A Comparison of Two Methods for Enhancing the Recovery of Seagrasses into Propellor Scars: Mechanical Injection of a Nutrient and Growth Hormone Solution vs. Defecation by Roosting Seabirds: Final Report.

Based on the recovery rates for Thalassia testudinum measured in this study for scars of these excavation depths and assuming a linear recovery horizon, we estimate that it would take ~ 6.9 years (95% CI. = 5.4 to 9.6 years) for T. testudinum to return to the same density as recorded for the adjacent undisturbed population. The application of water soluble fertilizers and plant growth hormones by mechanical injection into the sediments adjacent to ten propellor scars at Lignumvitae State Botanical Site did not significantly increase the recovery rate of Thalassia testudinum or Halodule wrightii. An alternative method of fertilization and restoration of propellor scars was also tested by a using a method of “compressed succession” where Halodule wrightii is substituted for T. testudinum in the initial stages of restoration. Bird roosting stakes were placed among H.wrightii bare root plantings in prop scars to facilitate the defecation of nitrogen and phosphorus enriched feces. In contrast to the fertilizer injection method, the bird stakes produced extremely high recovery rates of transplanted H. wrightii. We conclude that use of a fertilizer/hormone injection machine in the manner described here is not a feasible means of enhancing T. testudinum recovery in propellor scars on soft bottom carbonate sediments. Existing techniques such as the bird stake approach provide a reliable, and inexpensive alternative method that should be considered for application to restoration of seagrasses in these environments. Document contains 40 pages)

Entwicklung des Aufwandes in der deutschen Garnelenfischerei

The German brown shrimp fishery experienced considerable changes during the recent four decades. Contrarily to the decline in number of vessels the technical standard and size of the shrimping vessels improved and the fishing power as well as the effort of the single boats have strongly increased. As fishing effort by the whole fleet may be calculated different ways, trends in total effort may differ according to the relevant author´s approach. The present study tries to estimate the total trawled area by the fleet in the mid fifties as well as in 1996. The result is that there seems to be no change in the order of magnitude of the total trawled area for the German shrimping fleet itself, though shifts in geographical areas as within seasons were reported. However, the development of the Danish and Dutch shrimping fleets have contributed to an increase in terms of annually trawled area. Therefore pooled fishing effort must have increased considerably.

Impact evaluation of community-based coastal resource management projects in the Philippines

The benefits of decentralizing the management of coastal resources to local governments and resource users have long been recognized, but the best systems for coastal resources management depend on many factors. A number of community-based management and co-management projects were started in the Philippines in the early 1980s. This report describes a comparative assessment of these projects to determine where improvements can be made in the design of future community-based coastal resource management projects. Early and continuing involvement by project beneficiaries is one of the factors that contributes to the success of the project development, implementation, and evaluation.

Age, Growth, Life History, and Fisheries of the Sand Sole, Psettichthys melanostictus

Sand sole, Psettichthys melanostictus, is a small but important part of the west coast groundfish fishery. It has never been assessed and there is a limited amount of biological data for the species. We provide the first estimates of age and growth for California populations and compare them with studies from other areas. We found that sand sole is a rapidly growing species which may show a strong latitudinal gradient in growth rate. We also found evidence of a recent, strong cohortrelated shift in the sex ratio of the population towards fewer females. In addition we examined data from the Washington, Oregon, and California commercial fishery to make an initial determination of population status. We found that catch per unit of effort in commercial trawls experienced a decline over time but has rebounded in recent years, except central California (the southern part of its commercial range), where the decline has not reversed.

Feed utilization and wastage in semi-intensive pond culture of mahseer, Tor putitora. (Ham.)

Mahseer, Tor putitora with 12.75, 12.11, and 12.02g of initial weight were fou · J to attain a net weight gain of 12.0 kg, ll.5 kg, and 11.4 kg respectively in pond-1 (commercial feed), pond-2 (farm-made feed), and pond-3 (farm-made feed), respectively against 78.2 kg, 70.3 kg, and 68.1 kg feed fed. Gross energy contents in fish were 1359.3 Kcal/kg, 1281.5 Kcal/kg and 1266.6 Kcal/kg, respectively in pond-1, pond-2, and pond-3 against 3630.4, 3876.9 and 3570.5 Kcal/kg energy in the feed fed. Only 9.4%, 10.5% and 13.7% of the protein, and 8.9%, 3.4% and 3.3% of the lipid fed to fish were converted into muscle respectively in pond-1, pond-2 and pond-3. It was observed that the higher the protein content in feed, the lower the rate of conversion in muscle; the same was also true for lipid. It is supposed that feed derived wastes contribute potentially to water quality deterioration and eutrophication. Lower feed conversion, higher nitrogenous and phosphatic concentrations and higher plankton biomass in the ponds are all supportive to this observation.

Management of euglenophytes in aquaculture ponds for improvement of fish production

Four experiments each with three replications were conducted in 12 experimental ponds to control the euglenophytes bloom viz. treatment 1 (T1, covering of one third of the water surface by duckweed (Lemna minor); treatment 2 (T2), application of 123.5 kg lime/ha/month; treatment 3 (T3), use of both duckweed as in T1 and lime as in T2; treatment 4 (T4) was considered as control where neither duckweed nor lime was applied. Fishes comprising of rohu (Labeo rohita), catla (Catla catla), mrigal ( Cirrhinus cirrhosus), silver carp (Hypophthalmichthys molitrix) and silver barb (Barbonymus gonionotus) were stocked at the rate of 1080 fishes/ha with the species ratio of 8:4:6:9:13, respectively. The lowest cell density of euglenophytes was found in the ponds of T3 followed by T2, and T1. In the ponds of T3, euglenophytes bloom did not occur possibly due to alkaline pH, shade and nutrient absorption by duckweed. Thin bloom was observed in the ponds of T1 where pH was neutral or slightly alkaline. The grazing on euglenophytes by the silver carp and silver barb also had some contribution in controlling the bloom. Growth of fishes was comparatively higher in the ponds of T3 and T1, which might be due to better water quality and availability of adequate food while the lower fish growth as recorded from the ponds of T4 might be due to euglenophytes bloom. Thick bloom inhibited light penetration which hampered photosynthesis and growth of other phytoplankton that are the preferred food of planktivorous fishes. Mortality of fishes in ponds having euglenophytes bloom was possibly due to formation of anoxic situation in the early morning or due to the combined effect of anoxic situation and toxic metabolites secretion by the euglenophytes.

Isolation and culture in artificial media of Lagenidium from Penaeus monodon larvae

Fungal infection of P. monodon larvae is a problem in hatchery operations. The fungus, which attacks the nauplius to postlarval stages and causes up to 100% mortality, has been tentatively identified as belonging to the genus Lagenidium . This pathogenic organism has recently been isolated and cultured. A description is given of the fungus, and features of its biology and pathology are discussed.

The zonation of soft-bottom sediments in Gorgan Bay (Caspian Sea) using macrobenthos as indicator of ecological health

In this study, in order to assess the ecological health status and zoning of soft bottom of Gorgan Bay, the spatial and temporal distribution of macrofauna and their relationship with environmental stress were investigated. Sediment samples were collected using a Van Veen grab at 22 sampling points, seasonally during 2012-2013. The averages (±SD) of the percentages of sand, silt, clay and TOM (Total Organic Matter) in the sediment samples were determined (44.4± 15, 53.4 ± 14, and 2.2 ±2.2 and 7.2% ± 1.6, respectively). Our results showed that mean (range) of Al, As, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb and Zn in the sediment samples were 1.2 % (0.4-2.1), 4.8 (2.5- 10.3) ppm, 10.5 (4.4-16.9) ppm, 1 (0.4 – 1.6) % , 13.6 (6.2-21.5) ppm, 9.1 (4.7-12.9) ppm and 23.9 (3.1-39.4) ppm, respectively. In spring, both Al and Ni were higher than the guideline level. In the event that arsenic was exceeds the guidelines in summer. In this study, 14 species of macrofauna from 12 families were identified. Polychaeta with 3 species was the most dominant group in terms of abundance. The four most abundant taxa making up 85% of all specimens (Streblospio gynobranchiata, Tubificidae, Hediste versicolor and Abra segmentum). The western area were characterized by the higher species diversity (H', 1.94). So Gorgan Bay presents transitional macrobenthic assemblages that are spatially distributed along substrate gradients .The mean of Shannon index, BENTIX, BO2A, AMBI and M-AMBI in the bay was 1.3, 2.2, 0.4, 3.2 and 0.65 respectively. According to the results of these indices, ecological status of the western part of the bay assessed better than the other parts. According to the results of the nmMDS (non-metric Multidimensional Scaling), PCA (Principal Components Analysis), the map of distribution of heavy metals and the map of the ecological status , it seems Gorgan Bay is divided into two separate zones (the eastern and the western parts).M-AMBI finaly introduced reliable index for assessing the ecological status of the Bay.

Nutrient salts in the United Arab Emirates waters (the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman)

This paper deals with the levels and distributions of nutrient salts in the United Arab Emirates waters. Water samples were collected bimonthly during 1994-1995 from the marine environment of the United Arab Emirates, which extends more than 800km along the Arabian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Concentrations of ammonium, nitrite, nitrate, phosphate, silicate, as well as total concentrations of total dissolved nitrogen, phosphorus, and silicon in the area were scattered in the ranges: (ND-6.32; mean: 0.84 µg-at N/l), ND-3.02; mean: 0.42 µg-at N/l), (ND-10.88; mean: 1.18 µg-at N/1), (ND-4.22; mean: 0.62 µg-at P/l), (1.14-28.80; mean: 6.52 µg-at Si/l), (1.52-39.58; mean: 12.28 µg-at N/l), (0.40-4.98; mean: 1.07 µg-at P/l), and (2.77-44.74; mean: 13.02 Si/l) respectively. Of inorganic nitrogen species, ammonium was the highest in the Arabian Gulf waters and nitrate was the highest at the Gulf of Oman. The dissolved inorganic nitrogen total species, phosphate and silicate amounted to 16.4, 47.6, 56.5% respectively, of the concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus and silicon in the Arabian Gulf and 22.6, 64.4, 44.9% respectively, in the Gulf of Oman, indicating that more than 80% of nitrogen was present in organic forms. Distributions of nutrient in the two regions were higher in the summer season and lower in the winter season due to the oxidation of organic materials. Regional distributions revealed higher values for nitrite (1.3 times), nitrate (2.8 times), phosphate (2.2 times), total dissolved nitrogen (1.3 times), total dissolved phosphorus (1.6 times), and total dissolved silicon (1.3 times) in the Gulf of Oman compared to the Arabian Gulf, indicating more oligotrophic conditions at the Arabian Gulf Whereas no distinct patterns of distribution were observed in the Arabian Gulf waters, an increase in the seaward direction was measured at the Gulf of Oman. Vertical distributions indicated a general increase with depth in the two regions. The mean ratios for total concentrations of phosphorus, nitrogen, and silicon in the Arabian Gulf (1: 11.6: 12.6) and the Gulf of Oman (1: 10.1: 11.8) were lower than the Redfield ratio.

Taxonomía y distribución de los poliquetos pelágicos del Atlántico Sudoccidental

This work is based on the analysis of 420 planktonic samples of 7 oceanopraphic cruises distributed over the Argentine, Uruguayan and South brasilian continental shelf (SW Atlantic ocean), as well as from some oceanic sectors, adjacent to the continental slope. Vertical hauls were performed in all stations from 100 m depth to surface, except in the Walter Herwig cruise (where vertical hauls were predominantly performed out of slope sectors, between 300 and 500 m depth to surface) and Productividad cruise in which only surface waters were hauled. A list of 27 species are determined, corresponding to 5 families: Iospilidae (3 species), Lopadorrhynchidae (4), Alciopidae (9), Typhloscolecidae (5) and Tomopteridae (6). Larvae and epitokous forms of benthonic species are not taken into account. The genus Iospilus is revised, Pariospilus and Iospilopsis being considered their synonyms; the identity of Pariospilus affinis Viguier is maintained, being transferred to the genus Iospilus. The species Vanadis studeri Apstein is redescribed and its synonymy is established. The taxonomic value of the apical glands of Tomopteris species is discussed and some specimens are found to coincide with T. kefersteini in relation to the mentioned glands. All the species found in this work are described and illustrated, a systematic key being added for their identification. Considering the vertical nature of the hauls, it was not possible to specify the habitats of the different species; for this reason they are grouped as species from subtropical and subantartic areas of influence. The first group, made up of 17 species, shows and evident graduation in its latitudinal distribution, some of them being more restricted in their distribution than the others. The second group, of 4 species, is found south to the tropical convergence, in transitional waters, towards cold sectors. The third group, of 6 species, is found to be distributed all along the continental shelf, in subtropical and subantartic regions, and extending their distribution northwards, possibly related to deep water levels. The general scheme is coincident with the distribution of other planktonic groups (Copepods, Euphausiids). As a general feature, neither coastal nor shelf water specimens of pelagic Polychaeta were found, with exception of T. septentrionalis. A comparison with the results in Tebble's paper (1960) in the southwest Atlantic ocean is made, 12 of our species being coincidently found in the same hydrological area by that author. The drift of the main water masses of the South Atlantic ocean is accepted as a possible cause for the distribution of the pelagic Polychaeta of the southwest Atlantic regions.