november2016 volume2

I n s i d e“ ASEAN-FEN

achievement, research journey to Antarctica, International Linkage Program for Postgraduate and the success of Malaysian Ornamental Fish Industry ”

School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences Official MagazineUniversiti Malaysia Terengganu

NOVEMBER2016VOLUME2

Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos“ Moving towards sustainable aqua-

farming concept ”

‘Great Scientist Motivation and Inspiration for Young Generation - Moving Toward Nation Food Security’

The World Leader of AQUACULTURE - Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos, is a world well known scientist in the field of aquaculture. He is the pioneer scientist who had invented the finest hatching technology of Artemia, which is now widely applied all over the world. His passion and professional knowledge in academic are an inspiration to young scientists and entrepreneurs.

The world needs more great scientists like Patrick to continue developing new ideas and promoting heathy aqua farming to conserve our ecology.

A magazine about fish - FiSH FOR ALL

School of Fisheries and Aquaculture SciencesUniversiti Malaysia Terengganu

A magazine about fish - FiSH FOR ALLDiscovery Towards Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture

Volume 2

October 2016ISSN-2462 1218

Advisor Professor Dr. Mazlan Abd. Ghaffar Dean of FiSHAEditor-in-Chief Liew Hon JungCoordinator Zul-Atfi HashimEditorial Board Noordiyana Mat Noordin Nor Fazliyana Mohtar Sandra Catherine Zainathan Sharifah Rahmah Tan Min Pau Tun Nurul Aimi Mat JaafarEditorial Assistant Muhammad Haniff Mohd Yusoffand Communication

Proofread Yeong Yik Sung

Photographer Tolahah Muda

Printing Tolahah Creative Solution

CopyrightThe materials from this magazine can be reproduced after gaining permission from the editor. All reproduced materials must be appropriately acknowledged.

The ‘FiSHA MAG’ is annually published by School of Fisheries and Aquaculture SciencesUniversiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia

I n s i d e“ ASEAN-FEN

achievement, research journey to Antarctica, International Linkage Program for Postgraduate and the success of Malaysian Ornamental Fish Industry ”

School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences Official MagazineUniversiti Malaysia Terengganu

NOVEMBER2016VOLUME2

Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos“ Moving towards sustainable aqua-

farming concept ”

Welcome back to FiSHAMAG Vol. 2 2016.

In this volume, we are very proud to have the world’s

most well-known distinguished aquaculture scientist ‘Prof.

Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos’ to share his professional

point of view with us on future perspective of world

aquaculture direction, approach to conserve our ecology

for better aqua-farming environment motivate young

scientists to be great leader in future world.

A year ago, FiSHA has achieved several excellent

milestones especially by launching of the ASEAN-FEN

in conjunction with organizing 5th International Fisheries

Symposium 2015. Forming of ASEAN-FEN creates a

concrete networking with the mission to develop and

promote research initiative, coordinate infrastructure and

personnel for fisheries and aquaculture research among

ASEAN members. In addition, FiSHA also organized a

great event “BACK TO ROOT” calling all fisheries and

aquaculture alumni from the year 1977 to 2014. This event

successfully reunites the seniors and juniors to furthermore

interact between academia and industry within personal

and proffesional network.

Not only that, excellent FiSHA member Dr. Wan Mohd

Rauhan is sharing his research experience in the journey

to Antarctica with us in this volume on how he had gone

through all the hard days with unfavourable weather to get

his specimen and data. Our students internship experience

at international research institute are also being well

described in this volume, as well as research & publication

achievement by FiSHA members.

Together with all the activities and great team work from

editorial board members to gather information and joining

all the puzzle into great stories, thanks for your efforts.

Hon Jung, LIEW

Editor-in-Chief

Editor-in-Chief’s

N O T E

November 2016 . Volume 2 . FiSHA Magazine

Vice Chancellor’s Letter

Dean’s Welcome Note

Professional Point of View Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos

6FiSHA Highlight

Academic Programs Diploma & Undergraduate Postgraduate

FiSHA Joint Research Collaboration

Academic Research & ActivitiesInternational Linkage to Taiwan - NMMBA and NDHU

Antarctic Scientific Expedition 2016Launching of ASEAN-FEN and Co-Organizing 5th IFS 2015

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In Brief - Academic Research Highlight

Research & Innovation - Awards

Research Funds & High Impact Publications

Scientific DiscussionHow to survive from Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS)?

Role of quantitative and qualitative dietary proteins in oxidative responsiveness of aquatic organisms.

22Student News & Activities 40

Features

Industry Development & Innovation

Captive Technology and Sustainable Fishery 44Opportunity

Post-Graduate Opportunity & Scholarship

Conferences

Advertisements

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Greetings to all FiSHA MAG readers,

Congratulations to School of Fisheries and Aquaculture

Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu on the prominent success in completing the second volume of FiSHA MAG. This has come to a point where it reflects the significant contribution of the FiSHA MAG to each level of institutions and industries. Thus, I am also delighted to see that this magazine has attracted many readers all around the globe.

FiSHA MAG will be our link to the international networking and through it we hope to forge collaborations with international academicians, high educational institutions, stakeholders and policy-makers around the world. New knowledge in aquaculture and ecology area is crucial for a country like Malaysia to remain competitive with other well-developed countries. Fisheries and aquaculture has solely contributed to the world economy through its international trade. Their rapid development in the world has not only contributed to increase the economic growth as well as improved in food supply chain. Information on aquaculture practice and green technology will be very useful as it is crucial to ensure the nation of food security and ecology conservation. Aquaculture serves many

purposes especially to the seafood production industries. It has also helped to improve nutrition and food security in many parts of the world. Moreover, aquaculture is one of the most resource-efficient ways to produce protein. Increasing population of the world has resulted in growing demand for seafood. In fact, statistics have shown that the global seafood consumption has significantly increased in 10 years.

I strongly believe this magazine plays major role in regards to the monitoring and reporting on global aquaculture resources, relevant environmental and ecological changes. This magazine also provides updates on the information of world fishery resources and also expands the information provided to sustain the global fisheries and ecology conservation. Therefore, it is hoped that the informative contents in this magazine will direct the way forward in the sustainable utilization of aquaculture and ecological resources. It is also hoped that Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, the School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences as well as other institutions of higher learning centers will continue to nurture young minds and develop creativity that is much needed to enhance research and innovation capabilities and capacities.

Vice Chancellor’sLETTER

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THANK YOU

Prof. Dato’ Dr. Nor Aieni Hj MokhtarVice Chancellor of UMT

Greetings to all,

Welcome to FiSHA MAG Second Volume of 2016! I would like to take this

opportunity to congratulate our Editorial Team Members on the success of producing the Second Volume of FiSHA MAG. I believe, with the theme of ‘Great Scientist Motivation and Inspiration for Young Generation – moving towards nation food security’, that will enhance and raise awareness amongst readers on the world aquaculture and ecology issues to ensure the world food safety. This volume of FiSHA MAG also covers on several significant events organized this year such as the Back to Root, ASEAN-FEN achievement, research journey to Antarctica, aquaculture industry innovation & development and opportunity.

I am honored to be given the opportunity to welcome you reading the magazine as its essential platform in gathering scientists and researchers not only from Malaysia but from all over the world, in order to intensify knowledge sharing.

That is, after all, part and parcel of education. Education is not only learning in a classroom but also in learning from people around us. This magazine acts as a vital network for many sectors and individuals to discuss on strategies in making sure the sustainability of aquaculture and ecology resources in our’s nation. Among the strategies to ensure these growths, the adoption and continued emphasis on core technological competencies in fisheries resources, fishery and ecological management, ICT, biotechnology, nanotechnology, renewable energy as well as marine and aquatic sciences must be pursued. New and emerging technology platforms across sectors also need to be put in place. Towards this end, focus on human capital development such as skill-set development, innovation capabilities and research and innovation competencies will be enhanced and accelerated.

This magazine also covers on the national food security issues and therefore is committed to increasing awareness on the food security

around the world. Food security is profoundly dependent on several factors such as soil, precipitation and water availability, climate change and at the same time influenced significantly by trade, urbanization, changing demographics, and energy, water and land use policy. Aquaculture helps in solving such problems by addressing each issues relating to food supply chain and demand via a good aquaculture practice.

Therefore, I invite all of you to join us in this journey in making our school as one of the key research hubs in the world by reaping the potentials from our aquaculture and ecological resources. Once again, I would like to extend my warm welcome to all of you reading the FiSHA MAG and wishing all the readers a wonderful and fruitful reading.

CHEERS!

Prof. Dr. Mazlan Abd. GhaffarDeanSchool of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences (FISHA)Universiti Malaysia Terengganu

Dean’sWELCOME NOTE

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1. Today aquaculture industries are facing challenges such as environmental deterioration, disease infection, limitation of quality seed supply and increment of production costs. As a well-known professional in aquaculture, what would you advise stakeholders in handling such issues?

Networking answers it best. We need to gather all stakeholders. That involves all the government agencies, universities, research scientists and industry players to reveal such problems. Aquaculture in the world is really at the turning point. Driven mainly by massive population growth, urbanization and increasing wealth in the world, it should be very clear that aquaculture has been expanding significantly over the past three decades. We can be very proud of what we have accomplished in terms of social and economic developments with an annual expansion of about 8% over the past 20 years. To date, aquaculture draws a key contribution to human nutrition, in which it provides a large percentage of the essential proteins consumed in several countries such as Bangladesh, China, and Indonesia. It is very clear that aquaculture can be divided into two categories where we have “fed” and “extractive” aquaculture and these need to be merged to make aquaculture more sustainable. This is what we call “Integrated Aquaculture”. It was normal that modern “business” aquaculture, initiated in the 1960s with the new species (such as salmon, seabream, shrimp) started with a monoculture approach to eventually expand into big industrial developments. These “fed” aquaculture of fish and shrimp, however, have a negative impact on the environment as they contribute to eutrophication of the waters surrounding the farms, eventually resulting in the development of harmful algal blooms, resulting in fish kills. Integrating the “fed” aquaculture systems with “extractive” culture practices with mollusks and seaweed (as already practiced at large scale in coastal areas in China) results in the recycling of “wastes” of the fed aquacultureh into marketable crops of mollusks and seaweed. We need to think in a more proactive way how to involve different industries in aquaculture. We do not look at aquaculture industries as only a farming business but also in other prospects such as disease diagnostics and prevention, nutritional requirements and enhancement, physiological conditions and endocrine improvements, and many more.

2. In your own opinion, how would you advise the ASEAN aquaculturists to overcome the current and future challenges in aquaculture industries?

Ten years from now, aquaculture will need to produce 50% more per year than the current annual production. There are several other issues to be emphasized such as food security, food safety, different regional approaches, the fair business for small farmers in Asia as well as the sustainability issues that involve economical, ecological, energy, and natural resources. Can aquaculture become the new blue biotechnology of the future? The answer is on us. Therefore, I would suggest that such parties look over the borders. Learn from others. Do not repeat the mistakes what others have done in previous times, in

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Professional Point of View

Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos

Interview | FAZLIYANAPhoto | TOLAHAH MUDA

fact we need to make it much better. Networking plays a major role in overcoming the challenges in aquaculture industries. In the past, public and private sectors have majorly contributed in developing the aquaculture industries. All the stakeholders need to collaborate together under one roof to make things happen. I still remember in June 1976, FAO has organized the first meeting on aquaculture named the “Technical Conference on Aquaculture” held in Kyoto, Japan and I had the privilege to represent Belgium in the meeting. We have discussed many issues in aquaculture and to date, only a few of us including me are still actively involved in this field though we have retired.

In Europe, we have EATiP (European Aquaculture Technology and Innovation Platform) which serves as a base for all stakeholders to discuss on any issue related to the development of aquaculture. Several stakeholders such as the farmers, knowledge centers, legislation bodies, and other private sectors namely feed, technology and pharmaceutical companies are all involved in EATiP. Other than EATiP, EURASTIP (European and Asian Technology and Innovation Platform), AQUATT (Aquaculture Technology Transfer), EAS and WAS (European and World Aquaculture Society) are also active as platforms for all stakeholders to gather.

3. What could we all do today to make a collective difference towards reducing the advancement of aquatic environment deterioration?

Networking with stakeholders. This leads to better understanding of aquaculture growth in the world. Knowledge centers can be established, which involve the learning institutions, experts, researchers, academicians, vocational schools and many other learning centers to be the platform for technology development and information sharing. New elements in understanding the interactions and synergies between fed and extractive aquaculture, such as the study of nutrient dynamics and microbial loops, can result in new technologies and improved profitabilities. Evolving from an empirical approach towards a knowledge-based bio-industry is necessarily important. This will further contribute to more food security, food safety and nutrition worldwide.

4. Can you tell us about any of the interesting experiences/challenges you encountered during your long whole journey in research?

I found that it was not easy to get an interaction with multi-level stakeholders. I strongly believe that we need to go out and experience ourselves. Aquaculture practice is different depending on regions, where practice from different view will be necessary to make sure the development of aquaculture industries does not end here. I remember back then when FAO invited me to work in the Philippines to discover the aquaculture practices in that country. I was shocked at the very first time I arrived, as the situation was different to what I had experienced during my PhD study in Belgium. It was never easy for the first time where we had language and culture barriers to start with, but I decided to stay patient and calm, tried my very best to solve every single obstacle I faced during my whole journey in academic life.

5. What is your biggest achievement and/or discovery during your professional career that may inspire our readers?

Thanks to good interactions with my students, alumni, friends, families, colleagues, research assistants, teachers and farmers we managed to set up many successful cooperations all over the world. The awards and recognitions that I received are mainly not for me but they are meant for all of us. I could definitely not be able to achieve all these without their full supports and commitments. It is the biggest satisfaction to see the work that I have initiated long time ago is now developing to a much better stage. It is progressing so well from the previous years and it is something that I can be proud with.

6. Your contribution in science and research innovation spirit have inspired young generations to become great scientist as you are. What would you suggest/advise to young generations in the direction to become a great scientist as you are?

Work with passion and always have the spirit to discover new things in life. Do not fear of anything ahead you.

7. Do you have any messages for our readers?

Live with open minds, in the sense of be open for new ideas and try to look into other industries for some new knowledge. Patience and perseverance are keys to success in life. All you need to do is to be yourself, work with passion and definitely not work solely for personal achievements.

8. Your words on the future prospects of aquaculture industries?

Undoubtedly, aquaculture has a bright future ahead. This would be a desirable goal for all stakeholders including the farmers, government and private sectors, knowledge centers and anyone working in the field of aquaculture. The blue biotechnology of the future in aquaculture is deemed important for its positive development, resulting in new concepts and products for a sustainable aquaculture. Other than that, we need to focus on the future challenges in modern aquaculture. The needs and opportunities for more integrated farming practices in coastal and offshore aquaculture should also be studied, as this helps in contributing to the new aquaculture blue biotechnology. In many ways, our effort in improving the status of aquaculture would be a valuable contribution towards the worldwide social and economic growth and will hopefully form a basis for further work with the stakeholders and their partner organisations.

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FiSHAHighlightAuthor | TAN MIN PAU

School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences was established on December 1, 2013, in line with the academic transformation of the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The academic programs are designed towards producing skilled personnel in the field of fisheries and aquaculture to meet the needs of the industry. The School offers various levels of fisheries and aquaculture Programs which combine science, technology, management and entrepreneurship that will produce globally competitive graduates. All of the programs are accredited by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) and the contents are revised periodically according to the needs of the industry.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMSDiploma in Fisheries is the oldest program in UMT and was the legacy program from Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). There are only two higher learning institutes in Malaysia who offer diploma programs, i.e. UMT and UPM Bintulu, Sarawak. Our Diploma in Fisheries is a policy program in the field of sustainable fisheries aims to produce graduates who are competitive and able to provide knowledge and educational infrastructure that can be used to disseminate and apply innovative knowledge. This program is sought to be a catalyst for the development of human capital and operation sustainable environment. The program produces qualified graduates to pursue higher degree at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu or other institution of higher learning.

The most unique side of this program is that the students who score excellent result will earn an opportunity to be on the Continuum Program and complete their study until Master level within a short period of time, i.e. 5 years (2+2+1) starting from degree of Diploma-Bachelor-Master.

UNDERGRADUATE PROGRAMS

Diploma Bachelor

1 Diploma in Fisheries 1 Bachelor of Applied Science (Fisheries)

2 Bachelor of Agrotechnology (Aquaculture)

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMSProgram by Coursework

Programs by coursework in UMT require attending lectures/ coursework minimum of 40 credits and a minimum study period of 3 semesters within 1 or 1½ year. MSc. in Aquaculture is designed for candidates who wish to extend their knowledge and skills in aquaculture and prepares them to be an expert in aquaculture industry. The course period is 2 semesters and to be completed in 1 year. For MSc. in Sustainable Tropical Fisheries, students are required to complete the study within 1.5 years.

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMS

MSc. by Coursework MSc. / Ph.D by Research

1 Master of Science in Aquaculture 1 Aquaculture Science

- Genetic and Breeding- Aquaculture Biotechnology- Aquaculture Nutrition- Aquaculture Health- Aquaculture System and

Technology- Hatchery Technology- Aquaculture Engineering

2 Master of Science in Sustainable Tropical Fisheries

2 Fisheries Science- Ichthyology and fisheries

systems- Fish Population Dynamic- Post Harvest Fisheries- Fisheries Biotechnology- Fishing Technology- Inland Fisheries- Fisheries Oceanography- Fish Health- Fisheries Conservation and

Management- Fisheries Ecology- Fisheries Biostatistics- Molecular Ecology and Fish

Genetic- Fisheries Microbiology- Fish Physiology- Fisheries Economy

ACADEMIC PROGRAMS

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The Postgraduate Opportunity - Master in Tropical Fisheries with International Linkage Program (ILP) is an international higher education program involving the fishery-related postgraduate schools in Asia. ILP consists of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia (through FiSHA); Sam Ratulangi University, Indonesia; Kagoshima University, Japan; University of the Philippines Visayas, Philippines; Kasetsart University, Thailand; and Nha Trang University, Vietnam.

What makes this ILP unique is that the students are required to enrol for a minimum of 6 and maximum 12 credit hours in any respective universities.

For the pioneer batch of this ILP, four UMT students were awarded scholarship from the Japanese government to support their summer course study in Kagoshima University together with students from other partner universities. In addition to getting the chance to learn from the prominent professors from Kagoshima University, this course will also be a good platform for the students to gain new experience and culture of different countries.

FiSHA students with Prof Dr Tatsuro Matsuoka, the former chairman and founder of ILP.

The opening of the International Linkage Program by Prof Dr Shunsuke Koshio, the Chairman of ILP.

MASTER IN TROPICAL FISHERIES WITH INTERNATIONALLINKAGE PROGRAM (ILP) - KAGOSHIMA UNIVERSITY

SUMMER COURSEAuthor | WAN MOHD RAUHAN WAN HUSSINPhoto | Midori Matsuoka | Nurrussaadah Mohd Azilah

FiSHAHighlight

MOU (University)- Cantho University, Vietnam- Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Universitas Airlangga,

Indonesia- Faculty of Science and Technology, Prince of Songkhla

University, Thailand- Kasetsart University, Thailand- National Dong Hwa University, Taiwan- Nong Lam University – Ho Chin Minh City, Vietnam- Sam Ratulangi University, Indonesia- Kagoshima University, Japan

- University of the Philippines Visayas, Philippines

MOU (industrial partner)- Bukit Merah Arowana Village Sdn. Bhd.- Jabatan Perikanan Malaysia- Lafarge Cement SDN BHD and The Andaman, A Luxury

Collection Resort, Langkawi - National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Taiwan

International university and institute linkages

- Alexandra University, Egypt- Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany- Antofagasta University, Chile- Auburn University, USA- Bangladesh Agricultural University, Bangladesh- Bangor University, UK- Bung Hatta University, Indonesia- Cambridge University, London- Dalhousie University, Canada- Ghent University, Belgium- Hasanuddin Universitas, Indonesia- Heriot-Watt University, United Kingdom- Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Nigeria- Institute of Aquaculture, University of Stirling, UK- James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia- Kinki University, Japan- Korea Polar Research Institute, Korea- Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research, Kuwait - Kyoto University, Japan- Michigan State Univeristy, USA- Murdoch University, Australia- National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India

- National University of Singapore, Singapore- Nha Trang University, Vietnam- Oregon State University, USA- Quebec Univesrsity (Rimouski), Canada- Rajshahi University, Bangladesh- Shanghai Ocean University, China- Simon Fraser University, Canada- Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Maryland, USA- Soka University, Japan- Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania- Southern Cross University, Australia- Stellenbosch University, South Africa- Tianjin Agricultural University, China- Toronto University, Canada- University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom- University of Antwerp, Belgium- University of Auckland, New Zealand- University of Connecticut Health Center, USA- University of East Anglia, UK- University of Hadhramout, Yemen- University of Massey, New Zealand- University of Messina, Italy- University of Miami, USA- University of North Wales, Bangor, UK- University of Pannonia, Hungary- University of Porto, Portugal- University of Rhode Island, USA- University of South Brittany, France- University of St. Andrews, UK- Wageningen University, The Netherlands- Zoologisk Institutt, Universitetet I Bergen, Norway- Abdul Hakeem College, IndiaAgri-Food and Bioscience

Institute, UK- Antofagasta University, Chile- Australian Animal Health Laboratory, Australia - Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia- Catholic University of the North, Chile- Center for Coastal Fisheries and Habitat Research, USA- Centex Shrimp, Mahidol University, Thailand- Centre for Environment, Fishery and Aquaculture Science, UK- Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Australia - Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Waters and

Environment, Australia

- Fisheries and Marine Affairs Ministry, Indonesia- Global Sciaenidae Conservation Network, Taiwan- Hannan Corporation Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia- Hungarian Academy of Science, Hungary- Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne, USA- Institute for East China Sea Research, Japan- Institute of Zoology London, UK- IUCN-SSC Sciaenidae Red List Authority - Japan Society for Promotion of Science, Japan- Malaysian Biotechnology Corporation Sdn. Bhd., Malaysia- Mie University, japan - Monash University Victoria, Australia- Monash University, Malaysia- National Fish Health Research Centre, Malaysia- National Museum of Nature and Science, Japan- Osaka Municipal Technical Research Institute, Japan- Queen’s University Belfast, UK- Queensland University of Technology, Australia - Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Japan- South Australia Water Corporation, Australia- Syiah Kuala University, Indonesia- Temasek Polytechnic, Singapore- Texas A&M University, USA- The University of Adelaide, Australia- The University of Tokyo, Japan- Tokyo University of Science and Technology, Japan- Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia- Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia- Universiti Sultan Zainal Abidin, Malaysia- University Centre in Svalbard, Norway (the area is not in map)- University College of London, UK- University of Alberta, Canada- University of Baghdad, Iraq- University of Bremen, Germany- University of British Columbia, Canada- University of Hokkaido, Japan- University of North Carolina Wilmington, USA- University of Tasmania, Australia- University of Wellington, New Zealand Victoria university of

Wellington- Xiamen University, China- Yellow Sea Fisheries Research Institute, China

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Legends:

FiSHAHighlightFiSHA JOINT RESEARCH COLLABORATION

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At its 3rd anniversary, FiSHA continues to grow and extend collaboration internationally. Plentiful milestones had been accomplished all year round, thanks to all the talented, enthusiastic and committed staff members in contributing towards a glorious era of the school.

July 13 to 15, 2015: UMT vice chancellor (VC), Honourable Professor Dato’ Dr. Nor Aieni binti Haji Mokhtar accompanied by the Dean of FiSHA, Prof. Dr. Mazlan Abd Ghaffar and lecturers Dr. Seah Ying Giat and Dr. Lee Jen Nie attended an official visit to the National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA), Taiwan, for signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between UMT, NMMBA and National Dong Hwa University (NDHU), Taiwan. This is a stepping stone in strengthening research collaboration and knowledge sharing in the fields of fisheries, aquaculture, marine biology and biotechnology among the researchers and students.

July 14, 2015: NMMBA organized an exhibition to display the sample of transparent fish and artificial propagation of marine ornamental orgranisms. In conjunction to the exhibition, the “Ikan Lutsinar” book in Malay language translated by Professor Dr. Mazlan Abd. Ghaffar and Dr. Seah Ying Giat was launched. This book aims to impart osteology knowledge about the structure of the fish skeleton, used to elaborate phylogenetic relationships, evolution and functional morphology in the field of ichthyology.

1. Memorandum of Understanding signing ceremony between UMT, NMMBA and NDHU delegates.

2. Presentation of signed MoU by UtMT VC Honorable Professor Dato’ Dr. Nor Aieni binti Haji Mokhtar and the Directors of NMMBA and NDUH. Photo | Seah Ying Giat

3. Official launch of the Transparent Fish book in Malay Version “Ikan Lutsinar” by authors and translators.

4. Dr. Yuh-Wen Chiu presenting the transparent fish to UMT VC.

FiSHAHighlightAuthor | TAN MIN PAU

ACADEMIC AND RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

INTERNATIONAL LINKAGE TO TAIWAN - NMMBA AND NDHUAuthor | TAN MIN PAU | SEAH YING GIATPhoto | NMMBA

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FiSHAHighlight

Fixation and preservation processes of fish specimens

Sorting process of specimens

Educational plays a significant role in shaping the nation. Student Excellence and Motivational Seminar was organized to motivate and raise awareness on the importance of education among the Indian society in Jerantut, Pahang. The event was organized by the Kuil Sri Singara Vadivellavar Jerantut in collaboration with UMT, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Sai Human Resource Centre and Jerantut Graduates of Higher Education Institutions.

COMMUNITY SERVICES:STUDENT EXCELLENCE AND MOTIVATIONAL SEMINAR 2016 Author | SANDRA ZAINATHANPhoto | SANDRA ZAINATHAN

The ultimate goal of the seminar is to transform the students by providing knowledge, skills and building character and instilling virtue. Over the 2 days seminar, students were exposed to tips and guides by subject experts to prepare themselves for their upcoming examinations. Aside from that, motivational talks are organized to encourage students to think of and plan for their futures, to learn the power of goals, and to better value their ability. Throughout the years of organizing the seminar, the team today has grown to a unique strength and has carved out our own niche to help the students in our community.

Motivational talk delivered by Dr. Sandra Zainathan, UMT and Dr. P. Aathiseesan from Sai Human Center, Kulai Johor

Dr. Sandra Zainathan presented souvenirs from FiSHA to facilitator accompanied by Dr. Suresh Ramakrishnan (UTM)

SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION ON ICHTHYOFAUNAL AT THE BIDONG ISLANDAuthor | TUN NURUL AIMI | TAN MIN PAUPhoto | Media Kreatif UMT

The scientific expedition on ichthyofaunal at Bidong Island Research Station Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) was held from 28 September to 5 October 2015 in collaboration with Kagoshima University, Mie University, Kyoto University, National Museum of Science and Nature Tokyo together with UMT and Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), funded under the Phrogram Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Vice Chancellor Council (VCC) Coastal Marine Science (JSPS-VCC). Throughout the expedition, a fish taxonomy workshop was also held to provide an opportunities for FiSHA young acade-micians to interact with international experts in fish taxonomy and to explore the diversity of Malaysian marine ichthyofauna. Interestingly, a new species of fish from Family Tripterygiidae was found at the southwest of Bidong Island.

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FiSHAHighlightFiSHAHighlight

‘Back to Root’ program was initiated by Prof. Dr. Mazlan bin Abd. Ghaffar, Dean of FiSHA to gather and promote bonding between the senior and junior alumni, for the future generation of fisheries and aquaculture. It was a milestone to all fisheries and aquaculture alumni, as fisheries program is deemed to be the oldest program offered by Universiti Putra Malaysia-Terengganu (UPMT) for more than 40 years ago!

REUNION DINNER GRADUATION YEARS 1979-2007“BACK TO ROOT”Author | WENDYPhoto | Media Kreatif UMT

12 Mac 2016 marked a memorable date for all the fisheries and aqua-culture alumni of UPM/ UPMT/ KUT/ KUSTEM, especially for those who have graduated over the years 1977 - 2007. Nearly 200 fisheries and aquaculture alumni were happily reunited at the reunion dinner held at Dewan Sultan Mizan, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The event was or-ganized by the School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences (FiSHA) in collaboration with the Centre of Alumni Development and Entrepreneur-ship (CADE), and officiated by Prof. Dr. Anuar bin Hassan, Deputy Vice Chancellor (Student Affair and Alumni) (HEPA) on behalf of Prof. Dato’ Dr. Nor Aieni binti Haji Mokhtar, Vice Chancellor UMT.

Apart from the reunion dinner for the alumni, current fisheries and aqua-culture undergraduates were also given the opportunity to attend moti-vation talk and experience sharing delivered by Distinguished Academic Alumni Prof. Emeritus Dr. Mohd Azmi bin Ambak (academician), and both Distinguished Entrepreneur Alumni Mr. Mohd Radzi bin Dalim and Mr. Wan Mohd Azran bin Wan Zuki, who have shown excellent achieve-ment in the industry. The talk held at Auditorium Mahyuddin, UMT on 13 Mac 2016 was jointly organized by the student clubs of Revolution of Fisheries (REVOF), Fisheries Club of Organized Studies (FICOS) and Intelligent Graduate Students of Aquaculture (INTEGRA).

We highly appreciate alumni’s continuous support in making ‘Back to Root’ a fruitful program and we are looking forward to seeing more suc-cess and excellent achievements by the alumni in years ahead!

1. Prof. Dr. Mazlan bin Abd. Ghaffar (alumni of year 1985), Dean of School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences

2. Special speech given by Prof. Dr. Kapten Mohd bin Ibrahim. Photo | Media Kreatif UMT

3. Fisheries alumni year 1977. Photo | Mokhtar Ishak

4. Prof. Emeritus Dr. Mohd Azmi bin Ambak (alumni of year 1984) awarded as Distinguished Academic Alumni (Tokoh Alumni Akademi)

5. Mr. Mohd Radzi bin Dalim (alumni of year 1985) awarded as Distinguished Entrepreneur Alumni (Tokoh Alumni Usahawan).

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FiSHAHighlight

Dr Wan Mohd Rauhan Wan Hussin is one of the members of Malaysian Antarctic Scientific Expedition 2016 which also involved 7 other researchers from various universities in Malaysia. Dr Rauhan worked on the biodiversity and ecosystem function of benthic organisms in Antarctica. He did his study at 8 stations at different latitudes in the Antarctic Peninsula to find out the difference between the benthos structurally and functionally around the areas. Below is the brief summary of the expedition.

ANTARCTIC SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 2016Author | WAN MOHD RAUHANPhoto | WAN MOHD RAUHAN

The journey to Antarctica

This expedition began on 18th January 2016 from Ushuaia port, Argentina. The yacht (Australis) set to

sail at 15:10 h under fairly windy weather along the Beagle Channel. After 15 hours of the journey, the captain (Magnus) made a call to ascent back up into the channel and stopped at Puerto Williams (a Chilean island) to stay out of bad weather.

The team spent one night at the Puerto Williams jetty, then continued our journey to Puerto Torro before crossing the infamous rough sea of Drake Passage at 14:30 h on 21st January. After about 2.5 days, we arrived at King George Island on 23rd January, midnight.

Diary of Scientific Expedition 24th Jan - We went ashore to King Sejong

Station (Korea) for samples and chemical collection. The next day we had a meeting with Captain Magnus and Ben as the expedition leader to plan our new route and moved to Australis to be prepared for our next journey.

26th Jan – Australis set to sail for 6 hours to arrive at Greenwich Island (our second sampling station) at 08:00 h with nice and

calm weather. We landed in the Yankee Harbour for our sampling and worked on shore. On the same day, we then continued the journey to Deception Island at around 18:30 h. After about half an hour, we made our move to the shore to collect samples and conducted simple experiments before sunset.

27th Jan – The yacht sailed at dawn to travel to the most southern station as possible before continuing our journey to north

stations.

28th Jan – We were around Graham Coast, where lots of floating ices made any further sail up north impossible for Australis. We

then made a U-turn to Darboux Island (still in Graham Coast) to do the sampling. With nice weather, we managed to continue and complete our work on shore and on Australis’ deck.

29th Jan – Journey continued in the early morning and we arrived at Danco Coast at 10:15 h. The weather was at its worse with

gutsy wind and hail pouring down. It was difficult to find the sampling site due to snow covering most of the land. Without wasting our time, we walked for 30 minutes crossing the small hill to reach a small coast for sampling. We spent almost 2 hours collecting the samples before heading back to the rubber dinghy and returned back to the yacht. Due to the bad weather from the south, we had to make a move and stopped at the next station, Davis Coast to anchor.

All scientists and Australis’ crew members at Ushuaia port. From left to rtight: Dr Emienour (UMT), Dr Huzaimy (UiTM), Dr Rauhan (UMT), Magnus (Australis’ crew), Anna (Australis’ crew), Bob (Australis’ crew), Ben (Australis’ captain) Hilal (USM), Dr Shahrul (UKM), Dr Goh (UKM), Dr Foong (USM), Aniqah (MMU)

17

30th Jan – The weather did not favour us today. Hence, today we had to sample at two stations to avoid the bad weather from the

south. We did our sampling at Paradise Bay (Davis Coast) early in the morning, and then sailed 6.5 hours up north to Enterprise Island (Davis Coast).

31st Jan – We continued our journey at early morning 03:00 h to the last station, Trinity Island and spent 2 hours for sample

collection. After that Australis stayed still for another 3 hours to allow us to process samples on deck. Just after 15:00 h, we made our way to the north and stayed overnight at the Whaling Bay, Deception Island.

1st Feb – Australis set sail again at 6 am and arrived at King Sejong station at 14:00 h. We stayed at King Sejong station for 3 nights for

sample processing and packing up.

2nd Feb – Thing did not turn out as planned. The bad weather came faster than expected and it would be extremely dangerous to cross

the Drake Passage in the next couple days. So, the Australis’ captain asked us to leave Antarctica as soon as possible. After around two hours of last minute works and preparation, we departed for Ushuaia at 18:00h.

The journey from

Antarctica The second Drake crossing to Ushuaia port was worse than the first trip, but we felt slightly better

as we have gotten used to the weather and to the yacht itself. However, some of us exprienced seasick and spent most of time on bed.

We arrived at Ushuaia port near midnight on 5th Feb. We stayed in the yacht for another 3 nights and moved in to the hotel on the 8th.

Output Although several amendments were made to our itineraries due to the bad weather, we managed to

finish our planned work. We were able to do the samples collection, sample processing, measurements and carried out experiments in a crammed time and uncomfortable condition.

Achievements In overall, this expedition was considered to be a successful in

terms of the scientific aspect. In terms of the journey we gained a lot of experience with regard to the limitations and suitability of the use of yacht for research in Antarctica. For example, the sampling and experiments should be flexible and taking into account the weather condition, work space on the yacht, logistics, and facilities. On top of that, the health condition and fitness of the scientists should also be considered for this type of journey and sampling. Through the experience, we may able to facilitate YPASM, MARP and other Malaysian scientists for the success of the next Antarctic scientific expedition.

UMT’s flag in Deception Island, Antarctica.

Measuring water parameters in Danco CoastPhoto | Ben Wallis (Australis’ captain)

Benthic organisms specimen found in Antarctic Peninsula1. Bryzoa (Sea moss) attaches on red algae2. Bovallia gigantean (Sand hopper)3. Paraceradocus miersii (Sand hopper)4. Acodontaster hodgsoni (Starfish)5. Margarella antarctica (Snail)

3 3

2 45

1

ASEAN-FEN has expanded its initial institutional members from 8 in 2011 to 18 in 2016. ASEAN-FEN proposed the first 9 initial “working” universities as the core members and the remaining, as well as future members, as associate members in order to facilitate better management and communication with other fisheries and aquaculture network in both ASEAN and the EU region. Currently, ASEAN-FEN comprised of 9 core and 8 associate institutional members respectively from Malaysia, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, The Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

In addition to student and staff exchange between the core members, ASEAN-FEN organizes a major fisheries and aquaculture event annually. Termed as the “International Fisheries Symposium” (IFS), the conference which started 4 years ago, had successfully attracted more than 1500 participants from all around the world, with primary involvement of the ASEM-Aquaculture Platform (from the EU region) upon an invitation to Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos as a speaker in 2012. IFS is organized annually by the principal members on a rotation basis, with the 1st IFS held in Terengganu, Malaysia followed by Can Tho, Vietnam and Pattaya, Thailand. The 4th IFS were organized by Universitas Air Langga (UNAIR) and the meeting held in Surabaya, Indonesia from 30-31 October 2014. Participation to date goes beyond 400 people, with strong involvement from the private sector. This event is seen as an opportunity for the aquaculture network in EU to disseminate/exchange valuable information, data and/or research findings with the ASEAN counterpart for mutual benefit. This year, IFS2015 was jointly organized by Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT) and the Malaysian Fisheries Department, with the theme “ASEAN Fisheries 2015: Towards Sustainability, Advanced Technology and Community Enhancement”.

Objectives of

ASEAN-FEN

i.Support, lead, organize and participate in conferences and other opportunities to provide educational opportunities related to the

ASEAN-FEN’s mission, for the members and general public.

ii.Develop and promote research initiatives, and provide and coordinate infrastructure and personnel for research on fisheries

and aquaculture for the ASEAN-FEN’s core and associate members.

iii.Develop and promote student, academia and expert exchange programs and credit exchange programs for undergraduate and

post-graduate studies among the ASEAN-FEN’s core and associate members.

iv.Seek opportunities to collectively advocate to, and partner and collaborate with, local international organizations and authorities

in opportunities that advance the mission of ASEAN-FEN.

v.Support and facilitate the programs of scientists, educators, and students at institutions represented by the core and associate

members.

vi.Collaborate with other global networks, universities and institutes to promote education, research and capacity building efforts in

the ASEAN region to greater heights.

It is intended that the ASEAN-FEN has no more than 9 core members

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FiSHAHighlight

The newly established ASEAN Fisheries Education Network (ASEAN-FEN) consists of university-based consortia representing the fisheries and aquaculture oriented institutions within the Southeast Asia region. ASEAN-FEN was established by agreement of its nine core members namely Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (Malaysia), Universiti Sains Malaysia (Malaysia), Can Tho University (Vietnam), Nong Lam University (Vietnam), Kasetsart University (Thailand), Prince of Songkla University (Thailand), Rajamangala University of Technology Srivijaya (Thailand) and Universitas Air Langga (Indonesia) for the purpose of supporting and enhancing the fisheries and aquaculture sector through education, research, and public outreach in the region. The ASEAN-FEN supports and facilitates the activities of educators, scientists, and agencies responding to local, regional, national, and international issues on fisheries and aquaculture.

LAUNCHING OF ASEAN-FEN & CO-ORGANIZING 5TH INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES SYMPOSIUM 2015Author | YEONG YIK SUNGPhoto | Media Kreatif UMT

From left to right: Prof. Dr. Ahmad Sofiman Othman, co-chairman of IFS 2015, Associate Prof. Dr. Sukree Hajisamae, ASEAN-FEN Chairman, Professor Dato’ Dr. Omar Osman, USM Vice Chancellor, Professor Dato’ Dr. Nor Aieni binti Haji Mokhtar, UMT Vice Chancellor, and Prof. Dr. Mazlan Abd. Ghaffar, co-chairman of IFS 2015 during the opening ceremony of IFS 2015.

but in its course, accepts other fisheries and aquaculture-based

universities and/or institutes as associate members, or promotes its

associate members to be core members under the jurisdiction(s) of the

core institutional members. The objective is for the core members to be

representatives or consortiums. As of the date of this MoU the following

consortia are represented by 9 core and 9 associate institutional

members:

Core ASEAN-FEN Institutional Members

1. Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia

2. Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia

3. Kasetsart University, Thailand

4. Price of Songkla University, Thailand

5. Rajamangala University of Science and Technology Srivijaya,

Thailand

6. Can Tho University, Vietnam

7. Nong Lam University, Vietnam

8. Universitas Air Langga, Indonesia

9. Universitas Brawijawa, Indonesia

Associate ASEAN-FEN Institutional Members

1. Nha Trang University, Vietnam

2. Hue University, Vietnam

3. University of Philippines Visayas, The Philippines

4. Royal University of Agriculture, Cambodia

5. Prek Leap National College of Agriculture, Cambodia

6. University of Yangon, Myanmar

7. Savanakhet University, Laos

8. Burapha University, Thailand

9. Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia

The Working

Committee Members

Chairman : Associate Prof. Dr. Sukree Hajisamae (PSU, Thailand)

Co-chair : Prof. Dr. Mazlan Abd Ghaffar (UMT, Malaysia)

Secretary : Associate Prof. Dr. Yeong Yik Sung (UMT, Malaysia)

Treasurers : Associate Prof. Dr. Tran Ngoc Hai (CTU, Vietnam)

: Prof. Dr. Siti Azizah Mohd Nor (USM, Malaysia)

UMT’s plan of action upon MoU signing

UMT, through ASEAN-FEN as a platform will lead/coordinate an EU Fund HORIZON 2020 with ASEAN-FEN members, with collaboration and assistance from Ghent University, Belgium. Prof Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos, who is currently the visiting professor of UMT as well as the consultant for EU aquaculture (funding), will facilitate in the application process of the grant.

UMT will continue to play a significant role in organizing the International Fisheries Symposium together to the core members of ASEAN-FEN. This represents an annual KPI for UMT as organizer of international conference. Academic staff and students will benefit in the participation of the conference, both in terms of disseminating and acquiring novel and advanced research information.

UMT will use ASEAN-FEN as a platform to promote its academic excellence in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. UMT will serve as a center for foreign academic staff and student training. This will attract and boost foreign students’ enrolment in our fisheries/aquaculture postgraduate programs.

UMT will establish new collaboration with the associate members of ASEAN-FEN, widening its research and academic linkages in the region. This can be extended to joint-publications, joint-supervision of students, and student exchange.

Participants from Thailand attending the opening ceremony of IFS 2015

A we-fie of the IFS 2015 committee members with Prof. Emeritus Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos at the conference held at Gurney Hotel, Penang. Photo | Yeong Yik Sung

MoU signing among the core and associate ASEAN-FEN institutional members

19

FiSHAHighlight

Kampung Pasir Raja or Pasir Raja Village situated at Dungun, Terengganu was once a bio diverse area rich with tropical flora and fauna that was popular among nature lovers for hiking, camping, fishing and river bathing. Unfortunately, the river habitat was severely vanished due to environmental change over the years leaving lifeless biodiversity with shallow water level which affected the ecotourism activities. In 2015, FiSHA together with Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP), UMT took an effort to rehabilitate Pasir Raja Village river and improve the livelihood as a contribution to the local community. FiSHA members had initiated fish diversity survey and planned for river rehabilitation by restocking potential riverine species for local community.

COMMUNITY SERVICES:REHABILITATION OF KAMPUNG PASIR RAJA RIVER, DUNGUN TERENGGANU SEMINAR 2016 Author | TAN MIN PAUPhoto | GUSTI AFIZ GUSTI RUSLAN NOOR

Invited European Visiting Professor Dr. Gudrun De Boeck from University of Antwerp to UMT in the workshop of “Ethical fish surgery for physiology study”.

VISITING PROFESSORSFISH-PHYSIOLOGISTAuthor | TAN MIN PAUPhoto | HON JUNG LIEW

1

2

20

Whilst, AKUATROP on the other taking up initiative to restore pond system for local community. In the 2015, AKUATROP successfully gathered the responsible agencies to discuss and plan to improve abundance system. In addition, AKUATROP offered life-long learning opportunity via organizing workshop on pond farming management on tilapia and giant freshwater prawn with continuous monitoring, hand-in-hand together with local community. Seed for tilapia, giant freshwater prawn and pellets were provided by AKUATROP to community with the hope to improve Pasir Raja livelihood.

Sedimentation problem at Kampung Pasir Raja river. Photo | Tun Nurul Aimi | Rumeaida Mat Piah

1. Explaining the functional surgery tools to participants2. Demonstration of the ethical procedure on fish surgery3. Close-up of stitches after surgery completion. 4. Flushing anaesthetics solution though gills during surgery.

Mr. Gusti and Mr. Sabri from AKUATROP working hand-in-hand with local community in setting up hapas for initial farming.

Growth performance examination and grading.

3

4

21

In BriefAcademic Research HighlightAuthor | SANDRA ZAINATHANAuthor | HELENA KHATOON

Receiving best technology innovation award from Minster

UMT’s research innovation and invention exhibition “INOVASI@UMT” 2016 is an annual event organized by Research Management and Innovation Center (RMIC) to discover and highlight new research products to be brought to the research exhibition and competition at national and international level. INOVASI@UMT 2016 was held from 26th to 28th May 2016 at Dewan Sultan Mizan, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.

Dr Helena Khatoon, researcher at Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP) and lecturer at the School of Fisheries and

Aquaculture Sciences (FiSHA) has won two gold medals at the event for her products:

i. Novel blue pigment from cyanobacteria

ii. Low cost medium for microalgae cultivation

under the category of Technology Innovation. She also won the Best Technology Innovation Award for the product entitled “Low cost medium for microalgae cultivation” presented by the Minister of Higher Education.

He lena Khatoon

Product Inventor

Best

Tech

nolog

y Innovation award

22

South China SeaCreaturesPhoto | TUN NURUL AIMI

23

RESEARCH FUNDSAuthor | SANDRA ZAINATHAN

FiSHA academic members has received a total of MYR 6,387,949.00 research grants that mainly comprises from government funds such as Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS), Research Acculturation Grant Scheme (RAGS), Prototype Development Research Grant Scheme (PRGS), Knowledge Transfer Program (KTP), Niche Research Grant Scheme (NRGS), Public-Private Research Network (PPRN) and Research Acculturation

Collaborative Effort (RACE) from Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE), and TechnoFund from Ministry of Science and Technology (MOSTI) (Figure 5). Our academician also received funding from Yayasan Penyelidikan Antartika Sultan Mizan (YPASM) for the Polar Research Grants that partially supported the cost of research in polar sciences and policy in research expenses, capacity building, establish polar laboratories or fieldwork

collaboration for the polar region. The field of research conducted by FiSHA academicians include: Aquatic Animal Health, Breeding, Nutrition, Immunology, Fish Physiology, Aquaculture, Fisheries Ecology, Population Dynamics and Taxonomy, Genetics, Microbiology, Toxicology, Biochemistry and Food safety, Postharvest Technology and Fisheries Technology.

TECH

NOFUND RM2,529,200

FRGS RM2,127,600

OTHER

PRGS

NRGS

RM409,859

RM334,250

RM442,000

PPRN RM31,000

RAGS RM179,140RACE RM49,950

KTP RM284,950

Total amount of active/on-going research grants, MYR6,387,949.00 acquired

by researchers in FiSHA and associated research

institutes in 2016

24

HIGH IMPACT PUBLICATIONAuthor | SANDRA ZAINATHAN

Cumulative number of publication according to types of publications published by researchers in FiSHA from 2012 until September 2015

FiSHA consists of 41 lecturers/researchers that including whom are in associate with internal research institutes from Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP), Institute of Marine Biotechnology (IMB), Institute of Kenyir Research (IPK) and

Institute of Oceanography and Environment (INOS). In total, FiSHA researchers has published about 599 publications ranging from journal papers, proceedings, books, chapters in book, posters, general and postgraduate theses since

2012. FiSHA has shown 14% of increase in publication for the year 2016 from previous years with about 70% of the journals papers are published in high impact journal ranging between Q1-Q2 in various fields of fisheries and aquaculture.

350

300

250

200

150

100

50

0

Journal Proceedings Books Chapters Posters General

25

26

Publication Highlights

Journal Impact Factor 2.914

AbstractMany species from several different families of fishes perform mouthbrooding, where one of the sexes protects and ventilates the eggs inside the mouth cavity. This ventilation behaviour differs from gill ventilation outside the brooding period, as the normal, smallamplitude suction-pump respiration cycles are alternated with actionsincluding near-simultaneous closed-mouth protrusions and highamplitude depressions of the hyoid. The latter is called churning, referring to its hypothetical function in moving around and repositioning the eggs by a presumed hydrodynamic effect of the marked shifts in volume along the mouth cavity. We tested the hypothesis that churning causes the eggs located posteriorly in the mouth cavity to move anteriorly away from the gill entrance. This would prevent or clear accumulations of brood at the branchial basket, which would otherwise hinder breathing by the parent. Dual-view videos of female Nile tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus) during mouthbrooding showed that churning involves a posterior-toanterior wave of expansion and compression of the head volume.Flow visualisation with polyethylene microspheres revealed a significant inflow of water entering the gill slits at the zone above the pectoral fin base, followed by a predominantly ventral outflow passing the ventrolaterally flapping branchiostegal membranes. X-ray videos indicated that particularly the brood located close to the gills is moved anteriorly during churning. These data suggest that, in addition to mixing of the brood to aid its oxygenation, an important function of the anterior flow through the gills and buccal cavity during churning is to prevent clogging of the eggs near the gills.

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Kinematics of mouthbrooding in Oreochromis niloticus (Cichlidae)Sam Van Wassenbergh1,2,*, Iris Joris1, Mathieu Desclee1, Hon Jung Liew1,3, Gudrun De Boeck1,Dominique Adriaens2 and Peter Aerts1,4

ABSTRACTMany species from several different families of fishes performmouthbrooding, where one of the sexes protects and ventilates theeggs inside the mouth cavity. This ventilation behaviour differs fromgill ventilation outside the brooding period, as the normal, small-amplitude suction-pump respiration cycles are alternated with actionsincluding near-simultaneous closed-mouth protrusions and high-amplitude depressions of the hyoid. The latter is called churning,referring to its hypothetical function in moving around andrepositioning the eggs by a presumed hydrodynamic effect of themarked shifts in volume along the mouth cavity. We testedthe hypothesis that churning causes the eggs located posteriorly inthe mouth cavity to move anteriorly away from the gill entrance. Thiswould prevent or clear accumulations of brood at the branchial basket,which would otherwise hinder breathing by the parent. Dual-viewvideos of female Nile tilapias (Oreochromis niloticus) duringmouthbrooding showed that churning involves a posterior-to-anterior wave of expansion and compression of the head volume.Flow visualisation with polyethylene microspheres revealed asignificant inflow of water entering the gill slits at the zone abovethe pectoral fin base, followed by a predominantly ventral outflowpassing the ventrolaterally flapping branchiostegal membranes. X-rayvideos indicated that particularly the brood located close to the gills ismoved anteriorly during churning. These data suggest that, inaddition to mixing of the brood to aid its oxygenation, an importantfunction of the anterior flow through the gills and buccal cavity duringchurning is to prevent clogging of the eggs near the gills.

KEY WORDS: Cichlids, Tilapia, Ventilation, Opercula,Jaw protrusion, Churning, Hydrodynamics, Biomechanics

INTRODUCTIONMouthbrooding is the behaviour of fishes to protect and ventilate theeggs in the buccal cavity until they have developed into free-swimming fry (Keenleyside, 1991). This form of parental care isfound in at least nine families of Teleostei, including numerousspecies from the family of cichlids (Cichlidae) (Oppenheimer,1970). Evolutionary transitions from close guarding of the eggsin nests or crevices to mouthbrooding have occurred at least 10 timesin the history of cichlids (Goodwin et al., 1998). Duringmouthbrooding, the buccal cavity of the parent is brought into atypical, enlarged posture to accommodate more eggs (Oppenheimerand Barlow, 1968; Goedel, 1974). In the Nile tilapia (Oreochromis

niloticus), the model species of the current study, this postureincludes a slightly protruded premaxilla, a depressed hyoid(Fig. 1A) and abducted suspensoria (Fig. 1B). X-ray pictures witha radio-opaque fluid filling the buccal cavity show how drasticallythe buccal volume increases by this postural change (Fig. 1C),allowing large females of this species to brood more than 1500 eggs(Valentin et al., 2015).

Ventilation behaviour of the mouthbrooding parent is crucial forthe survival of the parent fish and the young (Oppenheimer andBarlow, 1968). Oxygen for the eggs and the newly hatched youngneeds to be supplied by the flow of fresh water generated by thecranial movements of the mouthbrooder. Not surprisingly,ventilation behaviour during mouthbrooding differs from therepertoire of cranial motions observed outside the mouthbroodingperiod. In cichlids, two main behaviours are displayed in bouts ofvarying length (see Movie 1), the percentage occurrence of whichvaries throughout the course of the brooding period (Oppenheimerand Barlow, 1968): (1) respiration and (2) churning.

Respiration corresponds to the gill-ventilating, suction-pumpmovements also performed when the fish are not mouthbrooding. Asa large variation exists in the amplitude of the cranial movementsduring respiration, a distinction is sometimes made between ‘active’respiration (including large-amplitude motions of the jaws andopercula) and ‘passive’ respiration (involving small-amplitude jawmotions and small opening of the gill slits almost exclusively bymovement of the branchiostegal membranes) (Oppenheimer andBarlow, 1968). During active respiration, Oppenheimer and Barlow(1968) described that, when themouth is opened, the incomingwatercauses the uppermost eggs tomove backward to the rear of the buccalcavity, while the eggs on the left side move in a clockwise manner(anti-clockwise for the eggs on the right side) and return forwardalong the side of the mouth (Oppenheimer and Barlow, 1968).

Churning involves a closed-mouth protrusion of the premaxilla,depression of the hyoid and abduction of the opercula(Oppenheimer and Barlow, 1968). The name of this behaviourrefers to its hypothetical function in moving the brood around in thebuccal cavity. At the instant during churning when the mouth isopen, the eggs have been observed to roll about in the mouth(Baerends and Baerends-van Roon, 1950). Abraham (1901) peeredthough the semi-transparent, extended skin beneath the lower jaw ofPseudocrenilabrus philander and saw the hatched ‘wrigglers’ beingrushed to the front of the buccal cavity, after which they retreated outof sight to the back (Abraham, 1901).

The above observations suggest that the main difference in termsof brood movement between active respiration and churning is anabrupt forward impulse that is given to the intra-oral water duringchurning. This forward displacement of the brood may play a role inpreventing the eggs from clogging near the gills and thereby causingrespiratory obstruction (Abraham, 1901). If so, churning has a rolecomparable to a ‘forward cough’ (sensuKuiper, 1907). Coughing isregarded as a normal part of the respiratory activity of most fish(Hughes and Adeney, 1977). Alternatively, if the mouthbrooder’sReceived 4 September 2015; Accepted 2 March 2016

1Department of Biology, University of Antwerp, Universiteitsplein 1, Antwerpen2610, Belgium. 2Department of Biology, Ghent University, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35,Gent 9000, Belgium. 3Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, Universiti MalaysiaTerengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu 21030, Malaysia. 4Department ofMovement and Sport Sciences, Ghent University, Watersportlaan 2, Gent 9000,Belgium.

*Author for correspondence ([email protected])

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© 2016. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd | Journal of Experimental Biology (2016) 219, 1535-1541 doi:10.1242/jeb.131631

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AbstractFeeding aquatic animals with bacterial encapsulated heat-shock proteins (Hsps) is potentially a new method to combat vibriosis, an important disease affecting aquatic animals used in aquaculture. Food pellets comprised of shrimp and containing Escherichia coli overexpressing eitherDnaK-DnaJ-GrpE, the prokaryotic equivalents of Hsp70-Hsp40-Hsp20, or only DnaK were fed to juveniles of the white leg shrimp Penaeus vannamei, and protection against pathogenic Vibrio harveyi was determined. Maintaining pellets at different temperatures for varying lengths of timereduced the number of live adhering E. coli, as did contact with sea water, demonstrating that storage and immersion adversely affected bacterial survival and attachment to pellets. Feeding P. vannamei with E. coli did not compromise their survival, indicating that the bacteria were not pathogenic to shrimp. Feeding P. vannamei with pellets containing bacteria overproducing DnaK (approximately 60 cells g1 pellets) boosted P. vannamei survival twofold against V. harveyi, suggesting that DnaK plays a role in Vibrio tolerance. Pellets containing DnaK were effective inproviding protection to P. vannamei for up to 2 weeks before loss of viability and that DnaK encapsulated by these bacteria enhanced shrimp resistance against Vibrio infection. Keywords: DnaK, heat-shock proteins, Hsp70,P. vannamei, shrimp, Vibrio.


Ingestion of food pellets containing Escherichia colioverexpressing the heat-shock protein DnaK protectsPenaeus vannamei (Boone) against Vibrio harveyi(Baumann) infection

S Sinnasamy1, N Mat Noordin2, T H MacRae3, M Ikhwanuddin bin Abdullah2,

P Bossier4, M E bin Abdul Wahid1,2, A Noriaki5 and Y Y Sung1,2

1 Institute of Marine Biotechnology, University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

2 School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Kuala Terengganu,

Malaysia

3 Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

4 Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University,

Gent, Belgium

5 Agrobest Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia

Abstract

Feeding aquatic animals with bacterial encapsu-lated heat-shock proteins (Hsps) is potentially anew method to combat vibriosis, an importantdisease affecting aquatic animals used in aquacul-ture. Food pellets comprised of shrimp and con-taining Escherichia coli overexpressing eitherDnaK-DnaJ-GrpE, the prokaryotic equivalents ofHsp70-Hsp40-Hsp20, or only DnaK were fed tojuveniles of the white leg shrimp Penaeus vanna-mei, and protection against pathogenic Vibrio har-veyi was determined. Maintaining pellets atdifferent temperatures for varying lengths of timereduced the number of live adhering E. coli, asdid contact with sea water, demonstrating thatstorage and immersion adversely affected bacterialsurvival and attachment to pellets. Feeding P. van-namei with E. coli did not compromise their sur-vival, indicating that the bacteria were notpathogenic to shrimp. Feeding P. vannamei withpellets containing bacteria overproducing DnaK(approximately 60 cells g�1 pellets) boostedP. vannamei survival twofold against V. harveyi,

suggesting that DnaK plays a role in Vibrio toler-ance. Pellets containing DnaK were effective inproviding protection to P. vannamei for up to2 weeks before loss of viability and that DnaKencapsulated by these bacteria enhanced shrimpresistance against Vibrio infection.

Keywords: DnaK, heat-shock proteins, Hsp70,P. vannamei, shrimp, Vibrio.

Introduction

Heat-shock proteins (Hsps), commonly referred toas stress proteins or molecular chaperones, occurconstitutively in all living cells. Major Hsp fami-lies include Hsp100, Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp60,Hsp40 and small Hsps (sHsps), with monomersof the latter having molecular masses less than40 kDa. Some Hsps are highly conserved withamino acid sequence similarities reaching60–70%, as is true for members of the Hsp70family. As with other Hsps, induction of Hsp70occurs upon exposure to stressors which denatureproteins, and intracellular Hsps may increase 2–3times in amount during temperature stress,hypoxia, desiccation and infection (Sung et al.2011). Hsp70 functions as a molecular chaperone,

Correspondence Y Y Sung, Institute of Marine Biotechnology,

University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), 21030, Kuala Tereng-

ganu, Malaysia (e-mail: [email protected])

577� 2015

John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Journal of Fish Diseases 2016, 39, 577–584 doi:10.1111/jfd.12390

Ingestion of food pellets containing Escherichia colioverexpressing the heat-shock protein DnaK protectsPenaeus vannamei (Boone) against Vibrio harveyi(Baumann) infection

S Sinnasamy1, N Mat Noordin2, T H MacRae3, M Ikhwanuddin bin Abdullah2,

P Bossier4, M E bin Abdul Wahid1,2, A Noriaki5 and Y Y Sung1,2

1 Institute of Marine Biotechnology, University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

2 School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), Kuala Terengganu,

Malaysia

3 Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada

4 Laboratory of Aquaculture & Artemia Reference Center, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University,

Gent, Belgium

5 Agrobest Malaysia Sdn. Bhd, Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia

Abstract

Feeding aquatic animals with bacterial encapsu-lated heat-shock proteins (Hsps) is potentially anew method to combat vibriosis, an importantdisease affecting aquatic animals used in aquacul-ture. Food pellets comprised of shrimp and con-taining Escherichia coli overexpressing eitherDnaK-DnaJ-GrpE, the prokaryotic equivalents ofHsp70-Hsp40-Hsp20, or only DnaK were fed tojuveniles of the white leg shrimp Penaeus vanna-mei, and protection against pathogenic Vibrio har-veyi was determined. Maintaining pellets atdifferent temperatures for varying lengths of timereduced the number of live adhering E. coli, asdid contact with sea water, demonstrating thatstorage and immersion adversely affected bacterialsurvival and attachment to pellets. Feeding P. van-namei with E. coli did not compromise their sur-vival, indicating that the bacteria were notpathogenic to shrimp. Feeding P. vannamei withpellets containing bacteria overproducing DnaK(approximately 60 cells g�1 pellets) boostedP. vannamei survival twofold against V. harveyi,

suggesting that DnaK plays a role in Vibrio toler-ance. Pellets containing DnaK were effective inproviding protection to P. vannamei for up to2 weeks before loss of viability and that DnaKencapsulated by these bacteria enhanced shrimpresistance against Vibrio infection.

Keywords: DnaK, heat-shock proteins, Hsp70,P. vannamei, shrimp, Vibrio.

Introduction

Heat-shock proteins (Hsps), commonly referred toas stress proteins or molecular chaperones, occurconstitutively in all living cells. Major Hsp fami-lies include Hsp100, Hsp90, Hsp70, Hsp60,Hsp40 and small Hsps (sHsps), with monomersof the latter having molecular masses less than40 kDa. Some Hsps are highly conserved withamino acid sequence similarities reaching60–70%, as is true for members of the Hsp70family. As with other Hsps, induction of Hsp70occurs upon exposure to stressors which denatureproteins, and intracellular Hsps may increase 2–3times in amount during temperature stress,hypoxia, desiccation and infection (Sung et al.2011). Hsp70 functions as a molecular chaperone,

Correspondence Y Y Sung, Institute of Marine Biotechnology,

University Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), 21030, Kuala Tereng-

ganu, Malaysia (e-mail: [email protected])

577� 2015

John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Journal of Fish Diseases 2016, 39, 577–584 doi:10.1111/jfd.12390

28


AbstractA feeding trial was conducted to utilize canola meal and soybean meal as major dietary protein sources for kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Four isocaloric diets (19 kJ g−1) were formulated by reducing 0 (FM40), 70 (FM12), 85 (FM6) and 100% (FM0) of dietary fishmeal with a combination (4:6) of canola meal and soybean meal (blend). Based on a series of previous studies, all the plant protein diets (FM12, FM6 and FM0) were supplemented with 1.00% lysine, 0.50% methionine, 0.04% phytase and varying levels of fish soluble to improve the nutritional quality of the diets. Fifteen shrimp with an initial average weight of 1.74 g were randomly stocked in 12, 54 l rectangular tanks in triplicate per dietary treatments. The shrimp were given the respective test diets daily by hand at 8 – 10% of body weight for 60 days. Final body weight (g) and specific growth rate (% day−1) were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by reducing fishmeal with plant protein blend. Feed intake was also not varied among the dietary treatments. On the other hand,

feed conversion ratio was significantly (P < 0.05) increased in the FM0 group, while no difference was found among the rests. Protein efficiency ratio had an opposite trend and the FM0 group demonstrated significantly lowest value. Similarly, protein gain (g kg weight gain−1) and protein retention (%) were significantly decreased in the FM0 group. Dietary treatments had no negative effects (P > 0.05) on the whole body composition. Significant effect was also not found on the protease activity (unit mg−1 protein) in the digestive tract of shrimp fed the FM40, FM12 and FM6 diets, while the value was significantly decreased in shrimp fed the FM0 diet. The values for the total hemocyte count (cells ml−1) and viable cells (%)were lowest in the FM0 group, however these parameters were not significantly varied among the dietary treatments. Upon considering the results obtained in the present experimental condition, it has been concluded that canola meal and soybean meal could be effectively utilized as major protein sources by kuruma shrimp. The dietary fishmeal could be reduced to only 6% (85% replacement) with a blend of canola meal and soybean meal, and supplementation of methionine, lysine, phytase and fish soluble without compromising growth, feed utilization, body composition and health of juvenile kuruma shrimp.


Can canola meal and soybean meal be used as major dietary proteinsources for kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus?

Mahbuba Bulbul a,⁎, Md. Abdul Kader a,b,⁎⁎, Md. Asaduzzaman a,b, Mohd. Azmi Ambak a,b,Ahmed Jalal Khan Chowdhury c, Md. Sakhawat Hossain d, Manabu Ishikawa d, Shunsuke Koshio d

a Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysiab School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysiac Faculty of Science, International Islamic University Malaysia, Jalan Istana, Bandar Indera Mahkota, 25200 Kuantan, Malaysiad Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Shimoarata 4-50-20, Kagoshima 980-0056, Japan

a b s t r a c ta r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 5 August 2015Received in revised form 29 October 2015Accepted 30 October 2015Available online 31 October 2015

Keywords:FishmealCanola mealSoybean mealMethionineLysinePhytaseFish solubleKuruma shrimp

A feeding trial was conducted to utilize canola meal and soybean meal as major dietary protein sources forkuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Four isocaloric diets (19 kJ g−1) were formulated by reducing 0(FM40), 70 (FM12), 85 (FM6) and 100% (FM0) of dietary fishmeal with a combination (4:6) of canola mealand soybean meal (blend). Based on a series of previous studies, all the plant protein diets (FM12, FM6 andFM0) were supplemented with 1.00% lysine, 0.50% methionine, 0.04% phytase and varying levels of fish solubleto improve the nutritional quality of the diets. Fifteen shrimp with an initial average weight of 1.74 g were ran-domly stocked in 12, 54 l rectangular tanks in triplicate per dietary treatments. The shrimpwere given the respec-tive test diets daily byhandat 8–10% of bodyweight for 60 days. Final bodyweight (g) and specific growth rate (%day−1) were not significantly (P N 0.05) affected by reducing fishmeal with plant protein blend. Feed intake wasalso not varied among the dietary treatments. On the other hand, feed conversion ratio was significantly(P b 0.05) increased in the FM0 group, while no difference was found among the rests. Protein efficiency ratiohad an opposite trend and the FM0 group demonstrated significantly lowest value. Similarly, protein gain(g kg weight gain−1) and protein retention (%) were significantly decreased in the FM0 group. Dietary treat-ments had no negative effects (P N 0.05) on the whole body composition. Significant effect was also not foundon the protease activity (unit mg−1 protein) in the digestive tract of shrimp fed the FM40, FM12 and FM6diets, while the value was significantly decreased in shrimp fed the FM0 diet. The values for the total hemocytecount (cellsml−1) and viable cells (%) were lowest in the FM0 group, however these parameters were not signif-icantly varied among the dietary treatments. Upon considering the results obtained in the present experimentalcondition, it has been concluded that canolameal and soybeanmeal could be effectively utilized asmajor proteinsources by kuruma shrimp. The dietary fishmeal could be reduced to only 6% (85% replacement) with a blend ofcanola meal and soybean meal, and supplementation of methionine, lysine, phytase and fish soluble withoutcompromising growth, feed utilization, body composition and health of juvenile kuruma shrimp.Statement of relevance: The research findings will help to develop plant protein based diets for crustaceans.

© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Traditionally, kuruma shrimp (kurumaebi,Marsupenaeus japonicus) isone of themost important crustacean species in Japan, because of its del-icacy and preference in the expensive and luxury food “sushi” and “tem-pura” (Alam et al., 2004; Bulbul et al., 2014). Since, wild catch of kurumashrimp is decreasing, aquaculture is the only means to bridge the gap

between demand and supply of this high-valued seafood (Bulbul et al.,2014). Kuruma shrimp is believed to require more dietary protein forgrowth than other crustacean species and, consequently, inclusion ofhigher levels of dietary protein frommarine sources like fishmeal is nec-essary for optimum growth (Teshima et al., 2001). However, in additionto sustainability issues, fishmeal is a finite protein source and its demandis increasing day by day which also increases the cost (Tacon andMetian,2008; Hardy, 2010; Kader and Koshio, 2012). Thus, it is necessary to findalternative sources tomakeup for the shortage offishmeal and to secure astable supply for commercial diets.

Plant proteins are mostly focused as alternative to fishmeal inshrimp feeds because of their lower price, consistent nutrient composi-tion and availability. Different plant proteins have been examined in

Aquaculture 452 (2016) 194–199

⁎ Corresponding author.⁎⁎ Correspondence to: M.A. Kader, School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences,Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M. Bulbul),[email protected], [email protected] (M.A. Kader).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2015.10.0360044-8486/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Aquaculture

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /aqua-on l ine

29


AbstractIn vivo and in vitro protein digestibility of 0% to 60% soybean meal protein (SBM) substitution from fishmeal protein was conducted for bagrid catfish Mystus nemurus juveniles. Seven experimental diets containing 35% protein and 15% lipid were fed to bagrid catfish to determine the in vivo protein digestibility. In vitro methods were determined using pH stat, pH shift, spectrophotometric assay and sodium dodecyle sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with different enzyme mixtures (crude intestinal extract of bagrid catfish, Lazo 1-enzyme, Hsu 3-enzyme, Saterlee 4-enzyme). In vivo and in vitro protein digestibility decreased with increased SBM protein substitution with highest tolerance level of 10% (in vivo). pH stat and pH drop methods showed the highest degree of hydrolysis (DH) and relative protein digestibility (RPD) using Saterlee 4-enzyme system. However, pH stat method showed highest correlations (r2 = 0.9263) with the in vivo results using crude intestinal enzyme extract compared to other enzyme systems. The highest correlation of the in vitro methods using crude intestinal enzyme extracts of bagrid catfish was determined using spectrophotometric assay (r2 = 0.9284) followed by pH stat (r2 = 0.9263), SDS-PAGE (r2 = 0.8348) and pH drop (r2 = 0.6777). All the in vitro methods tested are suitable to rapidly determine protein digestibility for bagrid catfish except for pH drop.

In vivo and in vitro protein digestibility in juvenile

bagrid catfish Mystus nemurus (Cuvier and

Valenciennes 1840) fed soybean meal-based diets

Sharifah Rahmah1,2, Mohammed Aliyu-Paiko1,3 & Roshada Hashim1

1Laboratory of Aquafeed and Feeding Management, Aquaculture Research Group, School of Biological Sciences,

Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia2School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia3Biochemistry Department, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) University, Lapai, Nigeria

Correspondence: S Rahmah, Laboratory of Aquafeed and Feeding Management, Aquaculture Research Group, School of Biological

Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800 Penang, Malaysia. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

In vivo and in vitro protein digestibility of 0% to

60% soybean meal protein (SBM) substitution from

fishmeal protein was conducted for bagrid catfish

Mystus nemurus juveniles. Seven experimental diets

containing 35% protein and 15% lipid were fed to

bagrid catfish to determine the in vivo protein

digestibility. In vitro methods were determined using

pH stat, pH shift, spectrophotometric assay and

sodium dodecyle sulphate polyacrylamide gel elec-

trophoresis (SDS-PAGE) with different enzyme

mixtures (crude intestinal extract of bagrid catfish,

Lazo 1-enzyme, Hsu 3-enzyme, Saterlee 4-enzyme).

In vivo and in vitro protein digestibility decreased

with increased SBM protein substitution with high-

est tolerance level of 10% (in vivo). pH stat and pH

drop methods showed the highest degree of hydro-

lysis (DH) and relative protein digestibility (RPD)

using Saterlee 4-enzyme system. However, pH stat

method showed highest correlations (r2 = 0.9263)

with the in vivo results using crude intestinal

enzyme extract compared to other enzyme systems.

The highest correlation of the in vitro methods

using crude intestinal enzyme extracts of bagrid

catfish was determined using spectrophotometric

assay (r2 = 0.9284) followed by pH stat (r2 =0.9263), SDS-PAGE (r2 = 0.8348) and pH drop

(r2 = 0.6777). All the in vitro methods tested are

suitable to rapidly determine protein digestibility for

bagrid catfish except for pH drop.

Keywords: digestive proteases, pH shift, pH stat,

soybean meal, SDS-PAGE, spectrophotometric assay

Introduction

Bagrid catfish is a commercially important fish in

fisheries, aquaculture and ornamental industry in

Southeast Asia particularly Malaysia, Thailand,

Indonesia (Leesa-Nga, Siraj, Daud, Sodsuk, Tan &

Sodsuk 2000), Vietnam (Widjaja, Abdulamir,

Saari, Bakar & Ishak 2009) and Laos (Somboon

2006). The high economic value of bagrid catfish

is due to its excellent taste (Rahmah, Kato,

Yamamoto, Takii, Murata & Senoo 2014) and

high content of protein, vitamin E (Mesomya,

Cuptapun, Jittanoonta, Hengsawadi, Boonvisut,

Huttayanon & Sriwatana 2002) and polyunsatu-

rated fatty acids (Mesomya et al. 2002; Widjaja

et al. 2009). Although various attempts have been

conducted to culture this valuable fish to meet the

increasing demand, insufficient information is

available for the culture of bagrid catfish. Feeding

is commonly done using trash fish or commercial

feeds formulated specifically for African catfish and

tilapia Oreochromis sp. (Eguia, Kamarudin &

Santiago 2000). Nutrient requirements of farmed

bagrid catfish have not been fully determined,

despite several growth studies conducted to

determine the optimum protein requirement (Eguia

et al. 2000; Ng, Soon & Hashim 2001) and

carbohydrate utilization (Hamid, Mahayat &

Hashim 2011).

In the aquaculture feed industry, protein is the

most expensive nutrient as its cost accounts for

more than 50% of the total aquaculture feed pro-

duction (El-Sayed 2006). The high demand of fish-

meal usage as protein source in aquaculture feed

© 2014 John Wiley & Sons Ltd1392

Aquaculture Research, 2016, 47, 1392–1401 doi:10.1111/are.12595


30


AbstractIn this study we aimed to analyze the effects of water temperature and diet on the length-weight relationship and condition of juvenile Malabar blood snapper Lutjanus malabaricus over a 30-d experimental period. The experiment was conducted in the laboratory using a flow-through-sea-water system. The fish were subjected to four different temperatures (22, 26, 30, and 34°C) and two diets (commercial pellet and natural shrimp). Fish were fed twice daily. L. malabaricus exhibited negative allometric growth (b<3) at the beginning of the experiment (Day 0) at all temperatures and both diets except for 22°C fed with shrimp, which showed isometric growth (b=3). Conversely, at the end of the experiment (Day 30) fish showed isometric growth (b=3) at 30°C fed with the pellet diet, indicating that the shape of the fish did not change with increasing weight and length, and a positive allometric growth (b>3) at 30°C fed with shrimp diet, which indicated that fish weight increases faster than their length. The rest of the temperatures represented negative allometric growth (b<3) on both diet, meaning that fish became lighter with increasing size. The condition factors in the initial and final measurements were greater than 1, indicating the state of health of the fish, except for those fed on a pellet diet at 34°C. However, the best condition was obtained at 30°C

on both diets. Nevertheless, diets did not have a significant effect on growth and condition of juvenile L. malabaricus. The data obtained from this study suggested culturing L. malabaricus at 30°C and feeding on the pellet or shrimp diet, which will optimize the overall production and condition of this commercially important fish species.


August 2016, Volume 17, Issue 8, pp 580–590

Effects of temperature and diet on length-weight relationship and condition factor of the juvenile Malabar blood snapper (Lutjanus malabaricus Bloch & Schneider, 1801)

Sabuj Kanti Mazumder1, Simon Kumar Das1,2, Yosni Bakar1, Mazlan Abd. Ghaffar2,3

1.School of Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology,Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi Malaysia

2.Marine Ecosystem Research Center, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, UKM Bangi Malaysia

3.School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Nerus, Malaysia

Abstract In this study we aimed to analyze the effects of water temperature and diet on the length-weight relationship and condition of juvenile Malabar blood snapper Lutjanus malabaricus over a 30-d experimental period. The experiment was conducted in the laboratory using a flow-through-sea-water system. The fish were subjected to four different temperatures (22, 26, 30, and 34 °C) and two diets (commercial pellet and natural shrimp). Fish were fed twice daily. L. malabaricus exhibited negative allometric growth (b<3) at the beginning of the experiment (Day 0) at all temperatures and both diets except for 22 °C fed with shrimp, which showed isometric growth (b=3). Conversely, at the end of the experiment (Day 30) fish showed isometric growth (b=3) at 30 °C fed with the pellet diet, indicating that the shape of the fish did not change with increasing weight and length, and a positive allometric growth (b>3) at 30 °C fed with shrimp diet, which indicated that fish weight increases faster than their length. The rest of the temperatures represented negative allometric growth (b<3) on both diet, meaning that fish became lighter with increasing size. The condition factors in the initial and final measurements were greater than 1, indicating the state of health of the fish, except for those fed on a pellet diet at 34 °C. However, the best condition was obtained at 30 °C on both diets. Nevertheless, diets did not have a significant effect on growth and condition of juvenile L. malabaricus. The data obtained from this study suggested culturing L. malabaricus at 30 °C and feeding on the pellet or shrimp diet, which will optimize the overall production and condition of this commercially important fish species.

Key words

Length-weight relationship, Condition factor, Temperature, Growth, Aquaculture, Snapper

Journal of Zhejiang University SCIENCE B

31


AbstractGenetic variability and differences in wild striped snakehead Channa striata from Malaysia were analysed by genotyping nine novel nuclear microsatellite loci. Analysis revealed moderate-to-high genetic diversity in most of the opulations, indicative of large effective population sizes. The highly diversified populations are admixed populations and, therefore, can be recommended as potential candidates for selective breeding and conservation since they each contain most of the alleles found in their particular region. Three homogenous groups of the wild populations were identified, apparently separated by effective barriers, in accordance with contemporary drainage patterns. The highest population pairwise FST found between members of the same group reflects the ancient population connectivity; yet prolonged geographical isolation resulted in adaptation of alleles to local contemporary environmental change. A significant relationship between genetic distance and geographical isolation was observed (r =0·644, P<0·01). Anthropogenic perturbations indicated apparent genetic proximity between distant populations.


Journal of Fish Biology (2016) 88, 1932–1948

doi:10.1111/jfb.12956, available online at wileyonlinelibrary.com

Genotyping of microsatellite markers to study geneticstructure of the wild striped snakehead Channa striata

in MalaysiaM. P. Tan*†‡§, A. F. J. Jamsari‡ and M. N. Siti Azizah‡

*School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030,Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia, †Institut Akuakultur Tropika (AKUATROP),

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysiaand ‡Schoolof Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Penang, Malaysia

(Received 31 March 2015, Accepted 18 February 2016)

Genetic variability and differences in wild striped snakeheadChanna striata fromMalaysia were anal-ysed by genotyping nine novel nuclear microsatellite loci. Analysis revealed moderate-to-high geneticdiversity in most of the populations, indicative of large effective population sizes. The highly diversi-fied populations are admixed populations and, therefore, can be recommended as potential candidatesfor selective breeding and conservation since they each contain most of the alleles found in their par-ticular region. Three homogenous groups of the wild populations were identified, apparently separatedby effective barriers, in accordance with contemporary drainage patterns. The highest population pair-wise FST found between members of the same group reflects the ancient population connectivity; yetprolonged geographical isolation resulted in adaptation of alleles to local contemporary environmentalchange. A significant relationship between genetic distance and geographical isolation was observed(r= 0·644, P< 0·01). Anthropogenic perturbations indicated apparent genetic proximity between dis-tant populations.

© 2016 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles

Key words: anthropogenic factor; conservation; freshwater fish; genetic diversity; isolation by dis-tance; nuclear DNA.

INTRODUCTION

Uncovering the genetic structure of biota is as important as understanding environ-mental changes since both are integrally and naturally related. It becomes increasinglyapparent that many of the genetic patterns at the species level could reflect geomor-phological historical processes (Adamson et al., 2012; Tan et al., 2012). Investigatingconnections among populations of freshwater taxa provides unique opportunities sincethese species can only disperse through waterways, whereas other terrestrial taxa arecapable of migrating via numerous overland routes. The genetics pattern of freshwatertaxa frequently explains the historical drainage realignment.In Malaysia, both the Peninsula and in Northern Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah), are

renowned as rich bio-diverse zoogeographic regions where rivers and tributaries aredominant characteristics. The most prominent topographical feature of PeninsularMalaysia is the central mountain range, running from north to south. This range is

§Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +609 668 4917; email: [email protected]

1932


Journal of Fish Biology (2016) 88, 1932–1948

doi:10.1111/jfb.12956, available online at wileyonlinelibrary.com

Genotyping of microsatellite markers to study geneticstructure of the wild striped snakehead Channa striata

in MalaysiaM. P. Tan*†‡§, A. F. J. Jamsari‡ and M. N. Siti Azizah‡

*School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030,Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia, †Institut Akuakultur Tropika (AKUATROP),

Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030, Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysiaand ‡Schoolof Biological Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 11800, Minden, Penang, Malaysia

(Received 31 March 2015, Accepted 18 February 2016)

Genetic variability and differences in wild striped snakeheadChanna striata fromMalaysia were anal-ysed by genotyping nine novel nuclear microsatellite loci. Analysis revealed moderate-to-high geneticdiversity in most of the populations, indicative of large effective population sizes. The highly diversi-fied populations are admixed populations and, therefore, can be recommended as potential candidatesfor selective breeding and conservation since they each contain most of the alleles found in their par-ticular region. Three homogenous groups of the wild populations were identified, apparently separatedby effective barriers, in accordance with contemporary drainage patterns. The highest population pair-wise FST found between members of the same group reflects the ancient population connectivity; yetprolonged geographical isolation resulted in adaptation of alleles to local contemporary environmentalchange. A significant relationship between genetic distance and geographical isolation was observed(r= 0·644, P< 0·01). Anthropogenic perturbations indicated apparent genetic proximity between dis-tant populations.


Key words: anthropogenic factor; conservation; freshwater fish; genetic diversity; isolation by dis-tance; nuclear DNA.

INTRODUCTION

Uncovering the genetic structure of biota is as important as understanding environ-mental changes since both are integrally and naturally related. It becomes increasinglyapparent that many of the genetic patterns at the species level could reflect geomor-phological historical processes (Adamson et al., 2012; Tan et al., 2012). Investigatingconnections among populations of freshwater taxa provides unique opportunities sincethese species can only disperse through waterways, whereas other terrestrial taxa arecapable of migrating via numerous overland routes. The genetics pattern of freshwatertaxa frequently explains the historical drainage realignment.In Malaysia, both the Peninsula and in Northern Borneo (Sarawak and Sabah), are

renowned as rich bio-diverse zoogeographic regions where rivers and tributaries aredominant characteristics. The most prominent topographical feature of PeninsularMalaysia is the central mountain range, running from north to south. This range is

§Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel.: +609 668 4917; email: [email protected]

1932


32


AbstractWe examined the impacts of climate change on Antarctic nearshore marine benthic communities on the West Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most rapidly warming regions on earth. We surveyed the epibenthic megafaunal assemblages of Marian Cove, a representative fjord on King George Island. We collected specimens by SCUBA diving at varying distances from the retreating glacier front during the 2013/2014 australsummer. Based on presence/absence data from the collected taxa, we determined species richness (S), taxonomic distinctness (TD) and functional diversity (FD) and further analyzed differences in assemblages in relation to environmental characteristics. Faunal assemblages in the inner cove (ice-proximal zone) were compositionally distinct from those in the outer cove. Species number and FD were also lower inthe inner cove and tended to increase toward the outer cove. Nonetheless, TD values were similar among sites, indicating that all sites were distinct taxonomically. This may be because glacier retreat affected organisms of lower taxonomic levels the most. Multivariate and univariate analyses demonstrated that these differences were significantly related to distance from the glacier, substrate grain size, and organic content. The high correlation (R = 0.909, P < 0.01) of assemblages with distance from the glacier front suggests that physical disturbance by ice is a major process shaping benthic communities. Thus, we provide evidence that glacier retreat and its consequent processes impact the structure and function of communities. With their spatial pattern significantly associated with environmental suites, nearshore megabenthic communities respond sensitively and measurably to climate-induced impacts, suggesting their utility as long-term biomonitors. As a small but confined glacial cove with very distinct environmental gradients related to climate-induced processes, Marian Cove could serve as a model ecosystem for assessing climate impacts on Antarctic nearshore benthic communities.

Publication HighlightsEcological Indicators 57 (2015) 280–292


Ecological Indicators

journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate /eco l ind

The impacts of climate change on Antarctic nearshore mega-epifaunalbenthic assemblages in a glacial fjord on King George Island:Responses and implications

Hye-Won Moona,b, Wan Mohd Rauhan Wan Hussinc, Hyun-Cheol Kima,b,In-Young Ahna,b,∗

a Division of Polar Ocean Environment, Korea Polar Research Institute (KOPRI), Incheon 406-840, Republic of Koreab Department of Polar Science, University of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Republic of Koreac School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 30 October 2014Received in revised form 14 March 2015Accepted 23 April 2015

Keywords:AntarcticClimate impactDiversityGlacier retreatMarian CoveMarine benthic communitySpatial variation

a b s t r a c t

We examined the impacts of climate change on Antarctic nearshore marine benthic communities on theWest Antarctic Peninsula, one of the most rapidly warming regions on earth. We surveyed the epibenthicmegafaunal assemblages of Marian Cove, a representative fjord on King George Island. We collected spec-imens by SCUBA diving at varying distances from the retreating glacier front during the 2013/2014 australsummer. Based on presence/absence data from the collected taxa, we determined species richness (S),taxonomic distinctness (TD) and functional diversity (FD) and further analyzed differences in assemblagesin relation to environmental characteristics. Faunal assemblages in the inner cove (ice-proximal zone)were compositionally distinct from those in the outer cove. Species number and FD were also lower inthe inner cove and tended to increase toward the outer cove. Nonetheless, TD values were similar amongsites, indicating that all sites were distinct taxonomically. This may be because glacier retreat affectedorganisms of lower taxonomic levels the most. Multivariate and univariate analyses demonstrated thatthese differences were significantly related to distance from the glacier, substrate grain size, and organiccontent. The high correlation (R = 0.909, P < 0.01) of assemblages with distance from the glacier frontsuggests that physical disturbance by ice is a major process shaping benthic communities. Thus, weprovide evidence that glacier retreat and its consequent processes impact the structure and function ofcommunities. With their spatial pattern significantly associated with environmental suites, nearshoremegabenthic communities respond sensitively and measurably to climate-induced impacts, suggestingtheir utility as long-term biomonitors. As a small but confined glacial cove with very distinct environ-mental gradients related to climate-induced processes, Marian Cove could serve as a model ecosystemfor assessing climate impacts on Antarctic nearshore benthic communities.

© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

King George Island (KGI) is the largest of the South ShetlandIslands, which are located at the northern tip of the West AntarcticPeninsula (WAP), one of the regions where warming and ice retreatis proceeding most rapidly on earth (Clarke et al., 2007; Turneret al., 2013). The Islands have relatively warm temperatures andhigh humidity with summer air temperatures well above freezing

∗ Corresponding author at: Division of Polar Ocean Environment, Korea PolarResearch Institute (KOPRI), 26 Songdomirae-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 406-840,Republic of Korea. Tel.: +82 32 760 5590; fax: +82 32 760 5399.

E-mail address: [email protected] (I.-Y. Ahn).

(reviewed by Griffith and Anderson, 1989; Rückamp et al., 2011).These climatic conditions produce a temperate to sub-polar glacialsetting, which in turn makes the region vulnerable to climate-induced ice sheet changes (Hoskin and Burrell, 1972; Griffith andAnderson, 1989). Approximately 90% of KGI is glaciated, but icecover has been decreasing (by 7% over 1956–1995 and by 1.6% over2000–2008), and marine-terminating glaciers have been retreatingrapidly in many coastal areas (Rückamp et al., 2011).

The retreat of marine-terminating glaciers (tidewater glaciers)and the resulting melt-water introduction has been reportedin some coastal waters off KGI during the austral summer(Pecherzewski, 1980; Yoon et al., 1998; Yoo et al., 1999, 2002; Ahnet al., 2004; Tatián et al., 2008). Introduction of glacial melt-waterloaded with terrestrial sediment is significantly changing seawater

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.04.0311470-160X/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

33


AbstractPackaging films based on fish gelatin-rice flour (FG-RF) at different blend ratios (FG-RF ≈ 10:0, 8:2, 6:4,5:5 and 0:10, w/w) using 30% (w/w) glycerol as plasticiser were prepared and characterised. FG-RF composite films exhibited lower tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EAB), compared to FG film (P < 0.05). Higher water vapour permeability (WVP), but lower water solubility (WS) was obtained for FG-RF composite films having the increased proportion of RF (P < 0.05). Light transmission in ultraviolet (UV) and visible regions (200-800 nm) was lowered in all FG-RF composite films, indicating excellent light barrier characteristics. Based on FTIR spectra, significant changes in molecular structure and lower intermolecular interactions between FG and RF molecules were found in FG-RF (8:2) composite film.Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that FG-RF (8:2) composite film had only 7.61% (w/w) heat-stablemass residues in the temperature range of 50-600 C. DSC thermograms suggested that FG-RF (8:2) composite film consisting of amorphous/microcrystalline layers of partially miscible aggregated junction zones and the coexisting two different order phases of unbound domains. SEM micrographs elucidated that FG-RF (8:2) composite film was rougher than FG film, but no signs of phase separation between film components were observed, thereby confirming their potential use as packaging material.

Publication HighlightsProgress in Organic Coatings 84 (2015) 115–127


Progress in Organic Coatings

journa l homepage: www.e lsev ier .com/ locate /porgcoat

Optical and thermo-mechanical properties of composite films basedon fish gelatin/rice flour fabricated by casting technique

Mehraj Ahmada,b,∗, Norziah Mohd Hania, Nilesh Prakash Nirmalc, Farah Faiqah Fazial a,Nor Fazliyana Mohtard, Siti Rashima Romlia

a School of Industrial Technology, Food Technology Division, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 11800, Malaysiab Institute of Nutrition (INMU), Mahidol University, 999 Phutthamonthon 4 Rd., Salaya, Nakhon Pathom 73170, Thailandc Center for Nutrition and Food Sciences, Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane 4072, QLD,Australiad Department of Fisheries Science, Faculty of Fisheries and Aqua-Industry, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Kuala Terengganu 21030, Malaysia

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 12 August 2014Received in revised form 12 February 2015Accepted 18 February 2015Available online 19 March 2015

Keywords:Composite filmsFish gelatinRice flour

a b s t r a c t

Packaging films based on fish gelatin-rice flour (FG-RF) at different blend ratios (FG-RF ≈ 10:0, 8:2, 6:4,5:5 and 0:10, w/w) using 30% (w/w) glycerol as plasticiser were prepared and characterised. FG-RF com-posite films exhibited lower tensile strength (TS) and elongation at break (EAB), compared to FG film(P < 0.05). Higher water vapour permeability (WVP), but lower water solubility (WS) was obtained forFG-RF composite films having the increased proportion of RF (P < 0.05). Light transmission in ultraviolet(UV) and visible regions (200–800 nm) was lowered in all FG-RF composite films, indicating excellentlight barrier characteristics. Based on FTIR spectra, significant changes in molecular structure and lowerintermolecular interactions between FG and RF molecules were found in FG-RF (8:2) composite film.Thermogravimetric analysis indicated that FG-RF (8:2) composite film had only 7.61% (w/w) heat-stablemass residues in the temperature range of 50–600 ◦C. DSC thermograms suggested that FG-RF (8:2) com-posite film consisting of amorphous/microcrystalline layers of partially miscible aggregated junctionzones and the coexisting two different order phases of unbound domains. SEM micrographs elucidatedthat FG-RF (8:2) composite film was rougher than FG film, but no signs of phase separation between filmcomponents were observed, thereby confirming their potential use as packaging material.


1. Introduction

Packaging is one of the largest market sectors of polymerindustry and is currently dominated by crude oil-derived, non-biodegradable polyolefin and polyesters based packaging materi-als. Due to their environmental persistence (non-biodegradability)leading to accumulation in land and water, plastic packagingmaterials have come under intense scrutiny. As a consequence,packaging films from eco-friendly materials have become thefocus of worldwide attention in recent years due to their goodfilm-forming ability, relative abundance, non-toxic nature, cost-effective, biodegradability and recyclability. Amongst biopolymermaterials, fish gelatin and rice flour offer an alternative packag-ing material for the development of composite packaging films

∗ Corresponding author at: School of Industrial Technology, Food Technology Divi-sion, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 11800, Malaysia. Tel.: +60 4 653 4302;fax: +60 4 657 3678.

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M. Ahmad).

that could maintain the food quality and extend the shelf-life ofperishable items, due to their adequate mechanical properties andexcellent barrier to moisture transfer, oxygen uptake, lipid oxida-tion, and losses of volatile aroma compounds at intermediate andlow relative humidity (RH) [1].

Gelatin is a natural hydrocolloidal macromolecule derived fromthermal hydrolysis or physicochemical degradation of fibrousinsoluble collagen present in the bones and skin [2]. Based onthe method in which the collagenous raw material is pre-treated,gelatins are classified into type A (pI ∼ 6–9) produced from acid-treated collagen, and type B (pI ∼ 5) produced from alkali-treatedcollagen [3]. In general, gelatin exists as a copolymer build up fromtriads of �-amino acids with glycine at every third position (softblocks) and triads of hydroxyproline, proline and glycine (rigidblocks) [4]. The �-, �-, �-chains and other peptide fragments ofgelatin structure hold the native hydrophilic and hydrophobicdomains, which enable gelatin to be an ideal dispersing and film-forming agent [5,6]. In addition, the unique structure of gelatinbased on 20 different monomers (amino acids) provides a widerrange of potential functionalities via different intermolecular

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.porgcoat.2015.02.0160300-9440/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

34


AbstractThe lack of baseline surveys of soil environments in many areas of Antarctica provides an impediment to understanding their suitability for supporting biotic communities and limits abilities to monitor and predict impacts of environmental changes. A soil survey was conducted at Edmonson Point (Victoria Land) within representative local environments to identify their variability and drivers of soil processes and geochemistry. The soils were coarse-textured and lacked cohesion and structural development. The parent material was homogenous, and consisted of weathered and unconsolidated basaltic lavas and scoria. Despite these similarities, the soils varied significantly with the variation driven by local environmental and biotic factors. Penguins had the greatest influence, deposited guano altered soil processes leading to profound changes in soil characteristics. The ornithogenic soils were rich in penguin bioelements, with low C/N, high EC and large variation in pH. Contents of N and C declined at comparable rates as C/N values did not change with time. Ornithogenic P was not readily lost, resulting in its high concentrations in relict soils. Abundant bacteria played a key role in these processes, but after cessation of guano inputs bacterial numbers and activity declined considerably. Alternatively, rich autotrophic microflora had a little influence on ornithogenic soil geochemistry. Characteristics and development of mineral soils were driven by hydrology and associated biological processes. Dry fellfield soils were the most immature, as

indicated by more coarse-grained material, neutral pH, low EC and C/N values, scarce microflora and elemental content corresponding to typical background values. Alternatively, soils from moss communities and wetlands had higher amounts of fine-grained material, C, N and C/N values and lower pH that resulted from accumulation of organic matter. Elemental concentrations in soils from moss communities were similar to those in fellfields, but were elevated in wetland soils. While C and N contents seemed to be controlled by biotic communities, geochemistry of other elements was driven by external inputs. Although some inputs may originate from substratum weathering in the surrounding areas, marine-derived elements redistributed with penguin guano seemed to be the major source of the enrichment. Analyses of the origin and distribution of the soil elements may provide valuable records for reconstruction of geochemical and environmental processes in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems.


Variation in the characteristics and development of soils at EdmonsonPoint due to abiotic and biotic factors, northern Victoria Land, Antarctica

Jerzy Smykla a,⁎, Marek Drewnik b, Ewa Szarek-Gwiazda a, Yii Siang Hii c, Wiesław Knap d, Steven D. Emslie e

a Institute of Nature Conservation, Polish Academy of Sciences, Mickiewicza 33, 31-120 Kraków, Polandb Department of Pedology and Soil Geography, Institute of Geography and Spatial Management, Jagiellonian University, Gronostajowa 7, Kraków, Polandc Institute of Oceanography and Environment, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysiad Department of Hydrogeology and Geological Engineering, Faculty of Geology, Geophysics and Environmental Protection, AGH University of Science and Technology, Mickiewicza 30,30-059 Kraków, Polande Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd., Wilmington, NC 28403, USA


Article history:Received 20 November 2014Received in revised form 12 March 2015Accepted 19 April 2015Available online 4 May 2015

Keywords:GeochemistryBio-elementsSoil developmentEcosystem processesOrnithogenicPenguins

The lack of baseline surveys of soil environments in many areas of Antarctica provides an impediment to under-standing their suitability for supporting biotic communities and limits abilities tomonitor and predict impacts ofenvironmental changes. A soil survey was conducted at Edmonson Point (Victoria Land) within representativelocal environments to identify their variability and drivers of soil processes and geochemistry. The soils werecoarse-textured and lacked cohesion and structural development. The parent material was homogenous, andconsisted of weathered and unconsolidated basaltic lavas and scoria. Despite these similarities, the soils variedsignificantly with the variation driven by local environmental and biotic factors. Penguins had the greatest influ-ence, deposited guano altered soil processes leading to profound changes in soil characteristics. The ornithogenicsoils were rich in penguin bio-elements, with low C/N, high EC and large variation in pH. Contents of N and C de-clined at comparable rates as C/N values did not change with time. Ornithogenic P was not readily lost, resultingin its high concentrations in relict soils. Abundant bacteria played a key role in these processes, but after cessationof guano inputs bacterial numbers and activity declined considerably. Alternatively, rich autotrophic microflorahad a little influence on ornithogenic soil geochemistry. Characteristics and development of mineral soils weredriven by hydrology and associated biological processes. Dry fellfield soils were themost immature, as indicatedby more coarse-grained material, neutral pH, low EC and C/N values, scarce microflora and elemental contentcorresponding to typical background values. Alternatively, soils from moss communities and wetlands hadhigher amounts of fine-grained material, C, N and C/N values and lower pH that resulted from accumulation oforganic matter. Elemental concentrations in soils from moss communities were similar to those in fellfields,but were elevated in wetland soils. While C and N contents seemed to be controlled by biotic communities, geo-chemistry of other elementswas drivenby external inputs. Although some inputsmay originate from substratumweathering in the surrounding areas, marine-derived elements redistributed with penguin guano seemed to bethemajor source of the enrichment. Analyses of the origin and distribution of the soil elementsmay provide valu-able records for reconstruction of geochemical and environmental processes in Antarctic terrestrial ecosystems.


1. Introduction

Terrestrial, ice-free environments in Antarctica are restricted to only~0.34% of the entire Antarctic continent, equating to ~45 000 km2, withthe reminder permanently covered by glaciers and snow (Convey et al.,2009b).Most of these ice-free environments occur as isolated patches ofground scattered along the continental coasts and relatively few are

found inland. These locations are characterized by frigid climate withvery low temperatures, humidity and precipitation and strong katabaticwinds. Due to such extreme climatic conditions, Antarctic terrestrial en-vironments are some of the harshest on Earth. Moreover, many of theAntarctic ice-free areas have emerged from retreating glaciers duringthe past few thousand years and glacial erosion is still the dominantland-forming factor. Therefore, the ground is mostly barren of any visi-ble vegetation and is primarily covered with glacier till, unsorted rockrubble, gravel and scattered erratic boulders (Campbell and Claridge,1987; Beyer and Bölter, 2002).

As a consequence of the extreme climatic conditions and relativelyshort exposure in most of the Antarctic ice-free areas, the soils areweakly developed and lack cohesion and structural development

Catena 132 (2015) 56–67

⁎ Corresponding author at: Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University ofNorth Carolina Wilmington, 601 S. College Rd., Wilmington, NC, USA.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (J. Smykla), [email protected](M. Drewnik), [email protected] (E. Szarek-Gwiazda), [email protected](Y.S. Hii), [email protected] (W. Knap), [email protected] (S.D. Emslie).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2015.04.0110341-8162/© 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


Catena

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /catena

35


AbstractPlant proteins are the most important alternatives to fishmeal in shrimp diets. However, there is a general trend of reducing feed intake and shrimp performance with dietary inclusion of high levels of plant proteins. Supplementation of feed additives could overcome the negative effects of high plant protein based diet. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of different feed additives such as crystalline amino acids (CAA), phytase (PT) and fish soluble (FS) in enhancing the utilization of high levels of plant proteins in the diets of kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Six isocaloric diets (19 kJ g−1) were formulated where diet 1 was 40% fishmeal based control diet (FM). Diets 2 to 6 were prepared as follows, by replacing 60% fishmeal protein with a plant protein blend (soybean meal and canola meal; 6:4) alone (PP); protein blend and 1.5% CAA (PAA); protein blend and 0.04% phytase (2000 FTU kg−1) (PPT); protein blend and 10% FS (PFS); and protein blend and a mixture of CAA, phytase and FS (PMX) respectively. Triplicate groups of shrimp (1.75 ± 0.40 g; mean initial body weight ± SD) were stocked in 54-l rectangular tanks at a rate of 15 shrimp per tank. The tanks were maintained under natural light/dark

regime in a flow-through sea water system. Shrimp were fed the respective test diets at a rate of 8–10% of the body weight daily for 56 days. At the end of the feeding trial, final body weight (g), weight gain (%) and specific growth rate (% day−1) were significantly (P < 0.05) lower in shrimp fed PP diet. However, these growth parameters recovered when fed diets supplemented with CAA and FS. Although, growth parameters were slightly improved by the supplementation of PT, the differences in growth parameters between FM and PPT were still significant. The fastest growth was found in shrimp fed PMX among the dietary treatments. The growth results were mostly reflected by feed intake (FI). Significantly lowest FI was found in PP group, while similar values were found among the rest. Similarly, protein gain (g kg weight gain−1) and protein retention (%) were significantly decreased in PP and PPT groups. Whole body crude protein was significantly lowest in PP group and highest in PMX group. Protease activity (unit mg−1 protein) in the digestive tract of shrimp was lowest in PP and PAA groups; and the values were comparable among the rest. Overall, the best results for most of the parameters were found in shrimp fed PMX diet. Based on the overall performance of shrimp, it can be concluded that CAA, PT and FS are effective supplements in high plant protein diets for juvenile kuruma shrimp. A mixture of these supplements in appropriate ratio could further reduce the fishmeal levels in shrimp diets.


Effects of crystalline amino acids, phytase andfish soluble supplements inimproving nutritive values of high plant protein based diets for kurumashrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus

Mahbuba Bulbul a,b, Md. Abdul Kader a,b,c,⁎, Mohd. Azmi Ambak a,c, Md. Sakhawat Hossain b,Manabu Ishikawa b, Shunsuke Koshio b

a Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysiab Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Shimoarata 4-50-20, Kagoshima 980-0056, Japanc School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia


Article history:Received 16 September 2014Received in revised form 6 January 2015Accepted 7 January 2015Available online 14 January 2015

Keywords:FishmealSoybean mealCanola mealCrystalline amino acidFish solubleKuruma shrimp

Plant proteins are the most important alternatives to fishmeal in shrimp diets. However, there is a general trendof reducing feed intake and shrimp performance with dietary inclusion of high levels of plant proteins. Supple-mentation of feed additives could overcome the negative effects of high plant protein based diet. Therefore, anexperiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of different feed additives such as crystalline aminoacids (CAA), phytase (PT) and fish soluble (FS) in enhancing the utilization of high levels of plant proteins inthe diets of kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Six isocaloric diets (19 kJ g−1) were formulated wherediet 1 was 40% fishmeal based control diet (FM). Diets 2 to 6were prepared as follows, by replacing 60% fishmealprotein with a plant protein blend (soybean meal and canola meal; 6:4) alone (PP); protein blend and 1.5% CAA(PAA); protein blend and 0.04% phytase (2000 FTU kg−1) (PPT); protein blend and 10% FS (PFS); and proteinblend and a mixture of CAA, phytase and FS (PMX) respectively. Triplicate groups of shrimp (1.75 ± 0.40 g;mean initial body weight ± SD) were stocked in 54–l rectangular tanks at a rate of 15 shrimp per tank. Thetanks were maintained under natural light/dark regime in a flow-through sea water system. Shrimp were fedthe respective test diets at a rate of 8–10% of the body weight daily for 56 days. At the end of the feeding trial,final body weight (g), weight gain (%) and specific growth rate (% day−1) were significantly (P b 0.05) lowerin shrimp fed PP diet. However, these growth parameters recovered when fed diets supplemented with CAAand FS. Although, growth parameters were slightly improved by the supplementation of PT, the differences ingrowth parameters between FM and PPT were still significant. The fastest growth was found in shrimp fedPMX among the dietary treatments. The growth results were mostly reflected by feed intake (FI). Significantlylowest FI was found in PP group, while similar values were found among the rest. Similarly, protein gain (g kgweight gain−1) and protein retention (%) were significantly decreased in PP and PPT groups. Whole bodycrude protein was significantly lowest in PP group and highest in PMX group. Protease activity (unit mg−1 pro-tein) in the digestive tract of shrimp was lowest in PP and PAA groups; and the values were comparable amongthe rest. Overall, the best results for most of the parameters were found in shrimp fed PMX diet.Based on the overall performance of shrimp, it can be concluded that CAA, PT and FS are effective supplements inhigh plant protein diets for juvenile kuruma shrimp. A mixture of these supplements in appropriate ratio couldfurther reduce the fishmeal levels in shrimp diets.


1. Introduction

Commercial shrimp feeds are often rich in fishmeal (25–50% ofthe diet), the preferred protein source due to its unique nutritional

specifications including essential amino acids (EAA), essential fattyacids, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals, attractants and many other fi-nite micronutrients (Bulbul et al., 2015; Hardy, 2010; Suarez et al.,2009; Tacon and Metian, 2008). However, the continuous increasingdemand in contrast to limited supply have soared the fishmeal pricealmost double during the last few years (http://www.globefish.org).Furthermore, it has been predicted that future demand for fishmealis expected to increase as aquaculture production expanded. There-fore, replacement of fishmeal with cost-effective alternative proteinsources is the prerequisite for profitable aquaculture venture.

Aquaculture 438 (2015) 98–104

⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, UniversitiMalaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Tel.: +60 9668 5034, +60109148 430 (mobile).

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M.A. Kader).



Aquaculture


Effects of crystalline amino acids, phytase andfish soluble supplements inimproving nutritive values of high plant protein based diets for kurumashrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus

Mahbuba Bulbul a,b, Md. Abdul Kader a,b,c,⁎, Mohd. Azmi Ambak a,c, Md. Sakhawat Hossain b,Manabu Ishikawa b, Shunsuke Koshio b

a Institute of Tropical Aquaculture, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysiab Laboratory of Aquatic Animal Nutrition, Faculty of Fisheries, Kagoshima University, Shimoarata 4-50-20, Kagoshima 980-0056, Japanc School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia


Article history:Received 16 September 2014Received in revised form 6 January 2015Accepted 7 January 2015Available online 14 January 2015

Keywords:FishmealSoybean mealCanola mealCrystalline amino acidFish solubleKuruma shrimp

Plant proteins are the most important alternatives to fishmeal in shrimp diets. However, there is a general trendof reducing feed intake and shrimp performance with dietary inclusion of high levels of plant proteins. Supple-mentation of feed additives could overcome the negative effects of high plant protein based diet. Therefore, anexperiment was conducted to assess the effectiveness of different feed additives such as crystalline aminoacids (CAA), phytase (PT) and fish soluble (FS) in enhancing the utilization of high levels of plant proteins inthe diets of kuruma shrimp, Marsupenaeus japonicus. Six isocaloric diets (19 kJ g−1) were formulated wherediet 1 was 40% fishmeal based control diet (FM). Diets 2 to 6were prepared as follows, by replacing 60% fishmealprotein with a plant protein blend (soybean meal and canola meal; 6:4) alone (PP); protein blend and 1.5% CAA(PAA); protein blend and 0.04% phytase (2000 FTU kg−1) (PPT); protein blend and 10% FS (PFS); and proteinblend and a mixture of CAA, phytase and FS (PMX) respectively. Triplicate groups of shrimp (1.75 ± 0.40 g;mean initial body weight ± SD) were stocked in 54–l rectangular tanks at a rate of 15 shrimp per tank. Thetanks were maintained under natural light/dark regime in a flow-through sea water system. Shrimp were fedthe respective test diets at a rate of 8–10% of the body weight daily for 56 days. At the end of the feeding trial,final body weight (g), weight gain (%) and specific growth rate (% day−1) were significantly (P b 0.05) lowerin shrimp fed PP diet. However, these growth parameters recovered when fed diets supplemented with CAAand FS. Although, growth parameters were slightly improved by the supplementation of PT, the differences ingrowth parameters between FM and PPT were still significant. The fastest growth was found in shrimp fedPMX among the dietary treatments. The growth results were mostly reflected by feed intake (FI). Significantlylowest FI was found in PP group, while similar values were found among the rest. Similarly, protein gain (g kgweight gain−1) and protein retention (%) were significantly decreased in PP and PPT groups. Whole bodycrude protein was significantly lowest in PP group and highest in PMX group. Protease activity (unit mg−1 pro-tein) in the digestive tract of shrimp was lowest in PP and PAA groups; and the values were comparable amongthe rest. Overall, the best results for most of the parameters were found in shrimp fed PMX diet.Based on the overall performance of shrimp, it can be concluded that CAA, PT and FS are effective supplements inhigh plant protein diets for juvenile kuruma shrimp. A mixture of these supplements in appropriate ratio couldfurther reduce the fishmeal levels in shrimp diets.


1. Introduction

Commercial shrimp feeds are often rich in fishmeal (25–50% ofthe diet), the preferred protein source due to its unique nutritional

specifications including essential amino acids (EAA), essential fattyacids, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals, attractants and many other fi-nite micronutrients (Bulbul et al., 2015; Hardy, 2010; Suarez et al.,2009; Tacon and Metian, 2008). However, the continuous increasingdemand in contrast to limited supply have soared the fishmeal pricealmost double during the last few years (http://www.globefish.org).Furthermore, it has been predicted that future demand for fishmealis expected to increase as aquaculture production expanded. There-fore, replacement of fishmeal with cost-effective alternative proteinsources is the prerequisite for profitable aquaculture venture.

Aquaculture 438 (2015) 98–104

⁎ Corresponding author at: School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, UniversitiMalaysia Terengganu, 21030 Kuala Terengganu, Malaysia. Tel.: +60 9668 5034, +60109148 430 (mobile).

E-mail addresses: [email protected], [email protected] (M.A. Kader).



Aquaculture



AbstractInformation on the bacterial community associated with octopus is very scarce, unlike fish and other molluscs. This study revealed the bacterial community associated with digestive tract of wild Chilean octopus Octopus mimus using a culture-dependent method and 16S rDNA clone library. Moreover, we analysed the bacterial nutritional enzyme activity of culturable bacteria. A culture-dependent method showed that the composition of the culturable bacterial community was substantially different between female and male octopus. The predominant species in female octopus were Vibrionaceae and Streptococcaceae, whereas only Vibrionaceae was dominated in male octopus. Bacterial nutritional enzyme activities of culturable bacteria from male octopus were much higher than female octopus. The 16S rDNA clone library analysis showed that the bacterial community of male octopus exhibited a higher diversitythan that of female octopus. The genus Mycoplasma was the predominant bacteria in the digestive tract of all octopus samples. The results obtained in this study raise the possibility that each octopus has different food consumption due to different bacterial community and nutritional enzyme activity, although Mycoplasma sp. is one of the predominant bacteria in the digestive tract. Moreover, our results are useful for the future of microbiological investigation associated with the octopus and for probiotics in the octopus aquaculture.


Analysis of bacterial community and bacterial

nutritional enzyme activity associated with the

digestive tract of wild Chilean octopus

(Octopus mimus Gould, 1852)

Shunpei Iehata1, Fernando Valenzuela2 & Carlos Riquelme2

1Bioinnovation Center, Faculty of Marine Resources, University of Antofagasta, Antofagasta, Chile2Bioinnovation Center, Aquaculture department, Faculty of Marine Resources, University of Antofagasta, Antofagasta,

Chile

Correspondence: S Iehata, Bioinnovation Center, Faculty of Marine Resources, University of Antofagasta, Casilla 170,

Antofagasta, Chile. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Information on the bacterial community associ-

ated with octopus is very scarce, unlike fish and

other molluscs. This study revealed the bacterial

community associated with digestive tract of wild

Chilean octopus Octopus mimus using a culture-

dependent method and 16S rDNA clone library.

Moreover, we analysed the bacterial nutritional

enzyme activity of culturable bacteria. A culture-

dependent method showed that the composition

of the culturable bacterial community was sub-

stantially different between female and male octo-

pus. The predominant species in female octopus

were Vibrionaceae and Streptococcaceae, whereas

only Vibrionaceae was dominated in male octopus.

Bacterial nutritional enzyme activities of cultur-

able bacteria from male octopus were much

higher than female octopus. The 16S rDNA clone

library analysis showed that the bacterial com-

munity of male octopus exhibited a higher diver-

sity than that of female octopus. The genus

Mycoplasma was the predominant bacteria in the

digestive tract of all octopus samples. The results

obtained in this study raise the possibility that

each octopus has different food consumption due

to different bacterial community and nutritional

enzyme activity, although Mycoplasma sp. is one

of the predominant bacteria in the digestive

tract. Moreover, our results are useful for the

future of microbiological investigation associated

with the octopus and for probiotics in the

octopus aquaculture.

Keywords: 16S rDNA clone library, bacterial

community, lipolytic activity, Octopus mimus,

proteolytic activity

Introduction

There is worldwide commercial interest in cephalo-

pods, with several fisheries providing significant

quantities of octopod, cuttlefish and squid for

human consumption. Octopus is an important fish-

ery resource in many tropical countries and a

major income source for millions of people. Octo-

puses are important resource for artisanal benthic

fishing ground in Chile (Rocha & Vega 2003). Octo-

pus mimus Gould, 1852, which is one of the Chilean

octopus fisheries, is distributed along the Pacific

coast of South America, from Peru to the northern

coast of Chile (Cortez, Castro & Guerra 1995a).

Octopus mimus preyed on 25 different prey items

belonging to five zoological groups (Teleostei, Moll-

usca, Crustacea, Echinodermata and Polychaeta),

and their diet and food intake were significantly

affected by sex and maturation (Cortez, Castro &

Guerra 1995b). Moreover, Carrasco and Guisado

(2010) suggested that different diets had an effect

on the feeding and growth rate.

The intestinal microbial flora plays an important

role in food digestion, nutrient absorption, survival

and health of host aquatic animals (Harris 1993;

Sawabe, Oda, Shiomi & Ezura 1995; Erasmus, Cook

& Coyne 1997; Sugita, Okano, Suzuki, Iwai, Mizuka-

mi, Akiyama & Matsuura 2002; Sawabe, Setoguchi,

Inoue, Tanaka, Ootsubo, Yoshimizu & Ezura 2003).

© 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd 861

Aquaculture Research, 2015, 46, 861–873 doi:10.1111/are.12240

36

South China SeaMarinelifePhoto | TUN NURUL AIMI

37

40

Scientific DiscussionHow to Survive from Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS)?Author & Photo | PROF. DR. NAJIAH MUSA

Early mortality syndrome (EMS) or technically known as acute hepatopancreatic necrosis disease (AHPND) first occurred in Hainan, China in late 2009, followed by Vietnam in 2010. Malaysia was hit by EMS since 2011, which caused a decline of shrimp production as high as 60% over total production. The repeated crop failures have forced number of shrimp farms to quit or switch to other aquaculture species such as marine fish.

EMS usually affects the shrimp within 20-30 days post stocking. However, there were incidents where cultures failed within 5-7 days of culture (DOC), while some cultures failed much later at 70-80 DOC. Thus, EMS does not necessarily happen at the early stage of culture. This seems to suggest that the timing of outbreak depends on when the EMS pathogen get hold of the shrimp and bloom to cause the necrosis of hepatopancreas. Our field

observations have also come across incidences where postlarvae (PL) stocked were tested positive for EMS (toxin) but the health status of the crop only wobbled when it exceeded 70 DOC.

With more and more shrimp farming areas confirmed to be endemic for EMS, we foresee EMS to remain as a problem for some time, but will not be as catastrophic compared with the

earlier years. Based on our field experiences, we are of the opinion that the following measures could help the shrimp farming industry to survive from EMS:

1. Use of EMS-resistant stock. Our field studies under FiSHA Fish Disease Laboratory, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), did observe that certain strains of Penaeus vannamei withstand EMS better than other strains in the endemic areas. Nevertheless, such specific pathogen resistant (SPR) broodstocks tend to spawn less eggs, thus lower production of SPR PL. Due to high demand for such SPR PL, nowadays more producers claim to be producing SPR PL, which however could not be authenticated on the buyers due to technical deficiency. Among the SPR stocks, we found that the resistance varied in farms from batch to batch, which could possibly mean that some stocks are actually at the level of specific pathogen tolerant (SPT). This could

have happened if there was lack of resistance quantification during the development of SPR strains.

2. Create and maintain a healthy microbiota in shrimp ponds. The traditional shotgun disinfection of pond bottom and water may do more harm than good because the nutrients available after disinfection may favour the bloom of relatively fast-growing bacteria such as Vibrios, including those causing EMS. We observed that the presence of EMS toxin strain in shrimp pond did not pose immediate risk of outbreak, when an effective microbial management strategy was successfully applied to the pond. However, this could also be affected by the virulence of the EMS vibrio strain involved. Pond microbial management could be achieved by biofloc technology (BFT), both full and semi, or by using commercial beneficial bacteria that are proven to be discouraging EMS vibrios outbreak.

3. Apply good aquaculture practices (eg. myGAP) including appropriate biosecurity measures to check the entry of pathogen-carrying stocks via pre-stocking screening. The entry of new strain of EMS vibrio may lead to emergence of more virulent strains, and complicate the disease in farms. Besides, periodic EMS surveillance in farm is also necessary to assess the effectiveness of microbial management strategies, and the risk of outbreak.

In short, there is no single measure to overcome EMS in shrimp farming. A concerted strategy including but not limited to the above-mentioned measures is necessary to survive from EMS. Our FiSHA Fish Disease Laboratory can support the shrimp farming industry with stocks screening, farm surveillance and risk assessment of EMS outbreak.

Earth pond marine shrimp farming system in Malaysia

EMS-affected Penaeus vannamei (shrimp 1, 2, 4 and 5), 40 DOC, show clinical signs of empty stomach and midgut, pale and atrophied hepatopancreas. Shrimp 3 from the same pond appears healthy at the

time of sampling

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Role of quantitative and qualitative dietary proteins in oxidative responsiveness of aquatic organismsAuthor & Photo | DR. MD. ABDUL KADER

Oxidative stress is an emerging health risk factor. It can be described as a condition occurring when the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or free radicals exceeds the antioxidant defense mechanism of an organism. Simply, the oxidative stress can be defined as the imbalance between oxidants (ROS) and antioxidants. The ROS are compounds derived from molecular oxygen

(O2). It includes hydrogen peroxide (H

2O

2),

superoxide (O2-) and hydroxyl radical (OH).

Antioxidants minimize the oxidative damage to biological system either by preventing formation of ROS or by quenching ROS before they can react with other biomolecules. An animal has both enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant system to counteract the ROS. The non-enzymatic defense system includes

vitamin E (vit E), ascorbic acid (vit C), reduced glutathione (RH) etc. Among antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), glutathione peroxidase (GPX), glutathione reductase (GR) are important. All these enzymes play important role in antioxidant defense, although SOD is the first enzyme to respond to oxygen radicals (ROS).

Earth pond marine shrimp farming system in Malaysia

In all aerobic biological systems including fish and crustaceans, ROS is continuously generated as a result of cellular metabolism, environmental perturbations or dietary alterations while antioxidant defense mechanism counteracts the negative effect of ROS. However, an animal can suffer from oxidative stress either by the increased production of ROS or decreased in the antioxidant defenses. Oxidative stress is considered to be responsible for the initiation or development of pathological processes in animals. It has detrimental effects to molecules of great biological importance such as lipids, proteins, carbohydrates and DNA, causing alterations that can lead to cell death. Since fish and shrimp are rich in omega 3 highly polyunsaturated fatty acid, protein and minerals, their tissues are highly susceptible to lipid and protein oxidation. Therefore, fish growth and production which are mainly occurring by increasing cell number (hyperplasia), cell size (hypertrophy) and intercellular material are affected by the antioxidant status of tissues.

Dietary nutrients play an important role in maintaining the oxidative status of fish. It is well documented that lipids, especially highly unsaturated fatty acids are highly prone to oxidation. Very limited information are available on the relationship between dietary proteins and oxidative stress condition for fish and shrimp. Protein is considered the most important and expensive nutrient in fish diet. The growth and production of fish mainly depend on quantitative and qualitative dietary protein ingredients. Therefore, feed formulator and feed manufacturer are always trying to manipulate the levels and quality of dietary protein. Fish meal has been using as the sole protein sources for fish and shrimp because of its novel nutritional composition which are most favorable

for optimum growth. However sustainability and economic issues are always concerned with fish meal. To minimize these negative issues, scientists are trying to utilize alternative protein sources rather than fish meal as protein sources in aquafeed. Food industry by-products such as oilseed meals and animal by-products are commonly used as alternative protein sources. Most of these alternative proteins are lower in quality than fish meal. Efforts are also intensified to optimize the protein to energy ratio by decreasing dietary protein levels and increasing carbohydrate and lipid sources in order to increase the protein sparing effect. In general, both the alternative proteins and low protein based diets resulted in lower growth performance compared to ideal diets. Therefore, intermediary metabolism may be expected to affect the oxidative homeostasis which could increase ROS productions and thus increase the oxidative stress in fish and shrimp.

Olsvik et al. (2011) reported that the lower transcriptional levels for SOD and significant increases for GPX transcription in the liver of Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar when transferred fishmeal diet based to plant based protein. It was also found that the reduction of dietary protein content from 55 to 45% increased the susceptibility of Senegalese sole, Solea senegalensis to oxidative damage (Castro et al. 2012). Xu and Pan (2014) studied the effect of different levels of dietary protein at 20, 25, 30 and 35% on immune and antioxidant status of the white leg shrimp, Litopenaeus vannamei. Their results showed that the antioxidant capacity and redox homeostasis of the shrimp could be suppressed with 20% dietary protein. However, no differences were found among the other treatments, suggesting that 25% protein feed could provide adequate protein nutrition

to maintain a normal antioxidant function of shrimp.

Our research group comprised of members from Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Malaysia and Kagoshima University, Japan have been conducting research for several years to explore novel findings on oxidative stress responsiveness in aquatic animals. We have published several articles in international journals such as the Aquaculture, Aquaculture Research, Fisheries Sciences and etc. Currently, our research is focusing on the interaction between quantitative and qualitative proteins and oxidative status of Malaysian prawn, Macrobrachium rosenbergii with the support of Malaysia Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS - 59322). Some of our research finding are as summarized. Oxidative stress is significantly increased by replacing 60% fish meal with soybean meal for red sea bream, Pagrus major (Kader et al., 2010). It has been investigated that oxidative status improved by feeding fermented alternative proteins in replacement of fish meal for red sea bream (Fig. 3) (Kader et al., 2011) and Japanese flounder, Paralichthys olivaceus (Kader et al., 2012). The SOD was significantly increased with the increasing levels of dietary proteins from 20 to 45% and concluded that 40% dietary protein could support the optimal growth and oxidative status of prawn. The SOD was significantly decreased by replacing 30% of fish meal with palm kernel meal for prawn (unpublished data). Research findings provided evidences that suboptimal dietary protein contents with careful selection of alternative protein sources and inclusion levels could provide optimal growth and oxidative status of fish and shrimp.

Mechanism of oxidative homeostasis in a cell. (modified from http://www.barrekailua.com)

Academic field work - outdoor experience for students in conducting fish sampling and samples processing for fish diseases under AQU3301 Aquatic Organism Health course in Kenyir Lake. Lecturer | Dr. Sandra | Prof. Najiah | Dr. Marina | Dr. Laith

StudentsNews & ActivitiesAuthor | TUN NURUL AIMIPhotos | SHARIFAH NOOR EMILIA, NG DE YI, TEOH HUA YAN, SANDRA, PCP FISBIS AND KRUSTY

SHRIMP ENTERPRISE GROUPS

Students undergoing fish nuggets and fish burger preparation and post-larvae prawn packing during FISHRICH Program, an entrepreneurship program for Diploma of Fisheries

Activities during International Collaboration Cultural Program between Faculty of Science and Technology, Prince of Songkla University (PSU) and FiSHA, UMT

On-board training on fish identification and internal anatomy observation for FIS2101 Fish Biology and FIS2001 Fishery Sciences courses in Bidong Island Research Station. Lecturer | Dr. Tun Nurul Aimi | Dr. Seah | Dr. Nur Asma | Dr. Shahreza

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Academic field work - outdoor experience for students in conducting fish sampling and samples processing for fish diseases under AQU3301 Aquatic Organism Health course in Kenyir Lake. Lecturer | Dr. Sandra | Prof. Najiah | Dr. Marina | Dr. Laith

On-board training on fish identification and internal anatomy observation for FIS2101 Fish Biology and FIS2001 Fishery Sciences courses in Bidong Island Research Station. Lecturer | Dr. Tun Nurul Aimi | Dr. Seah | Dr. Nur Asma | Dr. Shahreza

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Part of activities during Industrial Training Program for Diploma students in Kasetsart University, Thailand

B.Sc. Applied (Fisheries) students undergone industrial training program at National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium (NMMBA), Taiwan

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Innovative learning approach- Art inspiration of microbes model by Diploma of Fisheries students under FIS2104 Fisheries Microbiology courseLecturer | Dr. Emilia

Innovative learning approach: B. Sc. Applied (Fisheries) students presented an innovation of fish traps during Fishing Gears Technology Innovation Exhibition under FIS4501 Fishing Gear Technology course. Lecturer | Dr. Nik Aziz

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FeaturesIndustry Development and InnovationAuthor | SHARIFAH RAHMAHPhoto | GREENY AQUACULTURE SDN. BHD.

GREENY AQUACULTURE SDN. BHD.

‘Finding Nemo’ and Finding Dory’ are no stranger to us depicting colourful fishes kept in aquariums as public or personal ornamental displays. Keeping attractive, exotic and colourful fishes for ornamental purposes is an art blended with knowledge of science to create a home for aquatic lives in an aquarium that mimics the functioning of a balanced ecosystem which is eye-soothing and vivid. It started about 960 AD in China by rearing Cyprinids such as goldfish as an ornamental fish and later flourished in Japan, Portugal, Europe, America and gradually to all over the world. Operating an ornamental fish industry may seem easy but is a lot more than that. This includes the whole setup of an aquarium system from breeding by creating new varieties of species, preparation of live food and formulated feed for different species and life stages, setting up recirculating system, lighting, decorations

such as rock, pebbles, sand, soil, plants, drift wood etc. This acdoes not only limit to fish species, but has grown popularity for corals, crustaceans (shrimps and crabs), mollusks (snails, bivalves, squids) and aquatic plants. Competitions are being held in different parts of the world on the aquarium decoration. A majestic Arowana can cost up to £250,000 and believe it, people are willing to pay just to stare at it for hours. With the same passion, a hobby turned out to be a successful business for Greeny Aquaculture Sdn. Bhd. as one of the main producer of tropical fishes in Malaysia.

HISTORY

Greeny Aquaculture Sdn. Bhd. is one of the pioneer in ornamental fish industries and well-reputed breeder of a diverse and a good quality of ornamental fish leading in Malaysia. The founder and current Managing Director, Mr. Raymond Cheah Wan Leong, established the company in 1984. However, the history started way back in 1906 when his grandfather imported big head carps and grass carp fries from China to be farmed in Kulim, Kedah. The farm operation stopped during the Japanese occupation but the passion towards fish culture remained strong. In 1978, Mr. Raymond Cheah started an ornamental fish farm in Singapore before moving back to Senai, Johor in 1984.

There, Greeny Aquaculture Sdn. Bhd. was founded.

Being an enthusiastic in the ornamental fish industry, Mr. Raymond Cheah, is constantly on the forefront of the development and progression of Malaysia’s ornamental fish industry. He is also the founder president of Malaysia Aquarium Fish Breeder Association (MAFBA), steering committee member of the Asia-Pacific Ornamental Fish Union (AOFU) and Board of Advisors of the Ornamental Fish.

FACILITIES

The company is strategically located 2.5 hours to Singapore Changi International Airport, 3.5 hours to Kuala Lumpur International Airport, and only about 30 minutes to Johor International Airport. Greeny Aquaculture Sdn. Bhd. is not only the pioneer and leader in breeding technologies of tropical fishes but also provides services

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Precise grading of fish(a) custom-made alum alloy grader sorting in-dividual with 0.1mm size differences(b) conventional net and scoop grader sorting individual with morphological differences

and facilities for import, export and brokerage of ornamental fish as well as collection and holding of wild caught fish. The company owns a culture area with a capacity of about 15 acres holding 28,000 tonnes of culture water. This includes more than 6000 spawning tanks in the hatchery, 370 concrete ponds of various sizes for the nursery, 20 of 160 tonnes earthen ponds

and 875 of 6 to 40 tonnes of concrete ponds for grow-out that are equipped with intensive water recycling system using biological filtration concept. The company also possesses a grading area, holding section, quarantine unit, packing facilities and temperature control room prior to shipping. Apart from business, Greeny Aquaculture also continuously conduct research to develop

new varieties, culture methods, disease prevention and cure, feed and feeding and packing advancement methods. Today, Greeny Aquaculture consists of 32 skilled workers who are experience in managing the whole facilities that support an incredible production of 15,000,000 top quality fishes per year.

Biosecured broodstock holding tanks and breeding tanks facilities completely covered with polyethylene netting to separate different operational sections in avoidance of cross-contamination and pests

Figure 6: In-house (a) holding tanks and (b) aquarium facilities for grading fishes prior to packing for export.

PRODUCTS

Greeny Aquaculture is a biosecured farm certified by Department of Fisheries Malaysia, recognized by The World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) with 157 signatory

countries such as the European Union, Australia, China etc. It produces about more than 50 species and 90 varieties of most popular ornamental fishes. The company also

exports about 400 species and 600 varieties worldwide. These include Arowana, tetra, molly, guppy, platy, gourami, discus, angel, barb, betta, rainbow and lots more.

Angel Aquatic plants Arowana Betta Cat fish

Cichild Discus Goldfish Gourami Guppy

Invertebrates Molly Neon tetra Platy Puffer

Rainbow Rasbora Sword tail Tiger barb Wild caught

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MARKET OPPORTUNITY & BUSINESS TRADE

At present, China is the fastest growing ornamental fish market owing to its strong purchasing power. China prefers rare and unique fishes. One of the most popular species is Arowana, where more than 80% of the

Arowana packed in Greeny Aquaculture are exported to China. Others tropical species such as characin members, cichlid sp. and livebearers are popular species for Europe and Oceania markets. However, Malaysia is ranked as world’s number two exporters of

ornamental fish including aquatic plants after Singapore. Nevertheless, India having the second largest world population and fairly good economic growth is now the biggest emerging market of ornamental fish industry.

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ORGANIZATION CHART

CHAIRMAN

BOARDS OF DIRECTORS

MANAGING DIRECTORSFINANCE & ADMINISTRATION

BIOSECURITY

PRODUCTION

LIVE FEED

HATCHERY /NURSERY

GROWOUT

HARVESTING & PACKING

MARKETING

DOCUMENTATION

LOCAL & IMPORT

LOCAL & EXPORT

HOLDING & QUARANTINE

LOGISTIC

LANDTRANSPORT

AIRTRANSPORT

CONSTRUCTION

DESIGN & BUILD

RESEARCH

LABORATORY

DISEASE & TREATMENT

FOOD & FEEDING

BREEDING

BIOLOGICALFILTER SYSTEM

SPECIALTY

Being a renowned company, Greeny Aquaculture is one of the very few companies that exports its own fish to support total export volume. The company possesses breeder and trader license of

Asian Arowana, which is rarely obtained. One of the criteria that keeps Greeny Aquaculture the most successful producer in the ornamental fish industry is the constant innovation of new varieties to develop unique characteristic such as

koi angle, longfin serpae tetra, ballon serpae tetra, marigold thick lip gourami, golden blue guppy etc. In addition, the company is occupied with in-house PCR and water quality laboratories for disease monitoring.

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PACKAGING & EXPORT-IMPORT SERVICES

The company provides direct sourcing from local farmers to eliminate unnecessary broker and agent fees to provide the lowest price. Strategic location enables the company to provide maximum route and cost options for the convenience of their customers. Customers can be sure that they will receive the best offers and quality. In addition to that, the company customizes their production to meet the customer’s requirement. Moreover, the company provides installation service that meets biosecurity

requirement for both export and breeding purposes. Greeny Aquaculture also offers internship-training program for national and international students as well as training ground for aquarium fish breeders recommended by the Department of Fisheries Malaysia. The company also offers on-site evaluation of feed, probiotics etc. with the manufacturer.

RECOGNITIONS

At about 30 years now, both Greeny Aquaculture’s production and export departments have been awarded Certificate of Excellence for three consecutive years since 2012 by the Department of Fisheries Malaysia. The company also received Fish Quality Certificate in compliance of EU biosecurity requirement for and MyGap Certificate for good aquaculture practice. Recently in 2016, Greeny Aquaculture has signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Universiti Malaysia Terengganu towards the enhancement

of ornamental fish industry worldwide.

The major challenge facing the global ornamental fish industry is the increase in different types of diseases and the initiative to produce disease-free fish. For this purpose, Biosecurity Division, Department of Fisheries Malaysia has been doing a great job to ensure export of disease-free fish which started more than 12 years ago. To export fish, specific disease-free certificate needs to be issued by the biosecurity division after conducting 2 years of surveillance program of the farm operation, hence increasing export costs. Some exporting countries have become more stringent in disease-free certification requirement. For example, fish susceptible to Megalocytivirus are banned from entering Australia. In addition, the ban of goldfish and koi imports from Malaysia to the EU since 1908 has made us suffer a great loss because these fishes accounts for more than

30% of the total ornamental fish production, thus affecting the export of other species as well.

It is well known that Malaysia is one of the biggest producing countries of ornamental fish but has lost to Singapore as the biggest exporting countries of the world. To export fish, it is necessary to comply with the requirements of the exporting countries and issuing health certificates. In Malaysia, issuing a health certificate takes 3 working days which is too long. This makes a great difference

for exporters because in many cases, fish orders often come in the last minute and is usually 2 to 3 days prior to export and Malaysian’s procedure makes it impossible to achieve. This directly channel potential importers to import fishes from our neighboring countries.

Malaysia is also struggling to be the biggest exporter due to culture technology which is lacking behind Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia. In addition, fish breeders are less responsible to comply with

the biosecurity requirement of disease control. Therefore, improvement strategies and collaborations among the industries, government agencies, universities and research experts are

necessary to enhance our technologies by forming a knowledge sharing and technology transfer platform. Besides that, Malaysia’s air system and handling of cargo is less frequent with limited destination compared to Singapore which is restricting our ability to be the biggest exporting country of ornamental fish.

FUTURE PLANS

Malaysia is a country full of potential to be developed as world’s leading ornamental fish industry for possesing great infrastructure and expertise, constant weather and sufficient volume of rainfall. To achieve this, Mr. Raymond Cheah, strives to be more systematic in culturing and intensify the culture in controlled environment to achieve more biosecured production, effective usa of space, cost and water. The company also attempts to breed more potential species, develop more new variety, improve the existing technology and import more exotic species to support market needs.

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The scenario of capture fisheries started off with plentiful, easy-to-catch fish that has been one of the earliest activities to put seafood on the table. As the population and demand for seafood for human consumption and other usage increase, fisheries activity grew intensely with competition among fishermen, as the current fishing capacity could not meet the ever-increasing demand. Hence, technological development pursues in improving the fishing gears, equipment, vessels and capture

methods to obtain a handsome catch at a lesser effort hoping for lucrative profits.

The transformation went from artisanal in-shore catch using small boats, hooks and lines to off-shore and open ocean cruising bigger boats to even gigantic vessels with hydraulic equipment and electronics for gear and fish handling, outboard engines, synthetic fibers, satellite-based technology for navigation and communications with complete processing and

packaging facilities. These advanced technologies resulted in efficient and cost-effective fishery operation, enhanced resource access and reduced physical labour, presuming that seafood resources are inexhaustible (FAO 2016).

That went on before realizing that fisheries catch has stagnated reaching Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), where increasing efforts no longer yield higher catch. Increasing the fishery capacity with technological advancement

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FeaturesCaptive Technology and Sustainable FisheryAuthor | SHARIFAH RAHMAH

THE CONCEPT OF INEXHAUSTIBLE SOURCES

Traditional in-shore fishing boat resting at the bay waiting for next high tide. Photo | Fahmi Helmi

has now led to overfishing and environmental deterioration which in turn reducing the capture biodiversity and products (Pitcher 2001).

As compared to the days back then, recent catches comprised of smaller and less valuable fish. These untargeted catches include the by-catch of sharks, dolphins, turtles and other marine mammals and birds. Concerns on animal welfare and the suffering of fish upon harvest have been raised as

well. In the fear of the collapse of fisheries sector, it is never too late to take a step back and comprehend the need to innovate conservation-oriented fishing technologies and adopt more efficient fisheries management frameworks while ensuring sustainable fisheries resources.

Improvising Fishing Technology

The first initiative towards sustainable fisheries is to reduce by-catch but still

promising the capture of target species. The commercial and recreational fishers, conservationists, environmentalists, fisheries managers and scientists have identified by-catch as key problem to overexploitation of fishery resources (Kennelly and Broadhurst, 2002). In other words, it is important to perform selective fishing and having the ability to avoid non-target fish, invertebrates, seabirds, and other marine mammals to be released alive and unharmed if caught (A policy for selective fishing in Canada’s Pacific Fisheries 2001)

A new sustainable fishing technology from New Zealand scientists and Kiwi fishing companies revolutionize the highly selective trawler called the ‘Precision Seafood Harvesting’, harvested fish will be contained and swim comfortably underwater inside a large flexible PVC liner. The fish will be sorted out based on the correct size, species before being lifted on the fishing vessel. The award winning

Conventional trawling activities. Photo | Tun Nurul Aimi

Concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (Adapted from Bonfil 2005)

MSY

Average catch

Fishing effort

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invention of Sustainable and Clean Technology harvesting system allows unintentional small fish and by-catch to swim free through the ‘escape portals’ and released unharmed (Shaw 2013).

The Centre for Research-based Innovation in Sustainable Fishing and Pre-processing technology (CRISP), creates innovative solutions for sustainable harvesting and optimal pre-processing of live marine resources. Kongsberg Maritime/Simrad, in collaboration with the Institute of Marine Research in Bergen, Norway, have developed sonars, integrated with underwater video cameras, trawl sonar and an echo sounder that identifies the type, quantity and size of fish in a shoal as well as the performance of the trawl (Mongstad 2014). Echo sounder

is used to detect and identify fish, while determine water depth and nature of the seabed (FAO 2016).

FAO (2016) has listed down several fishing technology equipments where certain tools were designed to help to reduce by-catch and efficiently catch targeted species. By-catch reduction device (BRD) (mechanical) such as fisheye and square mesh window is commonly inserted in shrimp trawl near the end of the net by blocking the passage of unwanted species especially large animals (jelly fish, juvenile fish, sea mammals and turtles) and guiding them to escape alive through the opening. A cone consists of two panels of netting attached to a small wire hoop can be inserted behind the BRD to improve the efficacy of the BRD. The cone obstruct the channel of fish into the

codend and encourage them to swim towards the escape opening.

Fisheries Management

Monitoring Stock Assessment

Stock assessment is the primary stage towards developing sustainable fisheries plan by estimating stock size, harvest rate and predicting the response of resources to various management setup (Cadrin and Dickey-Collas 2015). Studies on stock status provide information on how the aquatic resources are being exploited and whether the level of harvest will retain or alter the abundance of the resources. This is crucial in providing the best management advice for fisheries (Kilduff et al. 2009). The challenging issue in stock assessment is that resources are not visibly available to us

Advancement off-shore fishing technology on targeted species. Photo | http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/htmls/fish2172.htm

and the environment that they live keeps changing. In the effort of stock assessment, resources were sampled to determine the abundance, biological data such as growth rate, age, biomass and mortality, and catch data of the resources through fishing. These data will be fitted into a statistical model to estimate the status of sustainable level of fishing.

By-catch Reduction Device with paired fisheye in shrimp trawling industry

(Helies & Jamison 2012).

Setting Total Allowable Catch (TAC)

Total Allowable Catch (TAC) measured against maximum sustainable yield (MSY) should be fixed for every country to attain the maximum economic yield (MEY). This is practiced in the European countries where the Common Fisheries

Policy (CFP) of the European Union sets quotas of numbers of allowable catch for each species depending on areas annually or multi-annually in the hope to reduce overexploitation of fisheries resources. The rule of thumb to ensure ecologically sustainable management is that harvesting fishery resources should be relatively lower than their productivity.

Implementing Individual Transferable Quotas

In a common practice of commercial fisheries, there is no restriction in the total amount of catch per vessel. This leads to the concept where others will likely catch the fish if not caught by you. Unlike the common open access in commercial fisheries, individual transferable quota (ITQs) allocates a stipulated share of species-specific landings from the total allowable catch in a given amount of time. The quotas are permanent and transferable where they can be bought, sold, borrowed or divided between fishing years. It is developed to control the amount of catch and reduce competition among fishers for a long-term benefits of continuous fishery (Buck 1995).

Controlling of Trawls

Despite the modification of trawls towards sustainability, managing the use of trawls are necessary depending on countries and its legislations. In Norway, bottom trawls are prohibited in deep-water reef coral areas because they destroy seabed (Mongstad 2014). Other countries restrict the use of trawls completely. Sadly, trawls are still used in certain countries.

Monitoring Fish Aggregating Device (FAD)

Fish Aggregating Devices (FAD) deploy buoys and floats near to the surface or midwater and anchored down to the sea bottom of shallow areas (50 to 200 m) using a nylon rope. Fish aggregates beneath the floats making them an easier catch compared to the free-swimming fish. FADs have been used successfully by small fishers or incorporate with purse seine. Modern FADs can be anchored down to 3000 m with bigger surface dimension, leading to overfishing with more tendency of catching juveniles thus, reducing the chances of spawning broods. The floating devices also

Precision Seafood Harvesting, the selective trawler with large flexible PVS liner for harvested fish to swim comfortably prior to sorting out of unwanted fish.

Recording data of harvested fish for stock assessment process. Photo | Tun Nurul Aimi

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attract aggregation of non-target species and increasing the devastating number of by-catches as well as entangling and injuring marine mammals and sea turtles. Although most FADs are used without strict regulations, a small number of countries control the deployment of FADs through legal ownership of the FAD, allowable number of FADs per owner, position and marking of FAD deployment as well activity reports surrounding the FADs etc (FAO 2016).

Fish Aggregating Device attracts aggregation of fish including non-

targeted species (Hilton 2012).

Performing Selective Fishing

Selective fishing based on one or more of the following approaches; species, sex, size, season, stock and space have been performed to reduce fisheries by-catch. Practicing species selection can reduce

waste related to unwanted fish disposal, minimize negative effects on endangered species such as marine mammals, birds, turtles. Sex selection in fishery commonly favours the harvest of males and restricts the catch of females to allow females to reproduce. Catching of larger size fish increase the population growth by allowing fish to mature and breed. Seasonal fishing is often related to fish migratory especially for growing and spawning purpose. Closed seasons allow fish to mate, breed or grow depending on species according to the time of year. Similar concept can be applied by limiting number of days fishing are permissible. Stock selection permits the

Recording data of harvested fish for stock assessment process. Photo | Tun Nurul Aimi

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harvest of abundantly available species or protects endangered or unproductive species. Spatial selection is applied by restricting fishery activities especially in shallow waters and increasing the distance of ports from shores provides refuge area for nursing grounds and vulnerably slow growing species. On the negative side, uncontrolled selective fishing may lead to disproportion of biodiversity and ecosystem balance (Breen et al. 2016).

Studying Fish Behaviour

In the anticipation to enhance fisheries management, information on fish behaviour is recognized as one of the important aspects in developing efficient survey and fishing gears. Studies of fish behaviour specifically involved the fish sensory system that may provide knowledge of its life history and how the changing environment affects the behaviour. Understanding fish behaviour enables the quantification of fish reactions towards the fishing gears and vessel for precise resource survey towards successful fishery operation. Besides, species and size selectivity as well as design of ecofriendly fishing gear could be developed (Walsh et al. 2004). Therefore, development of fishing technology can reduce by-catch and increase survival of unintentionally caught fish in addition to safeguard the ecological biodiversity (Walsh and Bjordal 2004).

References

Bonfil R. 2005. The purpose of stock assessment and the objectives of fisheries management. FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 474, 6-14.

Breen M., Graham N., Pol M., He P., Reid D. & Suuronen P. 2016. Selective fishing and balanced harvesting. Fisheries Research. In Press.

Buck E.H. 1995. Individual transferable quotas in fishery management. CRS Report for Congress 95-849, 20 pp. http://dlc.dlib.indiana.edu/dlc/bitstream/handle/10535/4515/fishery.pdf?sequence=1

Cadrin S.X. & Dickey-Collas M. 2015. Stock assessment methods for sustainable fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science 72(1), 1-6.

Davies T.K., Mees C.C. & Milner-Gulland E.J. 2014. The past, present and future of drifting fish aggregating devices (FADs) in the Indian Ocean. Marine Policy 45, 163-170.

FAO 2016. Fact Sheets. FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. Rome.

Helies F.C. & Jamison J.L. 2012. Development and assessment of bycatch reduction devices within the Southeastern shrimp trawl fishery. Gulf and South Atlantic Fisheries Foundation, Inc. USA. 39 pp.

Hilton P. 2012. A Fish Aggregating device. http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/photosandvideos/photos/slideshows/Whats-in-your-can-of-tuna-/A-Fish-Aggregating-Device-FAD/

Kennelly S.J. & Broadhurst M.K. 2002. By-catch begone: changes in philosophy of fishing technology. Fish and Fisheries 3, 340-355.

Kilduff P. Carmichael J. & Latour R. 2009. Guide to fisheries science and stock

assessment. Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, Washington. 66 pp.

Mongstad E. 2014. New technology creates sustainable fishing. http://www.nortrade.com/sectors/news/new-technology-creates-sustainable-fishing/

Pitcher T.J. 2001. Rebuilding ecosystem as a new goal for fisheries management: reconstructing the past to salvage the future. Ecological Application 11, 601-617.

Shaw M. 2013. Revolutionary new sustainable fishing technology unveiled. http://www.plantandfood.co.nz/page/news/media-release/story/revolutionary-new-sustainable-fishing-technology-unveiled/

Walsh S.J., Godo O.R. & Michalsen K., 2004. Fish behavior relevant to fish catchability. ICES Journal of Marine Science 61, 1238-1239.

Walsh S.J. & Bjordal A. 2004. Fish behavior in exploited ecosystems. ICES Journal of Marine Science 6, 1030-1035.

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Title Modelling of mercury elimination in marine fish via cysteine introduction to improve human food safety consumption.

Mercury is a toxic metal that contaminates fisheries resources world-wide. One of the direct contamination sources is fish diets through natural food chain and the use of fish meal in aquaculture (Hites et al., 2004). Application of unknown mercury levels of fish meal is one of issue causing mercury contamination in mariculture production (Mok et al., 2011). Therefore, reduce mercury contamination in cultured fish is a new challenge and necessary in promising human food safety. Previous study shown that 1% supplementation of cysteine in fish diet significantly reduce the mercury level in guppy, but unknown in food fish. The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of cysteine in mercury elimination in food fish and physiological responses.

Please contact Dr Mok Wen Jye at [email protected]

Title Effects of melatonin on Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) reproductive performance and larval quality

Description: The Asian seabass (Lates calcarifer) cultures in Southeast Asian countries and is one of the valuable food fish in the aquaculture industry. Research of Asian seabass has been carried out by many agencies to overcome the lack of high quality broodstock and more importantly, high quality larvae. In order to enhance the larval quality of Asian seabass, the indoleamine melatonin hormonal manipulation should be applied to the broodstock where it may trigger the produc-tion of several reproductive hormones such as gonadotropin releasing hormone, estradiol and testosterone. This study will investigate the effect of melatonin administration on Asian seabass broodstock performance under tank-cultured system.

Please contact Dr Siti Ariza Aripin at [email protected]

OpportunityPOSTGRADUATE VACANCY IN FiSHA

Scholarship Opportunities

• Commonwealth Scholarships for Master’s and PhD study-developing Commonwealth country citizens http://cscuk.dfid.gov.uk/apply/scholarships-developing-cw/

• Fulbright Foreign Student http://foreign.fulbrightonline.org/about/foreign-fulbrightt Program (USA)

• British Chevening Scholarships http://www.chevening.org/

• Endeavour Postgraduate Scholarships in Australia for International Students https://internationaleducation.gov.au/Endeavour%20program/Scholarships-and-Fellowships/Pages/default.aspx

• Swiss Government Excellence Scholarships for Foreign Students www.sbfi.admin.ch/scholarships_eng

• Gates Cambridge Scholarships for International Students http://www.gatescambridge.org/

• Westminster International Scholarships https://www.westminster.ac.uk/study/prospective-students/fees-and-funding/scholarships/january-2017-scholarships/westminster-international-scholarship

Title Physiological compensation strategy of blue swimmer crab, Portunus pelagicus during feeding limitation

Starvation period could be classified as stress condition and can be evaluated subjectively by observing the behavior or physiological variables remodelling. Impact starvation and compensatory growth are well documented in fish, but not much for crustacean especially blue swimming crab, Portunus pelagicus, even though fasting occur naturally prior to molting or spawning in crustacean. Limited attempts have been made to culture P. pelagicus from early juveniles to market size and challenges impede progress in P. pelagicus culture includes lack of information available regarding feeding and nutritional requirement relating to their culture. This study will investigate starvation and refeeding aspect, compensatory effects, fatty acids requirements and metabolic activity of P. pelagicus.

Please contact Dr Noordiyana Mat Noordin at [email protected]

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OpportunityList of Conferences 2016-2017Author | NOORDIYANA MAT NOORDIN

Name of Conference Organizer Country Date

1 Second International Congress of Macrobrachium

Universidad de Guadalaraja, Mexico

Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, México

November 9-11, 2016

2 2nd International Congress on Applied Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment “HydroMediT 2016”

• Department of Ichthyology and Aquatic Environment (DIAE), School of Agricultural Sciences, University of Thessaly (UTH), Greece

• Panhellenic Society of Technologists Ichthyologists (PASTI)

Messolonghi, Greece, EU November 10-12, 2016

3 4th International Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture

Conferenceseries Ltd San Antonio, USA November 28-30, 2016

4 19th International Conference on Fisheries and Aquaculture

World Academic of Science, Engineering and Technology

Innsbruck, Austria. January 26-27, 2017

5 Aquaculture America 2017 World Aquaculture Society San Antonio, USA February 19-22, 2017

6 19th International Conference on Marine Science and Aquaculture


Amsterdam, The Netherlands

May 14-15, 2017

7 5th Aquaculture &Fisheries Conference Omics International Beijing, China May 29-31, 2017

8 World Aquaculture 2017 World Aquaculture Society Cape Town, South Africa June 26-30, 2017

9 6th Aquaculture & Fisheries Conference Conferenceseries Ltd Toronto, Canada August 8-10, 2017

10 7th Aquaculture & Fisheries Conference Conferenceseries Ltdt Brussels, Belgium August 27-29, 2017

11 18th International Conference on Diseases of Fish and Shellfish

European Association of Fish Pathologists

Belfast, Northern Island September 4-7, 2017

12 19th International Conference on Sustainable Aquaculture and Fisheries


Berlin, Germany September 14-15, 2017

57

We specialised in: •P.VannameiSPFbroodstock•P.VannameiSPFNauplii•P.VannameiSPFpostlarvae

•ShrimpQC,waterquality,microbiology,PCRtest•Shrimphatchery&farmingtechnicalservices

ertak Sanggol Hatchery Sdn. Bhd.

CONTACT USWe welcome enquiries & feedback regarding our products & services.

You may contact us directly or submit the online form on the right.

GERTAK SANGGOL HATCHERY SDN BHD(formally known as Gertak Sanggul Hatchery Centre)118A-13-4 Pearl Garden, Jalan Dato Ismail Hashim

11900 Bayan Lepas, PenangFax: 604 - 649 6967

Email: [email protected]

AQUATIC ENTERPRISE CO( e s t 1 9 9 9 )

One stop solution centre in aquaculture to meet your nutrition, disease prevention and treatment needs.

Our network in advance aquaculture countries, such as Thailand, Korea and Japan enable us to be constantly exposed to the latest nutrition and techniques in this industry and facilitate technology transfer to the benefits of our customers.

Our Company has always strive to provide excellent and innovative products, know-how and services to our esteemed customers to build up continuous business relationship with mutual respects and benefits. We commit to conduct our business with integrity

and customers’ satisfaction is our major priority.

58

To g e t h e r p u r s u i n g a q u a c u l t u r e e x c e l l e n c ew w w . s h r i m p c a r e . c o m | w w w . m a r i n e f i s h c u l t u r e . c o m

Products:

Plankton | Rotifer | Artemia | Enrichment | Larval and Fish Feed | Fish vitamin

Accessories and Equipment | Hormone | Premium Fish and Shrimp Nutritions

Contact Us:CHRIS PUI

No. 285, Lot 3181, Ground & 1st Floor, Block 11, Jalan Kedandi, Tebuan Dusun93250 Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia

Tel: 6 082 365 370 Fax: 6 082 365 037 H/P: 6 012 8888 306Email: [email protected]

Our Branches:Kuching | Johor Bahru | Tawau | Pontianak | Terakan

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ADVERTISING OPPORTUNITY

School of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences (FiSHA) of Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia is special-ized in the field of fisheries and aquaculture. Our newly published magazine, FiSHA MAG aims to become a knowledge sharing platform and a bridge between academicians and related industries. Issues highlighted in the magazine includes the development and technology of fisheries industries, advancement of research, aca-demic programs and conservation. This year, FiSHA MAG will have a section for companies and entrepreneurs to promote and advertise their products, technology, business profiles as well as employee recruitment. We are happy to invite you to advertise in our magazine at a low cost but with big impact. The distribution is limitless because we are publishing it in both printed and soft copy format. Our advertising rates are as follows (example of advertisement size is as shown in the next page)

Please check all that apply:

[ ] Product

[ ] Promotion of company

[ ] Employee recruitment

Pricing:

[ ] 1/8 page = RM 250.00

[ ] 1/4 page = RM 500.00

[ ] 1/2 page = RM 1,500.00

[ ] 1 page = RM 3,000.00

Mode of payment:

[ ] Payment via Telegraphic Transfer or direct bank transfer:

Account No : 8601751742

Swift Code : CIBBMYKL

Name of Recipient : BENDAHARI UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA TERENGGANU

Name of Local Bank : CIMB ISLAMIC BANK BERHAD

Address : 104 A-B, Jalan Sultan Ismail, 20200 Kuala Terengganu, Terengganu, Malaysia.

Reference code : FISHAMAG

[ ] Cheque, postal order or bank draft payable to BENDAHARI UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA TERENGGANU

Reference code: FISHAMAG

We can help you design your advertisement at no additional cost. Or just send us your advertisement in jpeg format and we are ready to publish it. Imagine your ad in our informative magazine and distributed freely all

over fisheries and aquaculture industry.

For Premium Position Ads or special requests, please contact Diyana Noordin:

% +609 668 5024 | Fax +609 668 5002 | Email: [email protected]

Half page(vertical or horizontal)

RM1500

1/4 pageRM500

1/8 pageRM250

Full pageRM3000

JOIN USFOR A UNIQUE

FIELD OF STUDIES FOR

by coursework

at

EXPERIENCELay the path to future success

with us and experience oceanic exploration at its best.

UMT offers both undergraduate and post-graduate courses from Diploma, Bachelor, Master and Ph.D programs in areas of Fisheries and Aquaculture Sciences, Fundamental Sciences, Informatics and Apllied Mathematics, Marine and Environmental Sciences, Food Science and Technology, Social Development and Economics, Maritime Business and Management and Ocean Engineering

•Aquaculture •Fisheries•Aquatic Science •Biochemistry•Biodiversity and Conservation

•Biotechnology •Botany•Cell and Molecular Biology •Ecology•Genetics •Microbiology •Physiology

•Zoology •Chemical Sciences•Chemical Technology

•Environmental Technology and Management •Physics •Remote Sensing

•Marine Science •Maritime Studies •Maritime Technology •Oceanography •Computer Science •Mathematical

Sciences •Animal Science •Crop Science •Food Science •Post Harvest Technology

•Accounting •Economics •Finance •Management •Marketing •Applied

Linguistic •Communication •Counselling •Philosophy and Civilisation •Social Studies

•Master of Science (Aquaculture)•Master of Management (Integrated

Coastal Zone)•Master in Business Administration (MBA)

•Master of Science in Sustainable Tropical Fisheries•Master of Counselling

39

5UMT

POSTGRADUATE PROGRAMS

MASTERPROGRAMS

november2016 volume2

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