PHILIPPINES TAWI-TAWI COASTAL DWELLERS GET MARICULTURE PROJECT.

SIBUTU, Tawi-Tawi, June 2 - There's light at the end of the tunnel for the hardy residents of the impoverished Philippines island province of Tawi-Tawi, with the economic development expected to come from the Tawi-Tawi Modified Mariculture Development Project.

The Tawi-Tawi leg of the country's Mariculture Highway, a fisheries development program that seeks to transform poor coastal communities into centers of prosperity and growth was launched there last Thursday.

A major component of the President's Super Regions development strategy to disperse the gains of economic reforms to the countryside, especially the poorest of the poor, the mariculture project is designed to optimize the culture and development of high-value fish species that command premium prices in the markets in the country, but especially abroad.

Tawi-Tawi is the poorest province of the Philippines, but it also happens to be richer than most provinces in high-value fish species.

The top-of-the-line species include groupers, sea urchins, abalone, crabs, shrimp, sea cucumber and the Napoleon wrasse or mameng. A gourmet fish, mameng sells for up to P5,000 a kilo in specialty Chinese restaurants in Hong ...