Although brackishwater ponds have been a major factor in mangrove loss in Southeast Asia where aquaculture is centuries-old, the “No Touch option” for mangroves is a luxury that most countries in the region cannot afford. So the question is not whether mangroves and aquaculture are compatible, but how best to integrate them so that mangrove services are maximized while some benefits from aquaculture remain? A review of “mangrove-friendly aquaculture” or MFA in Southeast Asia shows that while some technologies are traditional, others are government-driven (rather than research-based, to mitigate social conflict). MFA may be sited in subtidal waterways (e.g., seaweeds, bivalves) or the intertidal forest -- Hong Kong gei wai, Indonesian tambak tumpang sari, Vietnam mixed mangrove-shrimp farm systems and mangrove pens for mudcrab in Malaysia.

People are at the heart of sustaining aquaculture. Development of human capacity and gender, therefore, is an important human dimension. Human capacity development (HCD) was a major thrust of the 2000 Bangkok Declaration and Strategy, but gender was not addressed. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nation's (FAO) Strategic Framework for Human Capacity Development (HCD) emphasized building human capacity in a coherent fashion at four levels - in individuals, organizations, sectors/networks and in the overall enabling environment. Although strategic HCD in aquaculture has not received attention, substantial HCD has occurred in aquaculture education and training. Aquaculture departments in universities, aquaculture research institutes, networks and professional societies all include training as central activities. Women are active participants in aquaculture supply chains, but a dearth of gender-disaggregated information hampers accurate understanding of their contribution. Research results and FAO National Aquaculture Sector Overview (NASO) fact sheets show that female participation rates vary by type and scale of enterprise and country. Women are frequently active in hatcheries and dominate fish processing plant labourers. Women's work in small-scale aquaculture frequently is unrecognized, under or unpaid. Most aquaculture development projects are not gender sensitive, and aquaculture success stories often do not report gender dimensions; projects can fail if their designs do not include gender. Lacking gender-disaggregated data on participation rates and trends in education, we conducted a preliminary survey of aquaculture tertiary institutes in Africa, Asia, Europe and North America. The percentage of female graduates in aquaculture increased considerably over the last four decades, from zero or low numbers in the 1970s to recent rates of around 30-60 percent; rates vary both by country and within countries. No data are available to track whether female graduates are entering successful careers in aquaculture. To accelerate HCD to meet the needs of aquaculture growth, commodity and theme priorities for HCD must be established. Educational institutions should cooperate and harmonize work programmes and overcome language barriers. Aquaculture education needs the best students and should help prepare them for rewarding careers. More social science content is needed in aquaculture curricula to groom graduates for management and leadership roles. The gender balance in aquaculture faculty could be improved by recruiting and retaining more women. Gender should be put firmly on the policy agenda and built into normative instruments, old and new, complemented by the collection of gender-disaggregated data for aquaculture supply chains. Women should be empowered through gender equity in access to financial, natural, training and market resources. Women in aquaculture should not be stereotyped as 'small-scale' and poor. Women are often hampered by systemic barriers such as lack of legal rights. Women should be encouraged to build their management, leadership and entrepreneural skills. In circumstances where rural men have migrated for work, small-scale aquaculture has proven a suitable livelihood option to reduce the pressure on women. Because postharvest processing and fish trade are feminized occupations, gender equity deserves special attention in fair trade and fish certification schemes. HCD and gender are receiving more attention in rehabilitation efforts to assist survivors from disease and natural disasters.

The ability of Holothuria scabra to digest nutrients, such as organic matter (OM), protein and carbohydrate from animal and plant feed ingredients was investigated. Four test feeds prepared by mixing sand with single ingredients from animal sources (shrimp and mussel) and plant sources (diatom and seaweed) were fed to H. scabra to estimate apparent digestibility coefficient (ADC). The total assimilated nutrient (TAN) increased with ADC, whereas ingestion rate (IR) varied slightly among the feeds suggesting that ADC might be a good indicator of nutrient availability to H. scabra. The ADC_OM of shrimp and mussel was significantly higher than that diatom and seaweed: 86.2%, 77.1%, 55.1% and 32.3% respectively. ADC_protein was similar for shrimp (88.7%), mussel (84.8%) and diatom (75.2%), but significantly lower in seaweed (34.4%). ADC_carbohydrate was similar in mussel (58.5%) and diatom (58.3%) as well as in seaweed (31.6) and shrimp (28.0%). ADC_protein was relatively higher than ADC_carbohydrate suggesting that H. scabra generally digests more protein than carbohydrate. Furthermore, results indicated that nutrients from animal-based feeds are more efficiently digested by H. scabra; thus, animal ingredients rich in easily digestible protein could potentially provide an efficiently balanced diet for H. scabra fed with diatom containing high easily digestible carbohydrate.

γ-Aminobutyric acid receptor type A-associated protein (GABARAP) and its homologs constitute a protein family found in many eukaryotes from yeast to human, and are known to be involved in intracellular membrane trafficking of GABAA receptors and autophagy. In this study, we cloned cDNA-encoding GABARAP from the monogonont rotifer Brachionus plicatilis and examined for its tissue distribution at the protein level in neonates, males and females. Using reverse transcription (RT)-PCR and rapid amplification of cDNA ends (RACE) techniques, we showed that like other GABARAPs, rotifer GABARAP was also composed of 117 amino acids and highly homologous to vertebrate GABARAP2 ortholog (74–76% identity). GABARAP was demonstrated with its specific antibody to be ubiquitously distributed, irrespective of neonates, males, and females, in the coronal area that covers brain and contains most mechano- and chemoreceptors. Rotifer GABARAP was also expressed in the mature eggs but not in immature eggs. Double immunostaining with mammalian anti-GABA γ receptor antibody showed that rotifer GABARAP co-localized with GABA receptor, suggesting the association of the two proteins. The presence of GABARAP in rotifer implies that it is highly conserved during evolution, and plays important roles in various biological processes.

A growth experiment was conducted on juvenile red sea bream, Pagrus major to investigate the effect of the inclusion in fish diets, of tuna meat by-product hydrolysate which was processed through enzymatic hydrolysis using a commercially available enzyme, derived from Bacillus subtilis. Six experimental diets were formulated in the experiment. Three diets contained 50, 150 and 250 g/kg of TPM-H (tuna meat by-product hydrolysate), and two diets with the unprocessed TPM (tuna meat by-product) at an inclusion level of 50 and 250 g/kg. A control diet was formulated without any addition of the test ingredients. Treatment diets were fed ad libitum to juvenile fish with an initial average body weight of 0.81 ±0.13 g for 56 days. Results of the feeding trial suggest that the inclusion of TPM-H at 250 g/kg in fish diets improved body weight gain rate (3271.58%), feed intake (24.55 g/fish/56 days) and feed conversion efficiency (1.12) of the fish. Apparent nutrient digestibility of hydrolyzed tuna meat by-product improved compared to the unhydrolyzed ingredient. These results suggest that TPM processed as hydrolysates can be efficiently utilized by fish.

Low larval survival resulting from suboptimal culture conditions and luminous vibriosis poses a major problem for the larviculture of penaeid shrimp. In this study, a poly-β-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) accumulating mixed bacterial culture (mBC; 48.5% PHB on cell dry weight) and two PHB accumulating bacterial isolates, Bacillus sp. JL47 (54.7% PHB on cell dry weight) and Bacillus sp. JL1 (45.5% PHB on cell dry weight), were obtained from a Philippine shrimp culture pond and investigated for their capacity to improve growth, survival and robustness of Penaeus monodon postlarvae (PL). Shrimp PL1 and shrimp PL30 were provided with the PHB containing bacterial cultures in the feed for 30 days followed by, respectively, a challenge with pathogenic Vibrio campbellii and exposure to a lethal dose of ammonia. Prior to the pathogenic challenge or ammonia stress, growth and survival were higher for shrimp receiving the PHB accumulating bacteria as compared to shrimp receiving diets without bacterial additions. After exposure to the pathogenic challenge the shrimp fed PHB accumulating bacteria showed a higher survival as compared to non-treated shrimp, suggesting an increase in robustness for the shrimp. Similar effects were observed when shrimp PL30 were provided with the PHB accumulating bacterial cultures during a challenge with pathogenic V. campbellii through the water. The survival of shrimp exposed to lethal ammonia stress showed no significant difference between PHB accumulating bacteria-fed shrimp and non-PHB treated shrimp. The data illustrate that bacilli capable of accumulating PHB can provide beneficial effects to P. monodon post-larvae during culture in terms of growth performance, survival and resistance against pathogenic infection and ammonia stress. Further investigations are required to verify the PHB effect of the bacterial cultures on the shrimp.

This study determined the effect of human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and handling stress on the spermiation and milt response of silver perch Leiopotherapon plumbeus based on the measurement of spermatocrit, sperm density, and milt production. Compared to saline-injected fish, the mean spermatocrit (or packed sperm) of hCG-treated fish was significantly lower at 18 h (47.9%) and 30 h (40.2%) post-injection while mean sperm density was significantly lower at 30 h post-injection (3.6 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹) but not at 18 h. At 18 h (1.8 μl g-BW⁻¹) and 30 h (2.5 μl g-BW⁻¹) post-injection, mean milt production of hCG-treated fish was significantly higher than in the saline group. Milt consistency was also thinner in the hCG-treated group. Mean sperm density of handled fish (18.0 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹) was significantly lower than control fish (23.4 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹). However, mean sperm density of handled plus saline-injected (16.2 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹) and handled plus hCG-treated fish (8.4 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹) was significantly lower than in the control goup. Having thicker milt consistency, mean spermatocrit and milt production of handled (77.5%; 1.1 μl g-BW⁻¹, respectively) and handled plus saline-injected fish (75.4%; 1.1 μl g-BW⁻¹, respectively) were not significantly different from the control fish (76.2%; 1.3 μl g-BW⁻¹, respectively). Handled plus hCG-treated fish had the lowest mean sperm density (8.4 × 10⁶ cells μl⁻¹) and spermatocrit (54.7%), but had the highest mean milt production (5.5 μl g-BW⁻¹) among the treatment groups. These results demonstrate that the hCG injection effectively induces spermiation and milt expression and that handling-related stress negatively affects such responses. The spermatocrit method may be used to assess the spermiation and milt response of silver perch.

Batch culture of Isochrysis galbana clone T-ISO is difficult due to its unstable biomass production; hence, the effect of continuous cultivation at different dilution rates was investigated to compare its productivity with that of batch culture. Significantly higher total algal cell yield was attained in continuous cultures (1.70 × 10⁸ and 1.03 × 10⁸ cells L^-1 at 0.60 d^-1 and 0.30 d^-1 dilution rates, respectively) compared with batch culture (0.16 × 10⁸ cells L^-1); the batch culture did not receive any inflow of nutrients. The amount of protein per cell was similar in both batch and continuous cultures at 0.60 d^-1 dilution rate after 24 h and 5 d in both culture systems. Chlorophyll a yield was not affected by dilution rate but decreased as the culture aged. The dry weight yield was also similar in both batch and continuous cultures. The higher nitrate concentration supplemented in the batch culture resulted in higher cell density and elevated protein content of the alga. Rotifer (Brahionus rotundiformis) cultures that received inflow of nutrients from the algal tanks had significantly higher (P<0.05) peak population count (28 and 33 individuals mL^-1 at 0.30 and 0.60 d^-1 dilution rates, respectively) compared with rotifer cultures that did not receive an inflow of food (18.22 individuals mL^-1). The higher biomass yield of T-ISO using continuous cultivation method can increase the population growth of rotifer under tropical conditions.

Finding aquaculture development approaches to open up livelihood opportunities for the rural poor and in mainstreaming smallholder fish farmers to reduce poverty remain a challenge. This paper examines the community-based technology transfer mechanism of mudcrab nursery in ponds and its socioeconomic impacts on smallholder mudcrab growers in Northern Samar, Philippines. Results indicated that the technology is a viable enterprise done by a straight culture system method, which is the rearing of crablets from <1.0 to 4.0 cm for 42 days, or by-phases. However, technology adoption hinges on many factors like area ownership, farm distance from household, and market including the type of strategy needed to enhance technology uptake. Collaboration among research and development institutions and local partners is critical in training and empowering rural communities to adopt aquaculture technologies.

To provide a basis for a stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio \(\mathsf{(\delta^{13}C / \delta^{15}N)}\) analysis to determine the assimilated organic matter in sea cucumber, Holothuria scabra, diet-tissue fractionations were experimentally determined by mono-feeding rearing with diatom. While δ¹⁵N fractionation of the whole body wall (2.4‰) was similar to the commonly accepted value (2.6 - 4‰), δ¹³C fractionation of the body wall (4.2‰) showed considerable discrepancy with the commonly accepted value (0 - 1‰) due to the high content (35% dry wt/wt) of calcareous spicules (CaCO₃) in the body wall, which had significantly higher δ¹³C (-8.6‰) than the organic fractions. Computational elimination of spicules based upon spicule content and spicule δ¹³C reduced the δ¹³C fractionation of the body wall to 1.5‰, close to the common value. δ¹³C fractionation after spicule removal by acid decarbonation and subsequent rinsing (3.2‰) did not agree with the common value, and δ¹⁵N fractionation was significantly elevated by decarbonation. δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C fractionations of the intestine (1.5 and 2.2‰, respectively) did not agree with the common values. Since δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N of the feces did not differ significantly from those of the diet, feces may be used to determine ingested organic matter in the wild.