Only 6 posters were presented in the session, and another hand full of people listened to them on early Thursday morning, so that Mr. Fitwi, moderator of the Poster presentation session “Aquaculture, fisheries and fish“, referred to them as the “
underdogs” of the Tropentag 2013. However, the wide range of topics presented during the sessions shows that
aquacultural research does not need to hide away from the big stages, but actually addresses very urgent topics such as depleting resources and women empowerment.
The
mega cities of our world are located at the shores, so that fish and marine products often represent an integral part of the inhabitants’ diet. As marine resources are depleting, fish from aquacultural production should be more on the menu. However, fish is not only a valuable protein resource for the city dwellers of this world, but also contributes to a balanced and secured nutrition of the rural people.
The research project presented by Evita Fathia Luthfina shows that projects introducing new technologies to solve the problems of overfishing and pollution are still needed to effectively
reduce the high incidence of poverty. This is the case for example in Panggang, on an island state of Indonesia, where sea fishing used to be a major economic activity.
Positive news are shipped by Olubunmi Ayobami Duduyemi from Nigeria, where women are included in the development of the still infant aquacultural section right from the beginning. Even though there still seems to be some more work to do,
women can be empowered if they can have a finger in the fish.
Mr. Fitwi presented a life cycle assessment based comparison of different feeding stuffs for fish. Even though the audience was rather small, the discussion on his as well as on the other results was very vital and no bubbling. The moderator declared the issue of
feed for fish as one of the
most important topics to research on, as the feeding of fish to fish has severe environmental implications and moreover, the supply of feeding stuffs is in the hand of some few huge companies.
Binian Samuel Fitwi presenting during the poster session V
As fish do not deserve to disguise as underdogs, they should rather scale and kick out the lapdogs from the apartments of the metropolises as Mr. Fitwi says that home or community garden fish production is no far dream of the future but concrete practice.
If you are interested in Fish in the City and how they can be integrated in the recirculation of urban sewage,
read more from the University of Kiel