Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) Multi- Species Marine Hatchery (MSH)

Overview

The BFAR Multi-Species Marine Hatchery (MSH) in Barangay Sinandigan, Ubay is a government fisheries facility established in December 2010 and formally launched in April 2011. It occupies 1.9 hectares of land acquired from the Department of Agriculture’s Ubay Stock Farm under a Usufruct Agreement between DA Region VII and the BFAR Regional Office.

Funding ran through the DA via BFAR Central Office, implemented in coordination with the Ubay LGU and partner agencies. Its mandate is production, not display: juveniles and fingerlings to meet aquaculture and mariculture demand at a sustainable level across the region, the province, and beyond.

Location

Barangay Sinandigan, Ubay, Bohol. The site is situated within the former DA Ubay Stock Farm land. Nearby attractions include Sinandigan Giant Clams and Sinandigan Mangrove Reforestation.

Getting There

Ubay is on the eastern coast of Bohol, approximately 90–100 km from Tagbilaran City. Regular bus and van services connect Tagbilaran to Ubay, with the trip taking roughly 2.5–3 hours depending on route (via Carmen, Sierra Bullones, or Jagna) and fares of approximately ₱130–170 (Southern Star Bus Transit schedule, Ceres Buses; Tagbilaran–Ubay route fares, Pamasahe.com). From Ubay town proper, the Sinandigan area is accessible by tricycle or habal-habal.

[TO ENRICH: local tricycle/habal-habal fare from Ubay town proper specifically to the BFAR MSH facility gate]

Practical Info

• Government facility (BFAR Region VII)
• Land area: 1.9 hectares
• Established: December 2010; launched: April 2011
• Contact: Multi-Species Hatchery (MSH), Sinandigan, Ubay, Bohol — Tel. (038) 510-1673 / +63 912 753 3562, email mshbfar7@yahoo.com, under officer Florencio A. Aparri (BFAR Region VII Official Directory)

[TO ENRICH: visitor access policy, guided tour availability, operating hours]

What to Expect

A working hatchery producing marine fingerlings and juveniles for aquaculture and mariculture operators — not built as a visitor site, though the BPTO lists it as one. The strongest conservation angle is the giant clam (taklobo) hatchery, established in 2013, which spawns and rears clams later seeded into ten Marine Protected Areas around Bohol, including Sinandigan’s own MPA; a dedicated multi-purpose building for the program was inaugurated in September 2024 (Bohol Giant Clams Hatchery multi-purpose building inaugurated in Ubay, Bohol Island News; Giant Clams hatchery to be inaugurated, Office of the Provincial Agriculturist). A blue swimming crab (kasag, alimasag, or lambay) hatchery, running since September 2017 with the Philippine Association of Crab Processors, Inc. (PACPI), produces juveniles for restocking depleted grounds such as the Danajon Bank/Danahon Reef (BSC Stock Enhancement in the Philippines, PACPI; BFAR: Paitlogan sa lambay sa Ubay hinay nang napahiuli, Bohol Tribune). Given the tourism listing, a visit most likely takes the form of an educational tour through hatchery operations rather than a leisure stop.

[TO ENRICH: visitor experience details, school/educational tour arrangements]

Notes

The facility is listed in the BPTO tourism inventory under the Marine Park category. Its tourism role is primarily educational and agri-fisheries oriented. The MSH is sister facility to the BFAR Ubay Brackishwater Fish Farm (BFAR-UBFF), also in Ubay.

Research log (2026-07-28):

• Resolved: bus travel time and fare from Tagbilaran to Ubay — Ceres Buses / Southern Star Bus Transit schedule (2.5–3 hrs, ₱130–160) and Pamasahe.com Tagbilaran–Ubay routes (2–2.5 hrs, ₱170), both accessed 2026-07-28. Consistent with Wikipedia: Ubay, Bohol (“Tagbilaran can be reached from Ubay in two to three hours by bus or van”), accessed 2026-07-28.
• Resolved: facility contact info — BFAR Region VII Official Directory, accessed 2026-07-28, lists Florencio A. Aparri as MSH contact with tel. and email.
• Resolved: species cultured — giant clams (taklobo, since 2013) and blue swimming crab (kasag/alimasag/lambay, hatchery since Sept. 2017) confirmed via PACPI/FisheryProgress.org report, Bohol Island News, and Bohol Tribune (Cebuano-language), all accessed 2026-07-28. A 2010–2011-era Scribd upload of a BFAR MSH profile (scribd.com/document/457519387) additionally describes general broodstock, fry, and seaweed-propagule production but was too thin on specifics to cite directly.
• Unresolved: precise tricycle/habal-habal fare from Ubay town proper directly to the MSH facility gate. Tried: web search for “Ubay Sinandigan tricycle fare,” Exa search for BFAR MSH visitor/tour pages, and a BFAR facility profile document (DocsLib “UBFF Profile”) that lists distance figures for the MSH site (variously rendered as “7.0 km” or “500m” to the public market across different extraction passes of the same garbled OCR text) — the figures were internally inconsistent between fetches and not used. A 2019 personal travel blog (Steemit: “The Traces Of Roots Where I Belong”) quotes bus/habal-habal fares of ₱10–30 from Ubay port to Sinandigan barangay, but that trip is to Sinandigan Beach, not confirmed as the same route/gate as the MSH facility, and the fare is dated (2017). No official or current source ties a specific fare to the MSH gate itself.
• Unresolved: visitor access policy, guided tour availability, and operating hours specific to the MSH. Tried: BFAR Region VII official site and directory (contact-only, no visitor policy page), Bohol Provincial Tourism Office site (tourism.bohol.gov.ph, general portal only), PPMU Bohol procurement notices (unrelated — construction/bidding records only), and Cebuano-language local news searches (Bohol Tribune, Bohol Island News) which cover hatchery operations/inaugurations but not public visiting terms. No dedicated visitor-hours or tour-booking page was found for this specific facility.