The excessive fishing activities have led to the depletion of many coastal fisheries resources in most of the countries in Southeast Asia. It is therefore necessary to find out the causal factors of excessive fishing in order to build up effective fisheries management system. This paper highlights the results of the study that investigated the overfishing or excessive fishing in Batan Estuary, Aklan, Central Philippines. The data were gathered through an interview of selected households in Barangay Pinamuk-an, Aklan from March 2-26 2010. Of the 93 respondent-households, 67 or 72% is engaged in fishing. The most popular fishing gear was the small set net with synthetic fiber, which was introduced to the community in the latter part of 1970s. The relatively lower cost of this small fishing gear, and a few labor force requirement, including its availability in nearby market made it easier for the fisherfolks to acquire this fishing gear. The small set net with synthetic fiber has been widely used by the fishers, which led to the overuse of the fishing grounds in the Batan Estuary. Thus, this paper argues that the introduction of new fishing gear and method triggered the excessive fishing in coastal areas in Philippines.

Short-term immersion of Kappaphycus alvarezii (Doty) Doty in a high-nitrogen-containing medium was tested to increase growth, improve the quality of carrageenan, and decrease “ice-ice” disease occurrence. Tank-reared Kappaphycus were used as explants. Growth, nitrogen assimilation, carrageenan quality, and occurrence of ice-ice disease of enriched (E/N) K. alvarezii were determined. E/N and un-enriched (control) K. alvarezii were planted inside net cages in the sea. Nitrogen assimilation was monitored to determine if nitrogen was incorporated in the tissues after 12 h. Total thallus nitrogen of K. alvarezii doubled after immersion in high nitrogen. Growth rate and carrageenan yield of E/N K. alvarezii were significantly higher than those of the control. Gel strengths of E/N and the control were not significantly different. Ice-ice disease occurrence was significantly higher in the control than the enriched seaweeds. Short-term immersion of K. alvarezii in a high-nitrogen medium before outplanting increased growth rate and decreased the occurrence of “ice-ice”.

Whitespot syndrome virus (WSSV) has caused severe production drops in the shrimp industry. Numerous scientific manuscripts deal with WSSV epidemiology, but reports on minimizing disease outbreaks through ecological means are rare. Industry stakeholders resorted to various innovative techniques to recover from heavy economic losses. Some shrimp farmers in the Philippines claimed that ‘greenwater’ (GW) technology could prevent disease outbreaks due to WSSV. The efficiency of the GW technology was evaluated by comparing three ponds using the GW culture technique with three ponds not using it. WSSV was detected only in one of the GW ponds and not in the non-GW ponds. No WSSV disease outbreak occurred, and no conclusion could be reached. In GW ponds, available soil sulphur content was lower; and in water, the observed counts of luminous bacteria were lower and counts of Chlorophyceae were higher. Chlorophyceae, i.e. algae, enhanced nutrient uptake in effluent streams resulting in improved water quality in Penaeus monodon Fabricius culture ponds. This suggests that the use of the GW technique to culture P. monodon improved water quality.

The quantity and composition of the bacterial microbiota in the rearing water, sediment, gills and intestines of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus collected every 2 weeks from Day 30 to Day 120 after stocking for grow-out culture in 6 earthen brackish water ponds in the Philippines were examined. The total heterotrophic aerobic bacterial counts obtained in the water, sediment, gills and intestines of tilapia ranged from 10³ to 10⁴ c.f.u. ml⁻¹, 10³–10⁵, 10⁵–10⁷ and 10⁴–10⁷ c.f.u. g⁻¹, respectively. In terms of composition, a total of 20 bacterial genera and 31 species were identified with the preponderance of gram-negative bacteria constituting 84% of all bacterial isolates examined. Aeromonas hydrophila, Bacillus spp., Plesiomonas shigelloides, Shewanella putrefaciens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, Staphylococcus spp. and Vibrio cholerae were the dominant bacteria identified in the gills and intestine of tilapia. These bacteria also dominated in the pond sediment and rearing water, except for the nil isolation of S. putrefaciens and V. cholerae in the water samples examined, indicating that resident bacteria in the pond water and sediment congruently typify the composition of bacterial microbiota in the gills and intestine of tilapia which under stressful conditions may propel the ascendance of disease epizootics.

Diverse array of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and protists are involved during oil spill. Each microorganism has its own specific function whether it has to degrade or adsorb hydrocarbons. One important microorganism is the Thraustochytrid that is a fungoid protist and are common in marine and estuarine habitats. Numerous studies existed on the biodegradation and adsorption of Thraustochytrids on various substances but not on Bunker C oil. Thus, this study aimed to determine the adsorption capacity and mean biomass of Thraustochytrids in Bunker C oil using different cell densities measured in grams. All of the three treatments or cell densities (1 x 10⁵ cells ml^-1, 1 x 10⁶ cells ml^-1 and 1 x 10⁷ cells ml^-1) were triplicated and average values were recorded. Oil dispersant was used as a control. It showed that Thraustochytrid with 1 x 10⁷ cells ml^-1 showed the highest adsorbed oil (.057 ḡ) among the three cell densities and showed significant difference at p = .01 but comparable to the control (.066 ḡ). In terms of biomass concentration, all cell densities showed no significant difference at p = .01. Thraustochytrid is a promising tool during oil spill because it has the capacity to adsorb oil.

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.