Q. How long is a snail?
A. One-foot long of course!
Being gastropods, they only have one foot!
Health firm warns fish fraud could have fatal consequences.
I read this article (source: http://www.fishupdate.com/m/fullstory.php/aid/18991/Health_firm_warns_fish_fraud_could_have_fatal_consequences.html) with interest because we really have deviated from fresh whole foods. So much of our food now come cut, filleted and packaged, that we no longer know what animal it came from and where. It might pay to buy whole fish from your local fish monger and learn to eat fish with bones.
Health firm warns fish fraud could have fatal consequences
THE ongoing controversy over fish mislabelling in the United States has taken a new twist with a warning from one of America’s leading health supplement providers that such fraud could have fatal consequences.
Bel Marra Health, which offers formulated vitamins and nutritional supplements, says a new study on the scandal is giving very real cause for concern because it could lead to sickness.
A recent study from Oceana shows that many retailers and restaurants regularly mislabel fish products that they sell to consumers.
This is cause for concern as consuming mislabelled food products can lead to sickness and emergency situations for some unsuspecting individuals, including you. The level of fraud includes swapping one species for another (usually inferior and cheaper) variety, false information on the labels and short weight.It is also happening on a grand scale. Oceana found that 39 per cent of the 142 samples they collected from supermarkets and restaurants were falsely labelled.
Dr. Victor Marchione, a spokesperson for Bel Marra Health, said: “Mislabelling of fish products is not only deceitful, it is also potentially deadly. A significant cause for concern with mislabelled fish products is that seafood products are a top allergen for many individuals. Sickness that is related to allergens is often species specific; therefore, the swapping of one species for another can lead to a dangerous, emergency situation for certain individuals.”
For example, if a person is allergic to perch and they think they are buying red snapper they wouldn’t expect to run into a problem. However, perch is often substituted in place of red snapper, leading to a potential emergency if it’s consumed by the wrong person.
Aquarium vandal could face animal cruelty charges!
From Xochi via Twitter.
Read more here
http://www.turnto10.com/story/21659479/fall-river-aquarium-vandal-may-face-animal-cruelty-charges
—
Yours sincerely,
Dr Richmond Loh
BSc BVMS MPhil MANZCVS (Aq & Pathol)
The Fish Vet, Perth, Western Australia.
Veterinary Medicine for fish.
W: http://www.thefishvet.com.au
E: thefishvet
P: +61 (0)421 822 383
Buy Aussie or buy imports?
Ever wondered how your quick decision at the local supermarket impacts others? Do we buy local and support Aussie jobs? Or should we buy “cheap” imports? Are they labelled “cheap” because they’re of lesser quality, or is it just because they can produce it more economically? Does buying imports help support the livelihoods of those who are less fortunate? Does buying imports lead to environmental destruction? Would you support it if it were sustainable? We’re just touching the surface of things…
| Aquaculture Economics & Management: Official Journal of the International Association of Aquaculture Economics and Management | |||||||||||||||||
| Volume 17, Number 1 (March 2013) | |||||||||||||||||
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LIVELIHOOD CAPABILITIES AND PATHWAYS OF SHRIMP FARMERS IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM | ||||||||||||||||
| Authors: | TranThi Phung Ha 1, Han van Dijk 2, Roel Bosma 3, LeXuan Sinh 4 | ||||||||||||||||
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| Source: | Aquaculture Economics & Management: Official Journal of the International Association of Aquaculture Economics and Management, Volume 17, Number 1 (March 2013) | ||||||||||||||||
| Page Numbers: | 1 – 30 | ||||||||||||||||
| Available Full Text: |
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| Abstract: | Shrimp farming is a major livelihood activity in the Mekong Delta in the southernmost part of Vietnam. The Vietnamese government has promoted shrimp farming as a way to reduce poverty, provide employment opportunities and increase exports to support economic development. The shrimp farming system, however, is economically and ecologically risky and may negatively influence the environment and the sustainability of local people’s livelihoods. Because very little is known about the diversity of strategies people employ to deal with these risks, a study was performed in the Mekong Delta across four shrimp farming systems: (1) improved extensive non-forest, (2) mixed mangrove-shrimp, (3) intensive and (4) clustered intensive. The risks and livelihood strategies that were encountered differed systematically across the four farming systems. It was found that the uncertainties that the shrimp farmers faced include limited access rights to the mangrove forest, crop failure due to regular occurrence of shrimp disease, high investment costs and volatile markets for shrimp. Shrimp farmers have created several strategies for coping with these uncertainties, including redesigning farms, producing salt, changing the species farmed from Penaeus monodon to Penaeus vannamei, becoming involved in a cooperative cluster, integrating aquaculture and agriculture, and farming shrimp by organic standards. | ||||||||||||||||
| Citation: | TranThi Phung Ha, Han van Dijk, Roel Bosma, LeXuan Sinh . LIVELIHOOD CAPABILITIES AND PATHWAYS OF SHRIMP FARMERS IN THE MEKONG DELTA, VIETNAM. Aquaculture Economics & Management: Official Journal of the International Association of Aquaculture Economics and Management, Volume 17, Number 1 (March 2013), pp. 1-30, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=44129214A73812D21899> | ||||||||||||||||
| URL: | http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=44129214A73812D21899 | ||||||||||||||||
Correction to a previous post – “Blood fluke plagues the South Australian tuna industry – easy fix with praziquantel?”
I was contacted by the Australian Southern Bluefin Tuna Industry Association to make an amendment to a previous blog post. I’m happy to receive feedback and correct any misinformation that’s out there.
The passage has been changed from this:
I have heard that the tuna are slaughtered pen-side and all the discards flow back into the same waters where the fish are reared. If this is the case then, diseases such as these would become amplified. Could they perhaps have one slaughter pen where selected individuals are corralled into, this net moved to a different location where the processing boat/barge is sited?
To this:
If fish were slaughtered pen-side and all the discards flow back into the same waters where the fish are reared, then diseases such as these would become amplified. Fortunately, all byproducts are captured by gutters and bins around harvest tables and are transported to an onshore processing facility for rendering.
See full, edited, blog post at this link –
Fish is a safer meat than chooks.
From: “Dr. David Scarfe”
Date: 21 February 2013 2:46:07 AWST
Subject: AquaVetMed: Putting consuming ISA infected salmon in perspective
February 20, 2013
Industry not selling “sick fish”
Canada – Hysteria created by unprofessional environmentalists will be remembered as an attempted artificial blockade of healthy food for the general population. If the environmental community was truly concerned about the health-related consequences of handling and serving food, they would not bother with some fish that may or may not contain bugs that are harmless to humans, but rather focus its efforts on products that actually represent a health hazard to the cook or the consumer.
You don’t often hear their concerns about common poultry product, despite the US FDA’s statement that “..raw poultry must be handled carefully to prevent cross-contamination. This can occur if raw poultry or its juices come in contact with cooked food or foods that will be eaten raw, such as salad. An example of this is using a cutting board to chop raw chicken and then using the same board to chop tomatoes without washing the board first”.
Most farmed salmon are excellent raw materials for serving as sushi and sashimi- in other words- served raw.
In a recent posting, the East Coast of Canada-based Act for Aquaculture web site explained why farmed salmon from a farm where a few fish were diagnosed to contain the ISA virus were perfectly safe and sensible for human consumption, despite insistence by extreme environmentalists to the contrary.
There has been a lot written and said about salmon farming and ISA – infectious salmon anemia – over the past few weeks. It’s time for all of us to remember some facts and not give in to scare tactics and misinformation. In a world where 870 million people don’t have enough to eat (Source: UN World Food Programme), anti-salmon farming activists are trying to use misinformation to needlessly waste more than one million pounds of quality protein. That’s enough for about six million meals.
Their goal is to shut down Canada’s salmon farming industry, and fear mongering about ISA – with complete disregard for science and fact – is their latest tactic. Recent headlines have been exciting to say the least. No wonder consumers are concerned when media stories leave the impression that sickly, diseased fish are being sent to local grocery stores. The truth is far less lurid.
Here are the facts … … .
See the source (http://tinyurl.com/bkhge67) for the full story.
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AquaVetMed e-News provides information to veterinary and veterinary-allied subscribers concerning aquatic animal medicine, health, welfare, public health and seafood safety, obtained from a variety of sources (largely AquaVetMed subscribers). While provided by the American Veterinary Medical Association’s, Aquatic Veterinary Medicine Committee and are for public distribution, they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the AVMA or the veterinary profession. See the AVMA Terms of Use (http://tinyurl.com/29h2rf) for further information.
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Australian freshwater turtles as a potential aquaculture species.
SEQ Fish has just completed an RIRDC funded project to assess the viability of a new industry in Australia based on breeding and growing Australian native freshwater turtle for human consumption. The results suggest that Emydura macquarii (signata), the Brisbane River Short Necked turtle, is the most likely candidate for aquaculture systems due to its fecundity, growth rate and hardiness.
Learn more about the project in the newsletter excerpt by clicking on the link below:
Hundreds of different pharmaceuticals are able to slip past conventional wastewater treatment plants and into our waterways; exerting ecological effects.
The original catchy title was “Drugged Fish Lose Their Inhibitions, Get the Munchies” by Emily Underwood.
After swimming in water laced with a common antianxiety medication, the red-finned fish lose their inhibitions and gobble up prey at a much faster rate, according to a new study presented here today at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (publisher of ScienceNOW). The animals act strangely even after being exposed to low concentrations of the medication found in rivers worldwide, suggesting that the drug and others like it could affect fish behavior and ecology even in small doses.
Shared by Nicole Spooner, AquaVet Classmate.
Fish joke for Monday-itis: Smarts.
Shared by Toni Erkinharju via Facebook
RECIPE FOR HOW TO GET REALLY SMART
A customer at Stingray Fishmongers marveled at the owner’s quick wit and intelligence.
‘Tell me, Simon, what makes you so smart?’
‘I wouldn’t share my secret with just anyone, ‘Simon replies, lowering his voice so the other shoppers won’t hear.’ But since you’re a good and faithful customer, I’ll let you in on it. Fish heads. You eat enough of them, you’ll be positively brilliant.’
‘You sell them here?’ the customer asks.
‘Only $4 apiece’, says Simon.
The customer buys three. A week later, he’s back in the store complaining that the fish heads were disgusting and he isn’t any smarter.
‘You didn’t eat enough, ‘says Simon. The customer goes home with 20 more fish heads. Two weeks later, he’s back and this time he’s really angry.
‘Hey, Simon, ‘he complains, ‘you’re selling me fish heads for $4 a piece when I can buy the whole fish for $2. you’re ripping me off!’
‘You see?’ says Simon, ‘you’re smarter already.’
A great natural way to help combat external parasites using mussels.
I always thought that this could be a good idea and someone’s actually done the ground work to find evidence that it works!
(I’ve been finding that this has been a recurring theme with all my inventions too!).
I wonder if it can work with other parasites such as flukes, Cryptocaryon and others.
Great work to the primary investigators and the team behind them!
| Journal of Fish Diseases | |||||||||||||||||
| Volume 36, Number 3 (March 2013) | |||||||||||||||||
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Filtration of sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, copepodids by the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the Atlantic sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, under different flow, light and copepodid-density regimes | ||||||||||||||||
| Authors: | A Bartsch, S M C Robinson, M Liutkus, K P Ang, J Webb, C M Pearce | ||||||||||||||||
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| Source: | Journal of Fish Diseases, Volume 36, Number 3 (March 2013) | ||||||||||||||||
| Page Numbers: | 361 – 370 | ||||||||||||||||
| Available Full Text: |
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| Abstract: | Population management of Lepeophtheirus salmonisin Canada currently relies on chemotherapeutants to remove attached stages of the ectoparasite. However, some populations of L. salmonisare developing resistance to chemotherapeutants making alternate management measures necessary. This article explores the ability of filter-feeding shellfish [i.e. blue mussels (Mytilus edulis) and Atlantic sea scallops (Placopecten magellanicus)] to consume the copepodid stages of L. salmonisin the laboratory under static and flowing water conditions, with variable copepodid densities, and with the aid of a light attractant. Mytilus edulisconsumed copepodids under both static and flowing water conditions, and the proportion of individuals ingested was similar at low and high copepodid densities, suggesting that M. eduliswas not saturated at the concentrations tested. Also, M. edulisconsumed more copepodids when a light attractant was present, suggesting that lights may be useful to concentrate widely dispersed copepodids around cultured shellfish in the field. Finally, P. magellanicusconsumed the same number of copepodids as an equivalent total wet weight of M. edulis. During each of the four separate experiments, shellfish consumed between 18 and 38% of the copepodids presented perhour, suggesting that both species are well suited for low level removal of copepodids over time. | ||||||||||||||||
| Citation: | A Bartsch, S M C Robinson, M Liutkus, K P Ang, J Webb, C M Pearce . Filtration of sea louse, Lepeophtheirus salmonis, copepodids by the blue mussel, Mytilus edulis, and the Atlantic sea scallop, Placopecten magellanicus, under different flow, light and copepodid-density regimes. Journal of Fish Diseases, Volume 36, Number 3 (March 2013), pp. 361-370, <http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=42ABA5C9A1273865C962> | ||||||||||||||||
| URL: | http://ejournals.ebsco.com/direct.asp?ArticleID=42ABA5C9A1273865C962 | ||||||||||||||||