Post-tsunami rehabilitation of fish cage farms on the Andaman coast of Thailand Suwat Tanyaros • Apirak Songrak • Rattanaporn Anantasuk • Suchat Sangchan • Bill Templer Received: 27 June 2009 / Accepted: 22 September 2009 / Published online: 2 October 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract A post-tsunami rehabilitation of cage culture along the Andaman Sea coast of Thailand was carried out in five provinces (Ranong, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang and Satun) from September 2007 to February 2008. Based on the survey conducted, the money compensated subsequently used to buy materials for cage re-construction and cage repair accounted for 28.1% of the total, and to buy seed, feed and chemicals for culture opera- tions, 15.8%. A surprising finding is that 56.1% of compensated money was used for other purposes. The analysis showed that the quality and quantity of equipment, seeds and feeds invested in aquaculture farms were increased in comparison with the pre-recovery period. Importantly, the farm area, growth rate, amount of product and revenue were improved during the post-tsunami rehabilitation period. Additionally, the area and quality of houses, household consumption, household infrastructures, health care and education were also improved. The satisfaction level of cage farmers in regard to the recovery programs was high (weigh average index = 3.88). The results from this study showed that the net eco- nomic profit (NEP) achieved was 41,030.49 baht/crop (33.9 baht = 1 US$) for sea bass culture, while NEP for grouper culture was 59,529.98 baht/crop. The result from the present study indicated that the economic value of cage culture farms was profitable. However, the seed shortage, high cost of trash fish, disease outbreak and marketing were among key problems and constraints encountered. In this study, we also found that the S. Tanyaros (&) Department of Marine Science, Faculty of Science and Fisheries Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, Trang Campus, Sikao, Trang 92150, Thailand e-mail: stanyaros@gmail.com A. Songrak  R. Anantasuk Department of Fishery Management, Faculty of Science and Fisheries Technology, Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya, Trang Campus, Sikao, Trang 92150, Thailand S. Sangchan Phang-nga Marine Fishery Station, Department of Fisheries, Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operation, Phang-nga 82170, Thailand B. Templer Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 123 Aquacult Int (2010) 18:693–703 DOI 10.1007/s10499-009-9291-1