Free News February 2, 2007

On January 9, 2007, "Mer" [the only identity given at her blog/site] posted:

Quito, Ecuador...Tomorrow I'm going to leave for Guayaquil, a city on the coast, where I will take a boat to the La Isla de Puna--to start working on a shrimp farm.

On January 20, 2007, Mer posted: Well, having just finished ten days working on a shrimp farm, I can say with some confidence that I will not ever become a shrimp farmer. All in all, the work was physically manageable, but mentally exhausting. The remoteness (two and a half hours by small boat to a small town and then two more hours to the nearest city), the fact that I was the only female on a farm of 30 men, my pale Canadian skin, and communication difficulties made every day a mental struggle. The people were very friendly and nice. It isn't their fault that my arrival was probably the most exciting thing that had happened on the farm in months. It was only natural that I got a lot of attention, but the unending stares and all the attention were difficult to handle. Because of the nature of the farm, there was really only stuff for me to do when someone went with me. I had three hours, or so, of feeding to do every morning with a guy named Pancho, after that I had little to do unless something came up for a female, who, in their eyes, shouldn't lift anything or get dirty. I spent a lot of time writing in my journal and reading.

During the harvest, a bunch of jefes, or bosses, arrived and moved into the house that Carlos and I were sharing. I think Carlos was kind of the everyday boss guy, a record keeper, a tiny little guy who I really liked, mostly because he took the time to chat with me about normal stuff. It was awful because all the bosses did was sit around the house and talk about money and how much the harvest was going to make. And they talked to me incessantly about Canada, about how much money could be made there, about how much money I must have and about my boyfriend. I preferred to deal with the attention of the thirty trabajadores rather than these guys in their inappropriate shoes [Pictures at the blog/site show a muddy farm, probably the result of recent storms.]

The experience helped me figure out some of my goals for the next little while. I plan to spend another month or six weeks in Ecuador and then go north through Colombia and eventually find my way by water to Panama and then to Costa Rica.

Source: mer 06/07. Pics (http://mblewis.blogspot.com/2007/01/pics.html). January 10, 2007. Some interesting things (http://mblewis.blogspot.com/2007/01/some-interesting-things.html). January 11, 2007. The waterfront and the view from my hammock (http://mblewis.blogspot.com/2007/01/waterfront.html), January 20, 2007. The shrimp farm and some soul searching...they're connected (http://mblewis.blogspot.com/2007/01/shrimp-farm-and-some-soul.html). January 20, 2007.

Country Reports

Australia
Drought Affects Production

Bullock Creek Prawn Farm, a small family-run shrimp farm in Queensland, thinks its harvest is likely to drop by more than 60 percent this year as a result of the drought in eastern Australia. With salinities way up and temperature down, the shrimp are just not growing. In fact, most of the shrimp farms in Queensland have delayed their harvests for three weeks. Peter Spindler, owner of Bullock Creek Prawn Farm, says that in the 16 or 17 years that his farm has been in operation, he's never had a season like this one.

Last year, Spindler's shrimp won a gold metal at the Sydney Fine Foods Show, following an extremely good year.

Information: Peter and Judy Spindler, Bullock Creek Prawn Farm, P.0. Box 26, Donnybrook, Queensland 4510, Australia (phone 07-5498-8659, fax 07-5498-8399).

Sources: 1. Austasia Aquaculture (www.austasiaaquaculture.com.au). Tim Walker, Editor-in-Chief (AustasiaAquaculture@netspace.net.au). Fresh is best for southern Qld prawn farm. Dos O'Sullivan (dos@netspace.net.au). Volume 20, Number 2, Page 3, April/May 2006. 2. FisheNews (an email supplement to Austasia Aquaculture magazine, www.austasiaaquaculture.com.au). Editor, Tim Walker (austasiaaquaculture@netspace.net.au). Low Rainfall, Low Temperatures Impact Prawns. January 12, 2007.

Australia
Feeding Rock Lobsters

Lab studies of southern, western and tropical rock lobster indicate that each species has its own dietary requirements.

Tropical Rock Lobsters (Panulirus ornatus): Blue and green mussels were not suitable as the only feed for post-puerulus, tropical rock lobsters. Growth slowed and deaths increased after a few weeks on a mussels-only diet, but the rock lobsters grew well on high-performance pellets containing 36 percent fish meal, 30 percent krill meal and 4 percent wheat, plus 5 other ingredients. This diet cost about $1.72 a kilogram (before the recent jump in fish meal prices).

Southern Rock Lobsters (Jasus edwardsii): In New Zealand, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research has successfully grown young southern rock lobsters in vertical cages, feeding them mussels only through tubes. They grew well, with 96 percent plus survival after eight months, and they were strongly colored. Some were not fed and they had survivals of 63 percent, but they were smaller. They fed on the organisms that grew on the cage surfaces. A gelatinous dry pellet proved inferior to the mussel diet for southern rock lobsters. The mussels were more nutritious because they remained in the gut longer, whereas pellet food was excreted relatively quickly.

Western Rock Lobsters (Panulirus cygnus): Western Australia's Department of Fisheries has accelerated the winter growth of wild rock lobster juveniles by heating the water and feeding them a mixed diet. The rock lobsters reached Western Australia's minimum legal size in 2.5 years, compared to three to four years in the wild. Oyster mesh, folded several times to create crevices, out-performed hides made of construction bricks.

Source: Fisheries R&D News (www.frdc.com.au, Australian Government). Young lobsters a bit picky. Volume 14, Number 4, Page 33, November 2006.

Bangladesh
Freshwater Prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii

In 1991, Bangladesh had approximately 2,200 hectares of prawn ponds; today it has an estimated 35-40,000 hectares, and the industry employs, directly and indirectly, 400,000 people. Total marine shrimp and freshwater prawn production in Bangladesh was estimated at 114,660 metric tons in 2004, but the contribution of prawns is not known because export statistics often do not distinguish between shrimp and prawns. In 2004-2005, Bangladesh exported 46,533 tons of shrimp and prawns valued at $335.5 million, of which 15-20% was estimated to be freshwater prawns.

Source: The Global Aquaculture Advocate (http://www.gaalliance.org). Editor, Darryl Jory (dejry2525@aol.com). Bangladesh Prawn-Farming Survey Reports Industry Evolution. Md. Asaduzzaman, M.S. (azamanbau@yahoo.com); M.A. Wahab, Ph.D. (Department of Fisheries Management, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh); Yang Yi, Ph.D. (Aquaculture and Aquatic Resources Management School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Klong Luang, Pathumthani, Thailand); James S. Diana, Ph.D., and C. Kwei Lin, Ph.D. (School of Natural Resources and Environment, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA). Volume 9, Issue 6, Page 40, November/December 2006.

China
Chitosan--the National Cancer Institute (USA) Reports

According to the National Cancer Institute (USA), nanoparticles made of chitosan, a naturally occurring polymer isolated from crab and shrimp shells, have shown promise as carriers of anticancer drugs, anti-tumor genes and other novel therapeutic agents. In addition, chitosan nanoparticles by themselves appear toxic to various types of malignant cells. To better understand this latter observation, Lifeng Qi, Ph.D., at West Virginia University, working with colleagues at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou, China, has conducted a detailed study evaluating the effect of chitosan nanoparticles on human liver cancer cells.

The investigators, who published the results of these studies in the European Journal of Cancer, prepared chitosan nanoparticles with an average diameter of 40 nanometers and added various concentrations of these nanoparticles to human liver cancer cells growing in culture. The researchers also administered chitosan nanoparticles orally to mice bearing human liver tumors.

From these studies, the researchers found that chitosan nanoparticles are capable of changing the composition of the cell membrane of malignant cells. The investigators found that chitosan nanoparticles also neutralized the surface charge of human liver tumor cells and altered the charge of the membrane surrounding the cells' mitochondria. The researchers noted that lipid metabolism increased in the membranes of cells treated with these nanoparticles. The effect of these changes in tumor cell membranes appears to retard the growth of tumors growing in mice by as much as 60 percent. The fact that these nanoparticles were delivered orally bodes well for future studies aimed at using chitosan nanoparticles to deliver anticancer agents to tumors.

Abstract: Chitosan nanoparticles (CNP), a widely used drug carrier, have shown potent cytotoxic effects on various tumor cell lines in vitro and in vivo. This study sought to evaluate the anti-tumor effect of CNP on growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma (BEL7402) and the possible mechanisms involved. Cells were grown in the absence and presence of various concentrations of CNP with mean particle size of about 40 nm. Cell viability, ultrastructural changes, surface charge, mitochondrial membrane potential, reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, lipid peroxidation, DNA fragmentation and fatty acid composition were analyzed by MTT assay, electron microscopy, zetasizer analysis, flow cytometry, spectrophotometric thiobarbituric (TBA) assays, DNA agarose gel electrophoresis and GC/MS respectively. For in vivo experiments, male BABL/c nude mice were implanted with BEL7402 cells subcutaneously to establish human hepatoma model. Chitosan, saline and CNP with different mean particle size (40, 70 and 100 nm) were administrated by oral administration (1 mg/kg body weight). Tumor and body weight were measured, and morphologic changes of tumor and liver tissues were studied under electron microscope. In vitro, CNP exhibited high anti-tumor activities with an IC50 value of 15.01 μg/ml, 6.19 μg/ml and 0.94 μg/ml after treatment for 24 h, 48 h and 72 h respectively. CNP could induce cell necrosis observed by electron microscope and DNA fragmentation. The anti-tumor mechanism was mediated by neutralization of cell surface charge, decrease of mitochondrial membrane potential and induction of lipid peroxidation. The tumor growth inhibitory rates on BEL7402 cells in nude mice treated with chitosan and CNP with different mean particle size (40, 70 and 100 nm) were 24.07%, 61.69%, 58.98% and 34.91% respectively. Typical necrotic morphological changes of tumor tissues and no liver abnormalities were found under electron microscope. In this paper, results show a strong anti-tumor effect of CNP on human hepatoma cell line BEL7402 in vitro and in vivo. These findings suggest that CNP could be a promising agent for further evaluations in the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

Sources: 1. NanoWerk.com. Chitosan nanoparticles suppress liver cancer growth (http://www.nanowerk.com/news/newsid=1302.php). January 22, 2007. 2. European Journal of Cancer. In vitro and in vivo suppression of hepatocellular carcinoma growth by chitosan nanoparticles. Lifeng Qi (Zhejiang University, Nano-biology Lab of Animal Science College, Hangzhou 310029, PR China), Zirong Xu (Centre of Lab Animal Research, Zhejiang College of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Hangzhou 310053, PR China) and Minli Chen (Orthopaedic Research Lab, Department of Orthopaedics, School of Medicine, West Virginia University, Morgantown, VA 26506-9196 USA). Volume 43, Issue 1, Pages 184-193, January 2007.

Greece
Penaeus japonicus Postlarvae For Sale

Steve Dolarakis posted to the Shrimp List: I am accepting orders for Penaeus japonicus postlarvae.

Source: The Shrimp List (a mailing list for shrimp farmers, "shrimp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com"). Subject: [shrimp] P. Japonicus PLs. From: s_dollars@yahoo.com. January 28, 2007.

Myanmar
Military Commandeers Shrimp Ponds and Leases Them to Investors

In the state of Arakan (northwest coast, on the border with Bangladesh), there are 155,333 acres of shrimp farms, 76 percent of the country's total. In Maungdaw Township, 1,071 acres are owned by the Western Military Command. Because the military doesn't have the technical skills to farm shrimp, the ponds are leased to local businessmen for large sums of money. The military forcibly confiscated the farms from local people. Many of the shrimp farms in Rathidaung, Pauktaw, Akyab and Maybon townships are owned by local army battalions that confiscated them from local people. In 2006, the military collected approximately $137 million from 30 leases to shrimp farm investors.

Source: Narinjara. Burmese Government Leases Shrimp Farms to Private Sector in Maungdaw (http://www.narinjara.com/details.asp?id=1113). January 27, 2007.

United States
Florida--Ask Durwood--from the Shrimp List

Diogo Villaca (diogo.villaca@camanor.com.br) asks: There are many products for killing fish in shrimp ponds. Chlorine, calcium hidroxide, rotenone and peroxide come to mind. Which are reasonably priced and environmental friendly?

Durwood Dugger (duggerdm@bellsouth.net), a shrimp farming consultant, answers: The most cost-effective method of eliminating competitors and predators is a thorough drying of the pond bottom, followed by tilling it to a depth of four inches and then exposing the soil to the full ultraviolet rays of the sun for a couple of weeks. This works better on buried and encysted eggs than most poisons and oxidants. Obviously, drying is also the most environmentally friendly.

If you still have problems with encysted eggs, I suggest you do the above, then cover the pond bottom with a few inches of water for a week, and then flush and dry the surface soil again before filling and stocking the pond. That should hatch and get rid of any remaining encysted eggs. That's about as cost effective as you can get.

In ponds that do not drain completely, you may have to chemically shock the remaining water with the locally cheapest oxidant, most likely hypochlorite. Don't be surprised if it takes a whole lot more chemical than you expected. The pond bottom residual organics will neutralize oxidants quickly. If you have lots of areas of standing water in your ponds, I suggest you regrade your ponds properly so that they drain and harvest efficiently. Poorly draining ponds are very inefficient and consequently very expensive to operate.

If you have a surface water supply and you are not filtering your incoming water below 500mu (we recommend 180mu in predator/competitor problem areas), the pond drying won't help. The eggs of aquatic and marine predators and competitors are not only highly variable in size within species, but also very plastic and able to pass through screens much smaller than what is listed in the technical literature for the smallest egg sizes/species in your specific environment. Bad designs and sloppy construction add to your costs every day--whether you recognize them or not.

Diogo Villaca: Do you have any comments on rotenone?

Forget rotenone. It is only partially effective on selective species of fish. Many of the really bothersome and tough competitor fish species such as the Cyprinidon seem almost totally immune to rotenone. Not sure how they accomplish that physiologically, but I have tried rotenone for years and found it only partially effective against some weaker species. It does not work at all on crustaceans and mollusks. With it, you are likely to see serious problems with competitor species such as burrowing shrimp and grass shrimp--and most seriously of all--with mussels. Our clients in Central America have had problems eliminating mussels in their ponds that formed carpets six inches thick across almost the entire pond bottom, causing a complete loss of algal blooms and fatal oxygen levels. After going through thousands of dollars worth of chemicals, the ultimate resolution of the problem came back to what I have said--complete drying and 180mu filtration systems of the incoming water. Like most problems in aquaculture the most effective solutions come from better management and better designs. The expectation of magical chemical bullets for all our problems is unrealistic.

Information: Durwood Dugger, President, BioCepts International, Inc., 947 Sandpiper Lane, Vero Beach FL 32963 USA (phone 772-332-1046, fax 772-234-8966, email duggerdm@bellsouth.net, webpage http://www.biocepts.com).

Source: The Shrimp List (a mailing list for shrimp farmers, "shrimp-subscribe@yahoogroups.com"). Subject: [shrimp] shrimp predator. From: diogo.villaca@camanor.com.br. January 17, 2007. From: duggerdm@bellsouth.net. January 17 and 18, 2007.

United States
Indiana--Shrimp Vaccines in Algae

Information: Richard Wagner, Indiana University, Emerging Technologies Center, 351 West Tenth Street, Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA (phone 317-278-4100, fax 317-278-4102, email iuetc@iu.edu).

Source: IndyStar.com. Science-speak 101 (http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070129/BUSINESS/701290332/1003). John Russell (phone 317-444-6283, email john.russell@indystar.com). January 29, 2007.

United States
Maryland--Advanced BioNutrition

William Kirk, the new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Advanced BioNutrition (feed ingredients that improve the health, nutrition and performance of animals), says, "ABN has some impressive fundamental technology that is now ready to enter the marketplace, and I am ready to lead this transition into the commercialization phase for the company."

David Kyle, President and Chief Scientific Officer at ABN, founded the company in 2001 and navigated it through its first five years of development. He said, "Bill's experience in the industry will be a great asset to the company as we launch our 'AquaGrow(R) for Shrimp', an 'environmentally sustainable solution' for the production of shrimp without the use of fishmeal or fish oil."

Information: Dr. Robert Bullis, Advanced BioNutrition Corp., 6430 Dobbin Road, Suite C, Columbia, MD 21045 USA (phone 410-730-8600, fax 410-730-9311, email rbullis@advancedbionutrition.com, webpage http://www.abn-corp.com/index.html).

Source: American Digital Networks. William F. Kirk Joins Advanced BioNutrition as CEO (http://digital50.com/news/items/BW/2001/07/14/20070123005876/william-f-kirk-joins-advanced-bionutrition-as-ceo.html). January 23, 2007.

United States
Massachusetts--Venezuelan Shrimp Farm Selects Slade Gorton

One of the largest shrimp farms in Venezuela has selected Slade Gorton, an importer and distributor of seafood, as its exclusive marketing and sales partner in the United States. Slade Gorton will distribute the farm's head-on shrimp and will launch a national campaign to promote it.

Information: Slade Gorton and Company, Inc., 225 Southhampton Street, Boston, MA 02118 USA (email sales@sladegorton.com, phone 617-442-5800, fax 617-442-9090).

Source: Boston.com. Slade Gorton to sell head-on shrimp/Slade Gorton & Co. plans to enter the head-on shrimp business (http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/01/slade_gorton_to.html). Chris Reidy. January 22, 2007.

United States
New York State--Biology of the Lobster

The Shoals Marine Laboratory (Cornell University) announces the following course: Biology of the Lobster (July 16-23, 2007), an introduction to the biology of the American lobster, Homarus americanus. The course will cover life history, larval development, metamorphosis, anatomy, physiological adaptation, fisheries, fishing, feeding, ecology, and behavior. Each topic will be taught by a lobster expert and include laboratory sessions and discussions.

Information: Laurie Johnson (lhj1@cornell.edu). For the full course listing, application and scholarship information, see the Shoals Marine Laboratory website at: http://www.sml.cornell.edu/college/pc-cs.htm. [As of January 29, 2007, the information on the course had not been posted.]

Information: Jan Robert Factor, Ph.D., Professor of Biology, Division of Natural Sciences, Purchase College, State University of New York (phone 914-251-6659, fax 914-251-6635, email jfactor@purchase.edu).

Source: The Crust-L Mailing list (To subscribe, send an email to LISTPROC@VIMS.EDU. In the body of the email, put SUBSCRIBE CRUST-L). Subject: [CRUST-L:2419] Lobster biology course announcement. From: lhj1@cornell.edu. January 29, 2007.