, so as to prevent the escape of the pathogens or parasites into the natural waters. (4) Effluent Treatment System shall be designed as specified by the Authority. 5. Disinfection of implements.- (1) Used containers and hoses shall be washed and disinfected with hypochlorite solution (> 50 ppm) before further use. (2) Disinfection of Pipe lines inside the facility (both Seawater and Freshwater) shall be done by pumping 200 ppm chlorinated water and hold it for 24 hrs and after disinfection with chlorine, the pipelines shall be flushed with freshwater to remove residual chlorine. (3) Aeration lines shall be disinfected by fumigating with formalin. (4) All the in-warded new materials or equipment shall be disinfected by using fumigation equipment (200 ppm formalin). (5) The technical person responsible for the operation of the unit shall confirm the water quality parameters such as Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate, DO, Temperature, pH, and Salinity, as prescribed in the para 4 of the Guidelines for regulating Coastal aquaculture, before stocking. (6) Each broodstock holding tank shall have, - (i) a separate set of implements which must be clearly marked and placed near the tanks; and (ii) facilities for disinfection of all the implements at the end of each day's use. 6. Broodstock collection.- (1) The gravid female crabs may be procured or collected from wild or culture pond or broodbank to use them for spawning at hatchery facility. (2) In case of wild collection of brooder, the berried or ovigerous brooders shall be avoided to protect the natural recruitment. (3) Brooders shall be reared individually in tanks with adequate space for its movement and wellbeing. (4) The broodstock shall be free from injuries or deformities and can be transported individually to the facility in thermocoal or styroform boxes with Oxygen. (5) Record on the traceability of the source of these stocks shall be maintained to avoid in-breeding. 7. Broodstock quarantine.- (1) The hatchery operator shall establish a proper and fully bio-secured facility. (2) Broodstock collected shall be quarantined in in-house facility for one week before entry in to the hatchery. (3) The prophylactic treatment for external parasite shall be done. (4) Quarantine discharge water shall be treated separately before releasing into effluent treatment system. 8. Standard operating procedure for in-house quarantine facility.- (1) The Coastal Aquaculture Authority shall have right to carry out the inspection of the in-house quarantine facility and hatchery at any time or may assign this responsibility to any designated Agency or Committee, as and when required. (2) The following shall be the procedure for receiving broodstock at in-house quarantine facility, namely:- (i) vehicle shall pass through tyre bath at the hatchery premises before reaching the receiving point; (ii) The entire consignment shall be unloaded at the in-house quarantine facility and the personnel involved in unloading shall disinfect their hands, apron, coat and shoes before and after unloading; and (iii) The quarantine tanks shall have 1MT to 5MT capacity for movement of broodstock crabs and shall be maintained under optimal water quality parameters as specified in para 4 of the Guidelines for regulating coastal aquaculture. (3) The following procedure shall be adopted for screening of pathogens, namely :- (i) screening for World Organisation for Animal Health listed pathogens and pathogens of concern to India shall be done; (ii) during quarantine period, samples may be collected using non-lethal methods (appendages or haemolymph) from randomly selected brooders for screening; (iii) the sample shall be referred to Aquatic Quarantine Facility laboratory at Neelankarai, Chennai or Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture or any other accredited laboratory for testing of relevant pathogens of marine or brackishwater crabs for World Organisation for Animal Health listed pathogens and other pathogens of concern to India; (iv) based on the test report of the sample, the quarantined crab shall be shifted to broodstock holding tanks after the quarantine period, if no pathogen is detected; (v) in the event of detection of any relevant pathogen, the sample shall be sent to Indian Council of Agricultural Research - Central Institute of Brackishwater Aquaculture as referral lab for validation or confirmation; and (vi) in case of confirmation, the unit operator shall destroy the entire infected stock and incinerate for containment of the spread of the infection under intimation to the Authority. (4) The following procedure shall be adopted for broodstock maintenance, namely :- (i) the gravid female crabs shall be preferably reared individually in tanks with adequate space for its movement and wellbeing; (ii) salinity, temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, total ammonia, and nitrate levels shall be monitored regularly and maintain optimal; (iii) broodstock shall be fed ad libitum with disease free polychaete, depurated clam, frozen squid and low valued fish or formulated feed; (iv) a flow through system or water recirculatory system shall be maintained for better water quality; and (v) maturation section shall be isolated with dark and noise free environment to simulate natural conditions for successful spawning. (5) The following procedure shall be adopted for the larval rearing, namely :- (i) healthy and screened berried or ovigerous females shall be used in the hatchery for seed production; (ii) live feeds such as microalgae, rotifers and artemia of good quality and pathogen free shall be used for larval rearing. Algal, rotifers and artemia culture sections shall be isolated from each other. Live feeds should be screened regularly to ensure the supply of pathogen free live feeds; (iii) hatcheries shall use approved inputs in the seed production cycle. Prohibited chemicals and products not intended for use in aquaculture shall not be used; (iv) dedicated seed packing area is required in the hatchery; (v) in case of supply of megalopa or early instars, they shall be acclimatized in the hatchery as per the requirement of the farmer based on the salinity levels in the farm, which shall be a minimum of 25 ppt; (vi) larvae shall be transported either in oxygen-filled bags or containers with water and hide out or in wet condition (grass/leaves/jute) in perforated baskets (for crablets); and (vii) Prohibited pharmacologically active substances and antimicrobial agents as specified in clause (c) of sub-rule (1) of rule 18 of the said rules shall not be used in the seed production system. 9. Seed production and sale.- Crab seeds or instar shall be sold only to the Coastal Aquaculture Authority registered farms or farmers to rear the instars into pathogen-free crablets in a bio-secured condition as specified in para 2 of these guidelines. 10. Disease reporting and record maintenance.- (1) Any disease outbreak in the hatchery shall be reported immediately to the Authority. (2) The hatchery operator shall maintain day to day records of hatchery operations. This record shall contain all the activities including broodstock details, spawning details, larval survival, feeding time, live feed or inert feeds used, chemical usage, pathogen test results, water quality reports, sale of seed data including farmer's details etc. (3) The hatchery operator shall submit a quarterly compliance report to the Authority in Form H-1 of these guidelines. 11. Inspection.- A person authorised by the Authority shall periodically visit and check the status of the broodstock, seed production, sale, etc. 12. Bank guarantee.- The approved hatcheries shall pay rupees fifty thousand towards monitoring fee and deposit a bank guarantee for two lakh rupees in favour of the Coastal Aquaculture Authority in accordance with the said rules, to ensure compliance with these guidelines and in the event of any violation, the bank guarantee shall be invoked. PART II Norms and regulations for approval and operation of crab farms 1. Eligibility criteria for farms.- (1) Aquaculture farmers shall submit an application in Form I of the said rules to the Sub-Divisional Level Committee or District Level Committee concerned duly enclosing therewith the required documents as specified in the Schedule II and payment of registration fee as specified in the Schedule I of the said rules for registration of farms of crab in accordance with the procedure laid down in rule 9 of the said rules. (2) The inspection team authorised by the Authority shall inspect the farm as per the procedure laid down in rule 10 of the said rules and based on its recommendation regarding the suitability of the facility for farming of crab, applications shall be processed by the Secretary of the Authority, for consideration of the Authority for registering the farms for farming of crab. (3) Farms shall establish biosecurity measures, such as fencing, reservoir ponds for water treatment, bird- scare, separate implements for each of the ponds, etc., and be managed by personnel, who are trained or experienced in the management of biosecurity measures. 2. Site selection process.- (1) Farm location shall be suitable for each type of crab culture such as earthen pond, cage culture, pen culture, box culture. (2) Generally clayey loam soils are preferred to avoid high-water percolation through the sandy soils and consequential environmental damage. (3) In the case of sandy soil, the pond should be lined with proper material such as polyethylene sheet, canvas, etc. for water holding capacity. (4) Ponds should be properly fenced to prevent the escape of the crab from one pond to other or neighbouring water bodies. (5) Crab farming shall always be isolated and at least five hundred meters away from the shrimp farming area so as to strictly maintain the bio-security. (6) Erosion should be actively controlled during construction and operation of crab farms. Measures shall be taken to avoid escape of the crab to the neighbouring farms. (7) The quality of soil shall be ascertained for soil pH, permeability, bearing capacity and heavy metal content; Soil with low pH of below 5 (example acid sulphate soils) and soils with high concentrations of heavy metals shall be avoided. (8) The intake water quality shall be maintained as specified in the para 4 of the Guidelines for regulating coastal aquaculture for crab culture. (9) For carrying out cage, box and pen culture in open coastal water bodies, the permission shall be obtained from Government or from the local body as authorised by the State Government. (10) For carrying out mangrove based mud crab aquaculture as a livelihood linked conservation procedure, proper permission shall be obtained from the authorized agencies, and it may be promoted as a community based aquaculture. (11) Proper designing and construction of farm as specified in para 3 of the Guidelines for regulating coastal aquaculture is essential for their efficient management and for promoting environmental protection. (12) A minimum water depth of 80-100 centimetre shall be maintained for crab farming. (13) If mud crab Scylla olivacea is used for farming, proper mitigation such as 650-1000 GSM polyethylene/HDPE lining and covering with mud lining shall be provided to prevent burrowing. 3. Water discharge protocols.- (1) Farms irrespective of their size shall have an Effluent Treatment System which is able to handle the wastewater let off during harvest. (2) Wastewater shall be retained in the Effluent Treatment System for a minimum period of two days. (3) In case of any outbreak of disease, water shall be chlorinated and dechlorinated before release into drainage system. (4) Harvesting shall be sequential depending on the size of the Effluent Treatment System and the quality of the wastewater shall conform to the standards prescribed under the guidelines. (5) Farms which follow Zero Water Exchange system shall also take care of the discharge water treatment if drain harvest is followed. 4. Biosecurity considerations.- (1) The crab culture shall not be permitted if the neighbouring farms are culturing shrimp species since it acts a vector for several pathogens. (2) The farms permitted for crab culture shall not be permitted for simultaneous farming of shellfish species in the same farm. However, crab farming with finfish culture may be permitted in extensive culture ponds. (3) For shifting culture from one species to another, adequate dry out period shall be maintained during pond preparation in accordance with the norms issued by the Authority for this purpose from time to time. 5. Norms for culture of crab.- (1) Tested and certified Megalopae or instar shall be procured only from Coastal Aquaculture Authority approved or registered hatcheries and test reports from authorised government lab shall be considered. (2) Stocking densities shall not exceed 1 no./2m² crablets (not exceeding 5000 nos. per ha) for conventional earthen pond systems. While rearing crabs in individual compartments a stocking density of 1 per compartment may be followed. (3) Submerged box culture is preferred to protect from the temperature related issues. (4) In case of crab fattening, the stocking density and rearing period shall be determined based on the type of fattening methods such as soft moulted crab to hard shelled crab, lean crab to marketable sized crab and immature to mature female crab. (5) As commercial mud crab feeds yet to be marketed, farmers may use fish bycatch, and other low-valued fishes or farm made feed. When farm made feeds are used, it should be ensured that it is free from prohibited pharmacologically active substances and anti-microbial agents. (6) Water quality parameters including temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, currents, pollution, and algal blooms, determining species viability shall be regularly monitored. (7) Regular monitoring of growth and health parameters shall be recorded. (8) Avoid overcrowding to prevent stress, cannibalism and disease outbreaks. Minimum fifty percent of the stocking density shall be provided with hide outs. 6. Health management.- (1) Cultured crab health shall be monitored regularly and if any abnormal symptom is found, diagnose to find cause and take corrective action and keep the record. (2) When an unusually large number of dead crabs are found or there is suspicion of an outbreak, it shall be informed to the Authority immediately. (3) In case of disease outbreak, the farmer shall destroy the infected stock duly following the health management practices as prescribed in para 7 of the Guidelines for regulating coastal aquaculture under intimation to the Authority. (4) Prohibited pharmacologically active substances and antimicrobial agents shall not be used in the farming as specified in clause (c) of sub-rule (1) of rule 18 of the said rules. 7. Harvesting.- (1) Harvesting of crab by hand picking after completely draining the pond is preferable to maintain the quality of the produce. (2) During live crab harvesting and marketing, care shall be taken to avoid damage to the animals. 8. Maintenance of farm management records.- (1) Crab farmers shall maintain records of procurement of seed, stocking density, water quality parameters, feeding quantities, health management, growth parameters, inputs used, harvesting and marketing details, etc. (2) The farmer shall produce the farm records on demand by the authorised personnel or officials. 9. Penalty for violation shall be in accordance with the said Act and rules made thereunder. Form H-1 [See Part-I, paragraph 10 (3)] Format for quarterly compliance report from crab hatcheries The report shall contain the following information, namely:- 1. Name and Address of the hatchery 2. Date and number of certificate of registration 3. Number of broodstock procured, males and females 4. Source of broodstock procured 5. Transport mortality 6. Quarantine mortality 7. Total number of spawnings 8. Total number of Zoae 1 produced 9. Total number of megalopa or instars produced 10. Total number of crablets produced 11. Report on general aquatic health monitoring and any unusual mortality 12. Total number of instars or crablets sold to the farmers 13. Details of the farmers to whom crab seed sold (shall include information on the name, address, registration number) and copy of the registration certificate for culturing of crab issued by Coastal Aquaculture Authority. Place: Date: Signature Name of the authorised signatory [F. No. j-1903336/2/2024-DOF (E-23648)] NEETU KUMARI PRASAD, Jt. Secy. Uploaded by Dte. of Printing at Government of India Press, Ring Road, Mayapuri, New Delhi-110064 and Published by the Controller of Publications, Delhi-110054. GORAKHA NATH YADAVA Digitally signed by GORAKHA NATH YADAVA Date: 2025.07.04 11:58:59 +05'30'