United States-Japan Natural Resources Panel on Aquaculture: 47th Scientific Symposium

Oyster spat growing on shells in the aquaculture lab. Credit: Lisa Tossey (University of Delaware)

The NOAA Fisheries Office of Aquaculture invites abstract submissions for oral presentations at the 47^th UJNR Scientific Symposium to be held in Okinawa, Japan. The UJNR Aquaculture Panel is a cooperative research exchange between the U.S. and Japan, jointly addressing environmental and technical issues that affect the aquaculture industries of both nations.

The 47^th UJNR Aquaculture Symposium is the last year of the current three-year theme of "Marine Aquaculture in a Changing Environment." Environmental change impacts aquaculture in many ways. In some areas, nutrient pollution is driving eutrophication and dead zones, or in some cases a lack of nutrients is causing oligotrophication, ocean acidification is changing water chemistry and climate change is already influencing our food supply, fresh water availability, weather and way of life. Aquaculture will be impacted by, and can also impact, these environmental changes over various scales. Aquaculture of finfish, shellfish and seaweed have different threats, benefits, and opportunities related to environmental change.

This year’s presentations should focus on the use of science and aquaculture technologies to increase food production to offset deficits from losses of wild fisheries and terrestrial agriculture due to environmental change or to aid in the recovery or enhance wild and farmed seafood impacted by environmental change and perturbation.

Tentative Agenda

Presentation Documents

Attendees to UJNR will give 15-20 minute presentations on their work. Abstracts and an annotated bibliography of 3-5 key references are due September 13, 2019 to provide background and context for your presentation.

Submit Abstracts and annotated bibliographies to Clete Otoshi at NMFS.Aquaculture.Science@noaa.gov with the subject line "UJNR Submission."

Guidelines

Abstracts should be no more than 500 words in the style of the example below.

Example Abstract

Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture (IMTA) as a Countermeasure for Coastal Oligotrophication in Japan

Satoshi Watanabe¹*, Natsuki Hasegawa¹, Yuka Ishihi¹, Toshinori Takashi², Tomomi Mizuno³, and Junya Higano⁴

¹ National Research Institute of Aquaculture, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 422-1 Nakatsuhamaura, Minamiise, Mie, 516-0193, Japan

² Seikai National Fisheries Research Institute, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 1551-8 Taira, Nagasaki, Nagasaki, 851-2213, Japan

³ Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Mie Prefectural Government, 13 Komei, Tsu, Mie 514-8570, Japan

⁴ National Research Institute of Fisheries and Environment of Inland Sea, Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency, 2-17-5 Maruishi, Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima 739-0452, Japan

Corresponding author: swat at affrc.go.jp

ABSTRACT

Intensification of aquaculture production has caused environmental deterioration associated with water and sediment eutrophication, resulting in sporadic mass fish kills in some parts of the world. In contrast, eutrophication has been reduced in coastal waters of Japan because of diminished production and improved feeding efficiency of finfish aquaculture and/or mitigation efforts that regulate the allowable amount of terrestrial nitrogen/phosphorus discharge to the sea. Red seabream, Pagrus major, aquaculture production, for instance, peaked in the early 1990s and has been in a decreasing trend since 2000 in Japan. The levels of surface dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) have gradually decreased, while phosphorus levels have been rather constant in Ise Bay since the 1990s, possibly causing a nutrient imbalance for primary production. Surface chlorophyll a levels have been in a decreasing trend since the 1990s, and the occurrence frequency of harmful algal bloom has decreased by 90% since 1979 in Ise Bay. The oligotrophication (relative to the past) of coastal waters is considered to have brought about a decline in carrying capacity of the coastal environment, causing in part a continuous decrease in some coastal fishery resources and reduced productivity in molluscan and algal aquaculture. The national production of the Manila clam, Ruditapes philippinarum, for example, has continuously declined for thirty years, falling below 10% of the peak value marked in the mid-1980s. In Ariake Bay, DIN deficiency causes bleaching of cultured nori, Pyropia yezoensis, severely reducing the market value especially towards the end of the culture season in early spring. Integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is an aquaculture approach that combines culture of economically important species from different trophic levels, typically finfish, organic extractive species (e.g. bivalve) and inorganic extractive species (e.g. seaweed). Along with reinforcement of economic stability, one of the important goals of IMTA is to mitigate effluent load from finfish culture for environmental integrity. In contrast, we are trying to develop techniques to use IMTA to compensate for the reduced aquaculture productivity of bivalves and seaweeds associated with the coastal oligotrophication. The amount of NH4+-N excretion from the red seabream aquaculture in Hasamaura Cove, Mie Prefecture was estimated to be 9.2 t/year. The amount of nitrogen extracted by green alga, Monostroma nitidum (Japanese common name is Hitoegusa) aquaculture in the cove was estimated to be 2.9% of the red seabream NH4+-N excretion. M. nitidum was found to have twice as high a nitrogen content in Hasamaura Cove than those cultured in nearby bays without finfish aquaculture. The red seabream NH4+-N excretion is equivalent to the amount of nitrogen in 2071 t/year (wet weight) of the Manila clam suspended culture production. Thus, IMTA has a big potential to enhance aquaculture production by using what would otherwise be fish waste.

Annotated Bibliography of Key References

An annotated bibliography with 3-5 key references on the topic of your symposium presentation along with your abstract is required prior to the meeting. These annotated bibliographies replace the literature exchange previously done by UJNR. The goal is to focus the exchange of literature citations on the Science Symposium topic and to allow for experts in the field to highlight key papers from each country to assist their counterparts to explore in more detail references specific to individual presentation topics. This will be especially helpful to the U.S. members as much of the literature published in Japanese is difficult for U.S. researchers to access or understand.

The annotations for the 3-5 references that the author considers key works in the field should provide a brief description of the work, the results and the reasons why the author considers it a key work. Key works should relate to the topic of your presentation and could be your own work or that of other scientists. When possible, Key works should be from your own country. An example is given below to aid in formatting. Reprints or links to key papers would be appreciated, but are not absolutely necessary.

Example of annotated Key Reference

Chopin, T., C. Yarish, R. Wilkes, E. Belyea, S. Lu, and A. Mathieson. 1999.

Developing Porphyra/salmon integrated aquaculture for bioremediation and diversification of the aquaculture industry. Journal of Applied Phycology 11: 463–472.

This is one of the first papers on IMTA (referred to as integrated culture) combining salmon cage culture and Porphyra (currently Pyropia) species culture to alleviate the seasonal nutrient depletion by using the significant loading of salmon farms, which is then valued (wastes become fertilizers) and managed (competition for nutrients between desirable algal crops and problem species associated with severe disturbances). The development of integrated aquaculture systems is a positive initiative for optimizing the efficiency of aquaculture operations, while maintaining the health of coastal waters.

All material is to be provided in a standardized computer format (Microsoft Word), Times New Roman font, 12 pt font size, and one inch margins. The unedited abstracts and annotated bibliography will be available at the symposium. In addition, annotated bibliographies with each mini-paper will be published in the Symposium Proceedings.

Travel Awards for U.S. Participants 

UNJR Travel Assistance

If you are interested in receiving travel assistance* for the 47^th UJNR symposium, the following must be completed and submitted to Clete Otoshi (NMFS.Aquculture.Science@noaa.gov) by September 13, 2019 with the subject line "UJNR Submission." Notifications will be made shortly after the deadline.

To apply for travel assistance please submit a presentation title and abstract and answer the following questions:

1. Are you looking for an active collaboration with a Japanese scientist? If so, what area(s) are you interested in collaborating?
2. Do you foresee yourself continuing this collaboration for an extended period of time and participating in UJNR in the future?
3. Have you presented at a UJNR either in Japan or the US before? If so, what year and where?
4. Do you agree to submit the items outlined below on time?

We will be making travel awards based on three criteria:

1. How well your presentation topic relates to the symposia topic and matches with a Japanese presentation.
2. Desire to develop collaborative projects with the Japanese.
3. Past history with UJNR.

*NOTE: Federal employees are not eligible for this award.

Due Dates for U.S. Participants

By September 13, 2019:

1.  Presentation abstract (500 word limit).

2.  Annotated bibliography that contains 3-5 key references.

3.  Application for travel awards (if needed).

By April 1, 2020:

1. A 4-8 page mini-paper and annotated bibliography that covers the information you presented and will be published in a proceedings. Details are in a guide to authors.