Apparent abundance of yellowfin and bigeye tuna in the inshore, off shore and near oceanic ranges around Ceylon

Sri Lanka entered oceanic longline fishery in 1967 and have limited the areas of operation to the central equatorial belt, thus limiting their fishery to the yellowfin and bigeye tunas. Sri Lanka while developing her coastal fishery took a leap into oceanic longlining and in view of her programme for accelerated development of the fishing industry, has to fill the gap between the two fisheries by exploiting the intermediate range (off shore and near oceanic) which would chiefly be for tunas and sharks. The present paper has been prepared in this context, utilizing available data and information on the tuna longline fishery in the inshore (approximately 6-15 miles), off shore (approximately 15-100 miles) and near oceanic (approximately 100-300 miles) ranges (Fig, 1).

Effect of replacement of fish meal with soybean meal plus supplementary enzymes on growth performance, survival rate and apparent digestibility of rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

This study was carried out to measure the effects of a supplementary multi enzyme on growth performance , survival rate and apparent protein digestibility of rainbow trout fed some diets containing different amounts of soy bean meal. Five exprimental diets with replacement of 25, 50, 75 and 100 percent of fish meal protein by soy bean meal protein were made and 0, 500 and 1000 ppm dosages of supplementary multi enzyme had used in each of them. By the means a diet with fish meal as the only source of protein has used as the control. So this study had 13 treatments. The trouts in 89.40±4.01 gr mean weight were stocked in 39 experimental fiberglass tanks in abundance of 30 fish per any tank. These specimens fed experimental diets for 8 weeks and ten of them in each tank fed same diets which added Cr2O3 to them for one more week to measure the apparent protein digestibility in them. The results shown that supplementary multi enzyme (Avizyme) which contains Protease , Amylase and Xylanase , caused increases in growth performance , survival rate and apparent protein digestibility in trouts which fed soybean meal. Also this study shown that using 1000 ppm of Avizyme in diets which containing soybean meal had the best results and the diet which contained 39 % soybean meal with this amount of enzymes, had no significant differences by the control in any of the studied factors.

Impacts of CO2 enrichment on growth and photosynthesis in freshwater and marine diatoms

The physiological responses of Nitzschia palea Kutzing, a freshwater diatom, to elevated CO2 were investigated and compared with those of a marine diatom, Chaetoceros muelleri Lemmermann previously reported. Elevated CO2 concentration to 700 mu l/L increased the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and lowered the pH in the cultures of N. palea, thus enhancing the growth by 4%-20% during the whole growth period. High CO2-grown N. palea cells showed lower levels of dark respiration rates and higher I (k) values. Light-saturated photosynthetic rates and photosynthetic efficiencies decreased in N. palea with the doubling CO2 concentration in airflow to the bottom of cultures, although the doubling CO2 concentration in airflow to the surface cultures had few effects on these two photosynthetic parameters. N. palea cells were found to be capable of using HCO3 (-) in addition to gaseous CO2, and the CO2 enrichment decreased their affinity for HCO3 (-) and CO2. Although doubled CO2 level would enhance the biomass of N. palea and C. muelleri to different extents, compared with the marine diatom, it had a significant effect on the specific growth rates of N. palea. In addition, the responses of photosynthetic parameters of N. palea to doubled CO2 concentration were almost opposite to those of C. muelleri.

Effects of solar UV radiation on diurnal photosynthetic performance and growth of Gracilaria lemaneiformis (Rhodophyta)

Previous studies on diurnal photosynthesis of macroalgal species have shown that at similar levels of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR, 400-700nm) the photosynthetic rate is lower in the afternoon than in the morning. However, the impacts of solar ultraviolet radiation (UVR, 280-400nm) have been little considered. We investigated the diurnal photosynthetic behaviour of the economically significant red alga Gracilaria lemaneiformis in the absence or presence of UV-A+B or UV-B with a flow-through system. While UV-A and UV-B, respectively, inhibited noontime Pmax by 22% and 14% on the sunny days, UV-A during sunrise (PAR below about 50Wm-2) increased the net photosynthesis by about 8% when compared with PAR alone. UV-A + PAR also resulted in higher apparent photosynthetic efficiency in the morning than in the afternoon period than PAR alone. Nevertheless, integrated daytime photosynthetic production under solar PAR alone was higher than with either PAR + UV-A+B or PAR + UV-A. Relative growth rate in the long term (9 days) matched the integrated photosynthetic production in that UV-A led to 9-15% and UV-B to 19-22% reduction, respectively. UV-absorbing compounds were found to be higher in the thalli exposed to PAR+UV-A+B than under PAR alone, reflecting a protective response to UVR.

Light histories influence the impacts of solar ultraviolet radiation on photosynthesis and growth in a marine diatom, Skeletonema costatum

Phytoplanktonic species acclimated to high light are known to show less photoinhibition. However, little has been documented on how cells grown under indoor conditions for decades without exposure to UV radiation (UVR, 280-400 nm) would respond differently to solar UVR compared to those in situ grown under natural solar radiation. Here, we have shown the comparative photosynthetic and growth responses to solar UVR in an indoor-(IS) and a naturally grown (WS) Skeletonema costatum type. In short-term experiment (<1 day), phi(PSII) and photosynthetic carbon fixation rate were more inhibited by UVR in the IS than in the WS cells. The rate of UVR-induced damages of PSII was faster and their repair was significantly slower in IS than in WS. Even under changing solar radiation simulated for vertical mixing, solar UVR-induced higher inhibition of photosynthetic rate in IS than in WS cells. During long-term (10 days) exposures to solar radiation, the specific growth rate was much lower in IS than WS at the beginning, then increased 3 days later to reach an equivalent level as that of WS. UVR-induced inhibition of photosynthetic carbon fixation in the IS was identical with that of WS at the end of the long-term exposure. The photosynthetic acclimation was not accompanied with increased contents of UV-absorbing compounds, indicating that repair processes for UVR-induced damages must have been accelerated or upgraded. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.