Friday, September 13, 2013

13/09/13: Aller Aqua's aquafeed R&D facility; MSC launches consultation on fisheries; blobfish voted world's ugliest creature

The Aller Aqua Group has founded a new research and development (R&D) facility.

The trial station Aller Aqua Research (AAR) GmbH will be located in Buesum, Germany embedded into the Science and Technology Park (mariCUBE) in close proximity to the aquaculture research institute Gesellschaft fuer Marine Aquakultur GmbH.


Established 2 hours drive from Aller Aqua A/S in Christiansfeld, Denmark, the trial station consists of several recirculating aquaculture systems, ultra-modern laboratories for nutrient and trace element analysis, as well as equipment to target physiological and molecular issues. With respect to the volatile raw material market situation, it is of increasing importance for feed manufactures to evaluate new raw materials, particularly for aqua feeds. The innovative structure and set up makes AAR flexible for conducting comprehensive ingredient analysis and feeding trials.


The trial station enables Aller Aqua to perform trials with both fresh water and marine species under selectable environmental conditions. The concept behind AAR is to act as branch point, with an 'interactive' testing process for new feeds at the trial station and in commercial fish farms of Aller Aqua’s globally distributed customers. The foundation of AAR is a mile stone in Aller Aqua’s history and is a clear commitment towards customers’ needs for competitive quality feeds.


The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has launched a second round of public consultation on its proposals for improving its environmental standard for sustainable and well-managed fisheries. This online consultation will close on October 26, 2013.
 
This is the second, and final, opportunity for stakeholders to offer their views on proposals for changes to the fishery standard. Stakeholders will also have the opportunity to comment on other proposals for program improvements, including changes to the fisheries assessment process designed to reduce the time, cost and complexity of certification assessments. An early stage public consultation on the fisheries standard review topics took place in spring this year.

The blobfish has won a public vote to become the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, making the creature the world's unofficial ugliest animal.

The blobfish lives off the coast of south-eastern Australia and Tasmania, at depths of between 600 and 1,200 m, where atmospheric pressure is several dozen times higher than at sea level.

It feeds on crabs and lobsters and so suffers a significant threat from fishing trawlers. Although it is inedible itself, it gets caught up in the nets.

The campaign to save the world's ugliest creatures was started by biologist and TV presenter Simon Watt.

Watt worked with comedians, who created a YouTube campaign message for their chosen ugly animal. The public were then asked to vote for their favourite.

Check out the pictures on the link below. It's not pretty.
Marit Stormoen's PhD project focuses on the control of Pancreas Disease and salmon louse in the Norwegian aquaculture industry.
Pancreas Disease (PD) is a currently spreading along the Norwegian coast and is caused by Salmonid Alphavirus 3 (SAV3) or Salmonid Alphavirus 2. Stormoen compared the mortality rate in Norwegian fish farms with and without PD respectively during the period from 2003-2007. Mortality in farms with PD declined from 2004 to 2007 but there were still large variations in mortality rates between the different farms. Stormoen's analyses also showed that it was not just the water temperature that affected on farms with PD, but also the season. The highest mortality rate was registered during the spring.


Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2013-09-disease-norwegian-salmon-aquaculture-emphasis.html#jCp
Aquaculture - workers harvest catfish from the...
Aquaculture - workers harvest catfish from the Delta Pride Catfish farms in Mississippi. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
 
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