Status of Southeast Asia's marine sharks and rays

In Southeast Asia, elasmobranchs are particularly threatened. We synthesized knowledge from the peer-reviewed and gray literature on elasmobranchs in the region, including their fisheries, status, trade, biology, and management. We found that 59% of assessed species are threatened with extinction and 72.5% are in decline; rays were more threatened than sharks. Research and conservation is complicated by the socioeconomic contexts of the countries, geopolitical issues in the South China Sea, and the overcapacity and multispecies nature of fisheries that incidentally capture elasmobranchs. The general paucity of data, funds, personnel, and enforcement hinders management. Reduced capacity in the general fishery sector and marine protected areas of sufficient size (for elasmobranchs and local enforcement capabilities) are among recommendations to strengthen conservation.     

Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity in Brazilian Hot Spots

Hot spots in Brazil include a variety of ecosystems, such as mangroves, forests, and the Brazilian savannah, locally called cerrado. Some of the rural populations in these hot spots are the caiçaras in SE Atlantic Forest coast, and the caboclos in the Amazon. In this study, we are concerned especially with the knowledge of caiçaras and caboclos, associated with practices that might have implications for management. Data were gathered through interviews with adults at the various communities studied, and through systematic observations, including samples of fishing trips and the mapping of fishing spots used in the Atlantic Forest coast. The use of resources from the surrounding vegetation includes collection of plants, cultivated fruit gardens, the swidden system, and a careful and managed extraction of fibres. Among animal resources, food taboos seem to be useful practices that might contribute to the maintenance of local natural resources. Potential management practices should be locally developed, such as the informal division of fishing spots in Atlantic Forest sites, and the maintenance of the diversity of cassava varieties in both the Atlantic Forest and Amazonian areas.     

三峡水库水质保护与渔业利用关系探讨

捕捞渔业和不投饵养鱼对水体不会造成污染,并在一定程度上具有抑制藻类生长、减缓和控制富营养化发生的功能。投饵养鱼和施肥养鱼可增加富营养化发生的几率,但通过控制网箱的数量和布局,限定养殖种类和密度,提高低污染饲料质量,采取科学的投喂方式等措施,可减少对水体的负面影响。适度发展渔业是利用三峡水库水、土地和生物资源的有效途径之一,不仅可促进库区产业发展,增加库区移民就业和收入,而且对水库水生态环境有一定的保护作用。 要做到有序利用水面资源,必须尽快制定科学的渔业发展规划,加强渔业管理指导渔业生产,使渔业生产与环境保护、移民安置和水库其他功能相协调。     

松花江渔业生态环境特征与质量评价

松花江是中国东北重要的渔业生产水域,监测与评价其水质,掌握渔业生态环境特征和水环境状况具有重要意义.在松花江干流布设23个监测断面,通过现场理化因子和浮游生物分析与调查,并结合获取的数据,依据国家地表水3类标准和渔业水质标准,采用综合评价指数(P)、有机污染综合评价指数(A)及生物多样性指数(H)等对松花江水质及渔业生态环境特征进行评价.结果表明,松花江干流水中高锰酸盐指数平均值在5.0 mg/L以下,溶解氧质量浓度平均值在8.0 mg/L以上.浮游植物有102种,其中硅藻门种类最多,占47.8％;浮游动物包括轮虫、枝角类、桡足类和原生动物,其中轮虫种类最多,占57.6％.冰封季节是鱼类生态脆弱期,经过多年的治理和污水截流,松花江干流水质逐渐好转,P值为1.05,A值为1.25,浮游植物H值为2.48,浮游动物H值为1.58,整体上已由中度污染向轻度污染转变,渔业生态环境和鱼类资源逐渐得到恢复,生物多样性明显增加.松花江水环境质量的改善为鱼类生长、繁殖提供了重要条件.     

Application of High-Volume Fly Ash Concrete to Marine Structures

A new material with high content of fly ash named 'Ashcrete' has been developed. to examine the applicability of Ashcrete to marine structures, strength characteristics, resistance to sea water attack, and safety in the marine environment have been studied. the following results have been obtained:

1) the strength characteristics of high-volume fly ash concrete depend upon the type and proportions of chemical activators as well as curing conditions.

2) Ashcrete using sodium chloride (NaCI) as a chemical activator shows high initial strength and good strength development with age.

3) Ashcrete containing NaCI activator shows good resistance to sea water from the viewpoint of its strength characteristics, volume changes and microstructurcs.

4) Since 1980 many types of large-scale artificial reefs made of Ashcrete have been installed in the sea. As a result of long-term studies and underwater observations, the Japanese Government has demonstrated the durability of the material, safety in the marine environment and attractiveness to fish.

5) It is therefore proposed that Ashcrete might be used in constructing large-scale sea mounts in deep water for the purpose of generating upwelling.     

Estuarine management strategies and the predictability of ecosystem changes

The Dutch Delta Region (S-W Netherlands) originally consisted of interconnected estuaries, interfacing the rivers Rhine, Meuse and Schelde with the North Sea. The ecosystems were immature, with physical rather than biological control of population dynamics. Main functions were shipping and shellfisheries. An emergent function of the interconnected estuaries was the buffering and upgrading of riverborne substances before they entered the sea. Execution of the Delta Project in the period 1960–1986 resulted in isolation of several water systems disconnected from rivers and sea, and loss of gradients within these systems. Population dynamics were now controlled by chemical and biological rather than physical factors. Vulnerability to external perturbation increased. These changes also affected the buffering capacity, i.e. reduced the utility of the area as stabiliser of the geosystem. Recreational use and appreciation of natural values increased, potentially conflicting with shipping and shellfisheries. Retrospective analysis of the environmental policy and management revealed three consecutive strategies in the Delta Project. 1. Reactive one-issue management, focusing on safety against flooding only. This strategy aimed at complete closure of the estuaries thus transforming them into fresh water lakes. It has destroyed feed-backs and buffering between coastal and inland waters. This strategy has not promoted sustainable development and has increased the vulnerability of the area to future catastrophes. 2. Protective bio-ecological management focused on the preservation of existing values of landscape and environment, and resulted in the maintenance of saline conditions and preservation of marshes by shore protection measures. The drawback of this passive orientation to existing values Ôwhere they are nowÕ is the necessity of continuous intensive care because the natural adaptive ability is not being restored. 3. Constructive geo-ecological management is based on understanding functional properties within and between ecosystems as integrated elements of the landscape structure. This strategy aims at environmental protection, restoration and development of values Ôwhere they must beÕ. Re-establishment of gradients by e.g. re-introducing tidal influence and by restoring salt marshes should contribute to sustainable development.     

Econometric modeling of fisheries with complex life histories: Avoiding biological management failures

Economics of the fishery has focused on the wastefulness of common pool resource exploitation. Pure open access fisheries dissipate economic rents and degrade biological stocks. Biologically managed fisheries also dissipate rents but are thought to hold biological stocks at desired levels. We develop and estimate an empirical bioeconomic model of the Gulf of Mexico gag fishery that questions the presumptive success of biological management. Unlike previous bioeconomic life history studies, we provide a way to circumvent calibration problems by embedding our estimation routine directly in the dynamic bioeconomic model. We nest a standard biological management model that accounts for complex life history characteristics of the gag. Biological intuition suggests that a spawning season closure will reduce fishing pressure and increase stocks, and simulations of the biological management model confirm this finding. However, simulations of the empirical bioeconomic model suggest that these intended outcomes of the spawning closure do not materialize. The behavioral response to the closure appears to be so pronounced that it offsets the restriction in allowable fishing days. Our results indicate that failure to account for fishing behavior may play an important role in fishery management failures.     

改进的QuEChERS-高效液相色谱法测定水产品中16种多环芳烃

采用改进的QuEChERS,对水产样品进行提取、净化,用高效液相色谱仪-荧光/紫外检测器串联检测,建立了同时测定水产品中16种多环芳烃的高效液相色谱分析方法.样品经乙腈提取,Florisil+C18小柱净化,Waters PAH色谱柱分离,以乙腈-水为流动相进行梯度洗脱,外标法定量.本方法中,16种多环芳烃在各自相应浓度范围内线性关系良好,相关系数不低于0.999,检出限为0.1—3.6μg·kg-1.采用该方法在鲤鱼、对虾和牡蛎中进行加标回收实验,回收率在75.0%—118.2%范围内,相对标准偏差(RSD)为2.6%—13.7%.应用本方法对环渤海湾的水产样品进行了调查分析,发现部分样品中含有PAHs,含量为2.11—147μg·kg-1,为下一步开展相关风险评估工作打下了良好工作基础.     

鳡鱼河的鱼类资源及渔业利用

根据1990～1991年调查,鳡鱼河现有鱼类39种和亚种,分别隶属于3目8科32属。其中新记录7种,在鱼类区系成份中鲤科占绝对优势,鳅科占第2位,其地理分布表现出四川东、西部鱼类过渡性特点,鳡鱼河鱼类资源破坏严重,亟待加强保护。     

The Brown Trout Population at Loch Fleet Eight Years After Liming

At the start of the Loch Fleet Project in 1984, the Loch and the upper 7 km of its efferent stream were found to be devoid of trout (Salmo trutta) as a result of acidification. Following the liming treatments applied to the catchment, from 1986 the formerly toxic water quality conditions (pH ∼ 4.5, calcium ∼ 1 mgl^-1, elevated aluminium and heavy metal levels) were eliminated, and trout were reintroduced on two occasions, in 1987 and 1988. A total of 520 fish were stocked, at a combined density equivalent to 5.5 kg ha^-1. Surveys of the loch and stream populations were carried out annually until 1993 to monitor their development, using a range of techniques, including electrofishing, gill-netting, seine-netting, spawner trapping and mark-release recapture methods. Length and scale- analysis were used to investigate fish growth.

The trout population in Loch Fleet expanded rapidly as a result of natural spawning in the loch's main feeder stream, augmented by the use of an artificial spawning bed which was constructed at the loch outlet in 1990. in mid-1983 the stock density, estimated by mark-recapture census methods, had increased to 24.9 kg ha^-1. Poor recruitment in the years 1991-93, however, reduced the rate of expansion and resulted in a population comprising mainly older individuals. the poor recruitment in these years was not fully explained but was not caused by water quality and was most likely a result of fry washout by spring spates.

Fish growth rates were high initially and were estimated on the basis of the Elliott trout growth model to be optimal for the prevailing water temperature regime of the loch. By 1991, growth rates had fallen, probably as a result of competition for food, but showed signs of recovery towards the end of the study period in 1993, following the period of lower population densities of young fish.

Trout rapidly repopulated the loch's outlet stream after 1987 but have remained sparse and have shown no signs of spawning within most of the stream. Water analyses have shown that the liming of the Loch Fleet catchment has minimal impact on downstream waters when flows are high, so that potentially toxic acid episodes have not been prevented.