The half-lives of biological activity of some pesticides in water

In the absence of analytical methods, the half-lives of biological activity of pesticides can be estimated by bioassays. To determine the half-lives of biological acivity of pesticides to fish, static bioassays were conducted in the laboratory with ten different formulations of pesticides using Labeo rohita as a bio-indicator. The half-lives of biological activity for ten different pesticides in soft water at pH 7.5 and 27°C, ranged from 4.6 days to 11.8 days. The half-life of biological activity of Sumithion 50% EC was only 4.6 days. In contrast, Dimecron 50% EC degraded very slowly and its half-life of biological activity on L. rohita was about 11.8 days. Sumithion 50% EC, Padan 50% SP, EPN 45% EC, Diazinon 40% EC and Diazinon 10 G degraded in less than five to seven days indicating that these pesticides are desirable for rice-fish culture. Contamination by pesticides with long-term residual toxicity in waters may eventually cause high levels of fish mortality.

Life cycle and biological parameters of several Brazilian Amazon fish species

This contribution summarizes knowledge on the biology (population dynamics, reproduction, ecology) of 25 fish species from the Lower Amazon, Brazil, based on data from a Brazilian-German field project (IARA) and a review of the literature.

Promotion of substrate based microbial biofilm in ponds: a low cost technology to boost fish production

Microbial biofilms have been found to increase fish production in ponds by increasing heterotrophic production through periphyton proliferation on available substrates. In this paper, the role of substrate based microbial biofilm in the production of Cyprinus carpio and Labeo rohita grown in ponds is investigated, using an easily available and biodegradable agricultural waste product (sugarcane bagasse) as substrate.

Biological reference points for managing kingfish, Scomberomorus commerson, in Oman

The 1987-1995 length composition of quarterly catches of Scomberomorus commerson (Lacepede 1800) was analyzed to determine various biological reference points for management purposes. These include: fishing mortality producing maximum yield-per-recruit in weight (F sub(max)), fishing mortality producing 50% relative mean mature biomass (F sub(50)), and fishing mortality producing recruits that would exactly replace their parent stock (F sub(rep)). F sub(max) provided misleading suggestions to increase fishing mortality on the stock which is currently at a low level. On the other hand, both F sub(50) and F sub(rep) provided acceptable results, suggesting reduction on the current fishing mortality by 17-40%.

Biological parameters, body length-weight and length-height relationships for various species in Greek waters

Biological/fisheries parameters (L sub(oo) M, F) are presented for four fish species (Gadiculus argenteus; Gaidropsarus mediterraneous; Symphurus ligulatus; Lepidorhombus boscii) as well as body length-weight and length-height relationships for 11 and 12 fish species, respectively, estimated from trawl samples collected using three different cod-ends (stretched mesh size: 14 mm and 20 mm diamond-shaped and 20 mm square-shaped) during 1993-1994, in the western Aegean and North Euboikos Gulf, Greece. The fisheries paramaters, estimated from length-frequency using the ELEFAN approach and software, are discussed in the light of recent information on the selectivity of the presently used trawl cod-end (14 mm diamond shaped)

Freshwater Biological Association 1929-1979. The first fifty years

Booklet telling the story of the FBA from its founding in 1929 until its Golden Jubilee in 1979. The booklet aimed to produce a readable account of those aspects of freshwater biology that have been among the main themes of the Association's research, as well as some aspects of its history and the philosophy guiding its foundation. The publication includes many images of the FBA's work and history as well as images and illustrations on lake ecology and applied science.

Simulation of Tail Weight Distributions in Biological Year 1986–2006 Landings of Brown Shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, from the Northern Gulf of Mexico Fishery

Size distribution within re- ported landings is an important aspect of northern Gulf of Mexico penaeid shrimp stock assessments. It reflects shrimp population characteristics such as numerical abundance of various sizes, age structure, and vital rates (e.g. recruitment, growth, and mortality), as well as effects of fishing, fishing power, fishing practices, sampling, size-grading, etc. The usual measure of shrimp size in archived landings data is count (C) the number of shrimp tails (abdomen or edible portion) per pound (0.4536 kg). Shrimp are marketed and landings reported in pounds within tail count categories. Statistically, these count categories are count class intervals or bins with upper and lower limits expressed in C. Count categories vary in width, overlap, and frequency of occurrence within the landings. The upper and lower limits of most count class intervals can be transformed to lower and upper limits (respectively) of class intervals expressed in pounds per shrimp tail, w, the reciprocal of C (i.e. w = 1/C). Age based stock assessments have relied on various algorithms to estimate numbers of shrimp from pounds landed within count categories. These algorithms required un- derlying explicit or implicit assumptions about the distribution of C or w. However, no attempts were made to assess the actual distribution of C or w. Therefore, validity of the algorithms and assumptions could not be determined. When different algorithms were applied to landings within the same size categories, they produced different estimates of numbers of shrimp. This paper demonstrates a method of simulating the distribution of w in reported biological year landings of shrimp. We used, as examples, landings of brown shrimp, Farfantepenaeus aztecus, from the northern Gulf of Mexico fishery in biological years 1986–2006. Brown shrimp biological year, Ti, is defined as beginning on 1 May of the same calendar year as Ti and ending on 30 April of the next calendar year, where subscript i is the place marker for biological year. Biological year landings encompass most if not all of the brown shrimp life cycle and life span. Simulated distributions of w reflect all factors influencing sizes of brown shrimp in the landings within a given biological year. Our method does not require a priori assumptions about the parent distributions of w or C, and it takes into account the variability in width, overlap, and frequency of occurrence of count categories within the landings. Simulated biological year distributions of w can be transformed to equivalent distributions of C. Our method may be useful in future testing of previously applied algorithms and development of new estimators based on statistical estimation theory and the underlying distribution of w or C. We also examine some applications of biological year distributions of w, and additional variables derived from them.