This is a commentary on a paper by Gilbert and Janssen (Gilbert, A.J., Janssen, R., 1998. Ecol. Econ. 25, 323–346) that deals with valuation of management alternatives for the Pagbilao mangroves, Philippines. Our main critique focuses on the undervaluation of fisheries as well as the inability to quantify the value of ecological services and internalize aquaculture's environmental costs. In addition, the sustainability criteria set up for the aquaculture management alternatives is open to debate. These weaknesses affect the result of Gilbert and Janssen's analysis so that the value of the unexploited mangrove forest is underestimated, and the value and sustainability of converting the forest into aquaculture ponds are overestimated. If applied to decision-making, the erroneous results from this partial cost–benefit analysis may have dire consequences for the mangroves and coastal communities of Pagbilao.

To illustrate vascular modification accompanying transition from aquatic to amphibious life in gobies, we investigated the respiratory vasculatures of the gills and the bucco-opercular cavities in one of the most terrestrially-adapted mudskippers, Periophthalmodon schlosseri, using the corrosion casting technique. The vascular system of Pn. schlosseri retains the typical fish configuration with a serial connection of the gills and the systemic circuits, suggesting a lack of separation of O2-poor systemic venous blood and O2-rich effluent blood from the air-breathing surfaces. The gills appear to play a limited role in gas exchange, as evidenced from the sparsely-spaced short filaments and the modification of secondary lamellar vasculature into five to eight parallel channels that are larger than red blood cell size, unlike the extensive sinusoidal system seen in purely water-breathing fishes. In contrast, the epithelia of the bucco-opercular chamber, branchial arches, and leading edge of the filaments are extensively laden with capillaries having a short (<10 μm) diffusion distance, which strongly demonstrate the principal respiratory function of these surfaces. These capillaries form spiral coils of three to five turns as they approach the epithelial surface. The respiratory capillaries of the bucco-opercular chamber are supplied by efferent blood from the gills and drained by the systemic venous pathway. We also compared the degree of capillarization in the bucco-opercular epithelia of Pn. schlosseri with that of the three related intertidal-burrowing gobies (aquatic, non-air-breathing Acanthogobius hasta; aquatic, facultative air-breathing Odontamblyopus lacepedii; amphibious air-breathing Periophthalmus modestus) through histological analysis. The comparison revealed a clear trend of wider distribution of denser capillary networks in these epithelia with increasing reliance on air breathing, consistent with the highest aerial respiratory capacity of Pn. schlosseri among the four species.

Nephroselmis clavistella D. G. Faria et S. Suda sp. nov. is collected from coastal sand samples from the eastern and western coasts of Okinawa-jima Island, Japan. The description of the cultured strains is based on light and electron microscopic observations. The cultured strains are phylogenetically analyzed based on 18S rDNA sequences. The cells are remarkably right–left flattened and appear round or ellipse when viewed from their right or left side, and are ∼5.0 μm in diameter. The posterior flagellum curved around the cell body at rest. A single, parietal, crescent chloroplast is yellowish green and contains one conspicuous eyespot in its anterior-ventral edge near the short flagellum base. A pyrenoid with one starch sheath is located dorsal of the chloroplast. The cells are divided by transverse binary cell division, as is common in other species of this genus. The cell body is covered with five types of scales, and among them four scale types are similar to Nephroselmis rotunda. The fifth scale type is a distinctive spiny and club-shaped stellate scale with 10 spines, four of the 10 spines extended ∼150 nm and each are slightly curved with a hook at the end, whereas six spines are club-shaped blunt ended. This scale morphology, an important taxonomic characteristic, has never been described before for the genus Nephroselmis. The cell’s morphology is distinctive from previously described Nephroselmis species, and its unique scale characteristics led us to name this newly proposed species “clavistella,” meaning club star.

Although the immune system of shrimps is not comparable to that of vertebrates, shrimps can acquire protection against pathogenic challenge by building up immunity. In this study, formalin-inactivated virus (FIV) was administered by injection, bath-immersion, or orally to determine levels of vaccination-mediated protection against the pathogenic white spot syndrome virus (WSSV). Diets supplemented with alfalfa, methyl sulfonyl methane (MSM), or wheat grass were provided with or without FIV. Shrimp injected with FIV and challenged 3, 15, or 30 days after vaccination had cumulative and relative survivals of 83%, 67%, and 33%, respectively. Survival of shrimp challenged by bath-immersion 3-45 days after vaccination by immersion was significantly higher than in the unvaccinated control. Orally vaccinated shrimp challenged by bath-immersion were partially protected up to 45 days after vaccination (cumulative survival 63.7%, relative 61.7%) but not til 60 days after vaccination (cumulative 8%, relative 3.2%). Survival of unvaccinated shrimp challenged by bath-immersion improved when shrimp were fed a diet supplemented with wheat grass or MSM, but not alfalfa. Survival was further enhanced when FIV was provided together with diets supplemented with wheat grass (cumulative 72.7%, relative 94.8%) or MSM (cumulative 73.3%, relative 96.3%).

Experiments on diet development and evaluation for juvenile abalone, Haliotis asinina focusing on lipid and essential fatty acid (EFA) levels were conducted. Six isonitrogenous diets were formulated in Experiment 1 (E1) to contain 27% protein with lipid levels at 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10%. Experiment 2 (E2) (EFA levels), used the optimum lipid level (3.59%) in E1 with EFA supplementation of 0.0, 0.2, 0.4, 0.8, and 1.6%. Abalone juveniles [mean initial weight and shell length of 0.60 plus or minus 0.07g and 14.70 plus or minus 0.12mm (E1)], [0.60 plus or minus 0.16g and 15.30 plus or minus 0.73mm (E2)] respectively, were fed these diets at 2-5% body weight in 3 replicates. Feeding trials in 90days/experiment evaluated growth, survival, feed conversion ratio (FCR) and fatty acid composition in abalone tissues. Results showed significantly higher growth rates (ANOVA P<0.05) with abalone fed diets with lipid levels of 2.2%, 3.6%, and 6.1% compared with those containing lipid levels of 7.6% and 9.8%. Abalone fed the lipid-free diet showed significantly the lowest growth rate among treatments. Break point analysis as a function of growth, showed optimum lipid requirement at 3.59%. Survival was high at 95-99% in both experiments. FCR values for D3 and D4 were significantly better compared to D2, D5 and D6 (E1) while no significant differences were found for D2-D6 for E2. Abalone body lipid increased with corresponding increase in dietary lipid. Addition of 18:2n, 18:3n3, and n3 HUFA showed significant improvement in weight gains up to 1.6% supplementation. Fatty acid composition of the lipid samples reflected those of the diets. Total lipid of abalone fed the lipid-free diet showed higher monoenes. Addition of EFA resulted in an increase in both n3 and n6 fatty acids. Lipid incorporation at 3.6% using a 1:1 ratio of CLO and SBO with EFA supplementation (1.6%) is best in juvenile abalone diet formulation.

The vicious cycle of poverty, overfishing and resource degradation in coastal communities in the Philippines calls for action that will address the problem of declining fish catch and degraded fish habitats. The literature has shown that an efficient and effective coastal management program can be instrumental in approaching this problem. In order to secure food and livelihood of fishers, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center/Aquaculture Department collaborated with the local government of Anini-y, Antique to develop a sustainable utilization of natural marine resources through sea ranching of abalone within the Nogas Island marine protected area. Establishing a marine protected area is a means of conserving natural stocks while sea ranching is considered an effective strategy that can increase fishery resources. The two management schemes are considered as effective coastal resources management strategies. The success of a sea-ranching project is dependent not only on biophysical but also on socioeconomic factors as determinants of community participation and cooperation. A social assessment was conducted to determine the fishers’ socio-cultural characteristics, their perceptions of their coastal resources and knowledge on how to effectively manage these coastal resources. The fishers’ awareness on fishing regulations and the extent of their participation in community's coastal resources management activities were also determined. Data were collected from a household survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, focus group discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants. The fishers generally scored low in almost all aspects of their socioeconomic wellbeing. Most fishers perceived that their coastal resources were in a bad condition which they attributed to illegal and commercial fishing, increasing number of fishers and the poor enforcement of fishery regulations. However, the weighted mean scores of their knowledge on coastal resources management, awareness to fishery regulations and participation in community coastal resource management activities were average. This implied that fishers when trained and developed can become potential partners for effective coastal resources management programs.

Sulfide can potentially damage hemoglobin or be detoxified by hemoglobin. In the sulfide-tolerant California killifish neither seems to be the case at environmentally realistic (micromolar) and physiologically relevant (millimolar) sulfide concentrations. An 8-h exposure of killifish to 5 and 8 mmol sulfide · 1 -1 results in 50–100% mortality, but not due to sulfhemoglobin (where sulfide covalently binds to the porphyrin) nor ferric hemoglobin (Hb + ), both dysfunctional hemoglobin derivatives. Killifish hemoglobin converts to sulfhemoglobin in vitro only in the presence of 1–5 mmol sulfide · 1 -1 . The amount of sulfhemoglobin formed increases with time and heme concentration but decreases with pH. Hb + binds sulfide as ferric hemoglobin sulfide (Hb + S, an unstable complex where sulfide ligates to the iron), and also as sulfhemoglobin. Killifish blood does not catalyze the oxidation of 10–500 µmol sulfide · 1 -1 to any appreciable extent. Radiolabeled sulfide incubated with oxyhemoglobin or whole blood disappears at rates greater than in buffers, but only minimal amounts of thiosulfate and no sulfate nor sulfite are formed (elemental sulfur and bound sulfide not quantified). Sulfide disappearance rates increase linearly with initial sulfide concentration. Hb + does catalyze the oxidation of sulfide to thiosulfate in vitro. Similar experiments on another sulfide-tolerant species, the long-jawed mudsucker Gillichthys mirabilis , produced similar results.

This paper discusses some of the challenges and opportunities that can arise when implementing ecosystem-basedmanagement (EBM) in tropical nations. EBM creates a new series of challenges, problems, and opportunities that must be considered in light of existing governance and management frameworks in a local context. The paper presents five case studies from different parts of the tropical world, including Oceania, insular and continental Southeast Asia, East Africa, and the Caribbean, which illustrate that the implementation of EBM in watershed and marine ecosystems offers a new series of challenges and opportunities for its inclusion with existing forms of environmental governance and management. The paper suggests that EBM is best thought of as an expansion of customary management (CM) and integrated coastal management (ICM), rather than a paradigm shift, and that it has certain benefits that are worth integrating into existing systems when possible. The paper concludes that the cultural and institutional context of CM as well as the experience, technical skills, and legal basis that serve ICM programs are logical platforms from which to build EBM programs. Some guidelines for creating hybrid management regimes are suggested. In sum, declining marine species and ecosystems require urgent action, necessitating utilization of existing paradigms such as ICM and CM as a foundation for building EBM.

A review is made of the current situation regarding Penaeus monodon pond culture in the Philippines, examining in particular pond management practices, including site suitability, engineering design, and harvest and post-harvest handling. Problems and prospects in the industry are also discussed, together with some recommendations.

A review is made of diseases of cultured Penaeus monodon , examining the diagnosis and pathology of the disease or disease agents involved and their prevention and control. Both infectious (viral, bacterial, fungal and protozoan) and other (nutritional, toxic and environmental) diseases are considered.