Southeast Asia is endowed with a variety of species that can be cultured as food fish. Since 1973, the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Center/Aquaculture Department (SEAFDEC/AQD) has devoted research efforts to establish broodstock for the tiger prawn (Penaeus monodon), milkfish (Chanos chanos), and other economically important fish and crustaceans in the region. The objective is to ensure the availability and reliability of seed supply for fish culture. SEAFDEC’s pioneering effort on genetics was a collaborative study with the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute on the genetic variation of milkfish populations in the Philippines. Towards the end of the 1980s, genetic activities, co-funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada in collaboration with Dalhousie University of Canada, were focused on tilapia.

Aquaculture plays a predominant role in the Philippines, an archipelago of 7,150 islands with 36,300 km of coastline, 26.6 million ha of coastal waters, and 250,000 ha of lakes, rivers and reservoirs over which are spread 239,000 ha of brackish-water ponds and 14,500 ha of freshwater ponds. From a mere 25,500 mt valued at P33.1 million in 1950, aquaculture production has increased to 38.2 million mt valued at P35.4 billion in 2002, and employs some 258,500 persons. Aquaculture contribution to total fisheries’ production in the 1950-2002 period has similarly increased from 11.6 % to 38.2 % by volume, and from 15.4 % to 31.3 % by value. Next to yields of 894,858 mt of seaweeds and bivalves from mariculture, Philippine aquaculture was dominated in 2002 by brackish-water pond production of 246,937 mt, followed by 94,697 mt from marine and freshwater pens/cages and 70,425 mt from freshwater ponds. Notwithstanding its major contribution to the Philippine economy, aquaculture development has come with many environmental and social costs. Foremost among these is mangrove conversion to culture ponds, mainly for milkfish — around half of the 279,000 ha of mangroves lost from 1951 to 1988 were developed into culture ponds. Ninety-five percent of Philippine brackish-water ponds in 1952-1987 were derived from mangroves. Mangroves have contributed significantly to the well-being of coastal communities for centuries through products used for fuel, construction, fishing, agriculture, forage, and food items mainly fish, crustaceans and mollusks. Mangroves also provide a variety of ecosystem services such as coastal protection provided by a buffer zone during typhoons and storm surges, reduction of shoreline and riverbank erosion, stabilizing sediments, control of flooding and recycling of nutrients. Other environmental impacts are pollution of lake and coastal waters from intensive pond, pen and cage culture; dependence on fish meal and fish oil for feeds; use of chemicals and antibiotics; spread of parasites and diseases; excessive harvesting of wild seed and adults and loss of bycatch. Socioeconomic consequences have the greatest effect on rural communities — loss of mangrove goods and services, blocked access to coastal resources, navigational hazards, privatization of lands and waterways, fishery decline, food insecurity, rural unemployment and urban migration, social disruption and conflicts. The future sustainability of Philippine aquaculture depends not only on farm level practices but also on the integrated management of the coastal zone and government action to prevent or redress environmental and socioeconomic damage. Pond, pen and cage systems for growout need to reduce and mitigate negative impacts and become more environmentally responsible through the development and/or wider dissemination of available onfarm technologies. These cover water management (closed/semiclosed cycles with low to zero water exchange, reservoir/treatment-settling ponds, greenwater techniques), feed management (reduced fishmeal/fish oil levels, lower N, P in effluents), effluent management (biofilters using seaweed, oysters and external filters such as mangroves, sludge processing and disposal, fallowing), and reduced use of antibiotics and chemicals. Aquaculture needs greater integration, e.g. the polyculture of more than one species in the same pond, or aquasilviculture where fish/shrimp/crab culture is integrated with mangroves. Only one among the many uses of the coastal zone, aquaculture should develop within the framework of Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM). For example, siting of aquaculture farms should be based on the ecological footprint of the farming technology, and farm density should not exceed environmental capacity of a given area. ICZM features coastal zonation based on carrying or assimilative capacity of the environment; valuation of alternative resource uses; buffer zones between aquafarms and villages, rice paddies, rehabilitation of mangroves and other degraded habitats; participation of various stakeholders, e.g. fishers, aquafarmers; protection of communal resources, rights and access of marginalized groups; and mechanisms for conflict resolution. The government should enforce existing laws; institute a clear national aquaculture policy with corresponding institutional arrangements such as resource use fees for land, groundwater use, and penalties to fund environmental rehabilitation and compensate socioeconomic damage and become mangrovefriendly by adopting silvofisheries (or aquasilviculture where crabs/fish/shrimp are reared at low density in mangrove ponds and pens) or integrating mangroves filter adjacent to intensive fish/shrimp ponds. All these require a paradigm shift from the short-sighted common exploitation of water, mangroves and other resources to the ecological footprint approach incorporating not only inputs such as feed and seed, but also outputs, e.g. effluent treatment facilities.

Six tropical freshwater species were collected from Philippines in order to study the characteristic of polyunsaturated fatty acids distributions. 16:0 and 18: l n-9 were the predominant saturated fatty acid (SFA) and monounsaturated fatty acid (MUFA) in both neutral lipids (NL) and polar lipids (PL). There was an absence or very low values of n3 highly unsaturated fatty acid (HUFA) in NL of all species. However these fatty acids found in PL of all species studied with higher levels. The high proportions of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in PL were found with catfish Arius (20.71%), ayungin (17.64%), and snakehead (17.09%) whereas anabas (4.21%) gave lower DHA content. In PL, arachidonic acids (ARA) was found in high proportions, and also is superior to eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) (ranged from 3.35 to 10.67% and from 0.42 to 4.74%, respectively). Tilapia lipid appears to be intermediate in nutritional quality between all species studied; the proportions of DHA, EPA and ARA in PL were 16.27%, 4.52% and 9.36%, respectively. According to the n-3/n-6 ratio in both fractions, only ayungin is in the range typical of freshwater fish. Our results indicate that the wild tropical freshwater fish studied here are not good sources of n-3 HUFA fatty acids. Therefore, aquatic nutritionists and farmers should combine their efforts in order to manipulate the nutritional quality of these species to enhance their n-3 HUFAs concentrations especially when these species are reared in captivity system. The wash-out strategy may provide an adequate description of the changes in the fillet lipid fatty acid profiles of fatty fish.

The sustainable livelihood approach (SLA) is a tool for evaluating livelihood strategies that utilize assets categorized as environmental, human, physical, financial and social assets. In this study, the SLA was applied to determine the main factors that influence the adoption of integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) in milkfish (Chanos chanos Forsskål) farming among fisherfolks. The community-based field trials conducted in Nueva Valencia in Guimaras province for 4 years since 2015 revealed that stakeholders were receptive to IMTA and were able to situate its effects on livelihood assets. The assessment of 52 stakeholders showed small but significant improvements in most livelihood assets during the 3-phased evaluation period. Using the 5-scale Likert rating, the environmental livelihood assets were rated highest but showed slight significant decline due to perceived weather and water level changes that may have negatively affected fish production and income. Financial livelihood assets were initially rated low but significantly improved due to supplemental income derived from wages and harvest. The human livelihood assets significantly improved due to sustained hands-on aquaculture experience. Social livelihood assets also improved due to cohesive interaction during projects implementation. In contrast, the acquisition of physical livelihood assets did not significantly improve because these assets were not commensurate with the many stakeholders who would like to have access to these shared assets. Overall, stakeholders expect IMTA’s potential environmental and economic benefits to overcome additional adoption costs. These include the cost of physical and financial investments in seeds of co-culture species and modified enclosures. Stakeholders expect institutional and government support on further studies on the technical details of IMTA. Fisheries and aquaculture regulations should embed the necessary support systems for the adoption of IMTA and ensure a positive public perception of aquaculture.

Quantitative and qualitative analyses of bacterial microbiota associated with hatchery of Macrobrachium rosenbergii (de Man, 1879) were conducted over three larval cycles, along with important water quality parameters. Physicochemical parameters (temperature, DO, salinity, pH, and total ammonia) of culture water were within the optimum level required for the hatchery phase of M. rosenbergii. Significant differences in aerobic plate count (APC) among larval stages were observed. Ten genera and 17 species were identified with the predominance of Gram-negative bacteria constituting 63 % of all isolates (n = 706). A total of 17 dominant bacterial isolates randomly selected from freshwater prawn larvae were screened for in vitro hemolysin activity using blood agar plate (BAP) medium with 5% sheep blood. Pathogenicity of the isolated bacterial strains was assessed through in vivo infection bioassay. Out of the 17 isolates tested, six isolates showed α – β zone of hemolysis on the BAP, i.e., Aeromonas caviae, Bacillus cereus, Plesiomonas shigelloides, Staphylococcus warneri, Vibrio cholerae non-01, and Vibrio furnissii, were used in the infection bioassay. The current data indicate that the six bacterial isolates tested, particularly B. cereus and V. cholerae non-01, are opportunistic pathogens capable of inducing disease epizootics, particularly in freshwater prawn hatcheries with suboptimal rearing water conditions. Thus, control measures to reduce the influx of pathogenic microbes in the system by maintaining good water quality and good farm management practices through disinfection of culture facilities, rearing water, and Artemia cysts, the practice of good hygiene of personnel, regular water exchange, and feed regulation, among others, and cautionary use of antibiotics, can be adopted.

Tropical seafood, especially prawns, have always been in high demand with high market prices. Because of this, wild prawn resources are often overfished as indicated by the increasing number of fishers, but with overall declining catch volume and sizes through the years. Prawn aquaculture has, as of course, significantly contributed to the total yield in the past decades. However, the expansion of farms and ponds has often negatively affected the natural nursery grounds in the estuaries and mangroves. The economic gains from aquaculture are limited only to those who invested. However, local communities and artisanal fishers are often deprived of such gains. They are still reliant upon the dwindling natural stocks of fisheries resources. This is where the concept of stock enhancement comes in, wherein hatchery-produced juveniles are released into the water body in order to increase capture fisheries yield for local fishers. In this talk, I will present the case of the tiger prawn Penaeus monodon stock enhancement in the New Washington Estuary (NWE), in Aklan, central Philippines. The NWE was a productive fishing ground providing >24 kg/gear/day of catch in the 1970s but steadily declined to <0.7 kg/gear/day in 2010s. Prawn catches declined both in quality and quantity. Meanwhile, mangrove cover was reduced from 4800 ha in 1950s to only <800 ha in 2010s. Site-specific studies were conducted in NWE on prawn nursery rearing, small-scale release and monitoring experiments, as well as social assessments. Our studies produced essential scientific data to guide future stock enhancement activities in NWE. Even at an experimental scale, our releases showed significant increases in catch by at least 8% but can potentially increase daily income by >400%. However, in order to sustain the prawn fisheries and optimize the benefits, long-term management plans by all stakeholders are needed, especially between the communities and the local government.

The International Association of Aquatic and Marine Science Libraries and Information Centers (IAMSLIC) through the Aquatic Commons Board approved the deployment of IAMSLIC Digital Fisheries Library in the Philippines during the 2015 Conference. The digital library utilized the LibraryBox, a portable, open source distribution tool. This standalone wireless access is ideal for fisheries schools in the area due to limited or no Internet access and intermittent electrical power conditions. With the aim of providing access to SEAFDEC Aquaculture Department (AQD) publications in these schools, more than a thousand publications that were already made available in SEAFDEC/AQD institutional repository were also added in the box. The box contained over 26,000 publications, reports, articles and documents on all aspects of fisheries that are freely available. SEAFDEC/AQD is the first institution in the country to launch t he project in July 2016 using LibraryBox. Five boxes were distributed in Philippine fisheries libraries devastated by Typhoon Yolanda or hazed by fire. This study examined the factors that influence student’s acceptance and attitude towards the IAMSLIC Digital Fisheries Library. A survey was distributed to selected fisheries and marine biology undergraduate students in the Philippines. Relevance, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, screen design and behavioral intention to use the digital library were determined.

Rice is a major staple crop in the Philippines, which produces a large amount of rice each year. On the other hand, rice production generates biomass waste in the form of rice husks. In consideration of the rice husks’ potential as a biomass energy source and support the development of the rice husk gas stove technology in the Philippines, Engineer Alexis T. Belonio had published a grey literature (GL) entitled “Rice Husk Gas Stove Handbook.” Hence, to fully understand the impact of the technology, a citation analysis was conducted. The works that cited the GL were retrieved from Google Scholar using Harzing’s Publish or Perish software. The complete title of the GL was used as keywords for the search string. Results revealed that the GL was cited by 155 literatures written by 398 authors from 31 countries. Seventy-five (48.4%) of the 155 literatures were cited 797 times. The results showed the wide utilization and the impact of locally-published GL, thereby confirming GL’s value in research and development.

A survey was conducted to obtain information on the fish culture practices of the fish farmers in Laguna de Bay, Philippines. Fish farms vary greatly in size. Nile tilapia and bighead carp are the two fish species cultured in cages. Milkfish as well as tilapia and bighead carp are cultured in pens. The fish in cages and pens in the lake are grown in monoculture and polyculture systems. About one-half of the cage operators and two-thirds of the pen operators do not use artificial feeds in growing fish. Estimates of N load in the lake due to feeding indicated that the contribution of feeds to N in the water is low in relation to the N present in the water. The fish farmers vary in their practices in terms of stocking rate, culture period, and feeding. Production per unit area also varies. However, fish farmers have common concerns and problems.

The profitability of the fishpen industry in Laguna de Bay cannot be over-emphasized. However, a good engineering design must be prepared, in addition to the feasibility study in production and marketing. The destructive effect of the past typhoons which hit the Philippines especially in 1974 has shown the susceptibility of these fishpens to failures. To protect the industry from collapsing due to these calamities, better enclosure designs have to be developed. It is therefore hoped that the two design models presented will stimulate a more rigorous investigation of the present system. The SEAFDEC Freshwater Aquaculture Station will be putting up some experiments on the design models herein discussed. It is also recommended that studies be made on the wave characteristics of the lake water and water hyacinth movements all year round. The extensive use of floating cages for fish culture in other countries has proved to be successful. In the Philippines, this kind of fish culture was introduced in the culture of Tilapia in the lakes of San Pablo City, Laguna, notably in the Bunot Lake. Because of this, the Freshwater Station has included in its projects a study of the design and construction of floating cages with emphasis on the kinds of materials for floatation and support system.