Junior researchers training on

fisheries and Aquaculture

resource

May, 2019
 What is Fish and Fisheries
Science?
• The plural of fish is usually fish
• When referring to more than one
species of fish, especially in a scientific
context, you can use fishes as the plural.

• The study of fish, their habitat, humans

exploiting them, and all their
interactions
• The word fishes is applied to a
heterogeneous grouping of aquatic animals
comprised of hagfishes and lampreys, sharks,
rays and chimaeras, and the finned bony
fishes. The latter is by far the most diverse
group and is well represented in freshwaters,
while the others are predominantly marine
groups.
 Common aquaculture species of fishes
American Eel
Alligator
Rainbow Trout Mussel

Carp
Salmon
Tropical Fish

Tilapia Scallop Conch

Sunfish

Clam

Flounder
Bait Minnow
Blue Crab

Oyster Koi
Lobster
Crayfish
Hybrid Striped Bass

Abalone
Channel Catfish
Shrimp
 Importance of fish
• Ecological importance
• Biological control
• Economic importance
• Aquarium
• Recreation
• Scientific
• Evolutionary history of animals
• About 28,900 species were listed in FishBase in
2005
• 41.2% of fish species live in fresh water
• 58.2% of fish species live in marine water
• 0.6% of fish live in diadromous
But 97.5% = 113,000km3 marine
0.003% =15km3 fresh
Because
1. Fresh water is inverted island
-Reproductive isolation
-Geographical isolation
2. Depth of the water is shallow/high euphotic
zone
 Principles of Taxonomy and
systematics
• Taxonomy is theory and practice of
describing biodiversity that includes naming,
describing and classifying organisms
• Systematics is not exclusive but it gives the
flavour (scientific flavour)
Therefore, systematics is science of
relationships (comparative biology)
 Morphology, Morphometrics and
Meristics of fish
• Morphology
-Fins- Median fins and paired fins
-Gills- Parts( Gill ark, Gill raker and Gill
fillaments) and operculum
-Presence and absence of barbels
-Lateral lines (scales)
-Scales type (cycloid, ctenoid)
 Morphometrics
• Standard length
• Total length
• Fork length
• Fin length
• Head length
• Head width
• Body depth
• Eay diameter
• Depth of caudal peduncle
• Gap width
 Meristics

• Number of spines in each fin(if any)

• Number of rays on each fin
• Lateral line scales
• Number of gill rakers
 Fish Anatomy
Study the following slide then test your knowledge of fish
anatomy.
Fish External Anatomy

Source: www.floridafisheries.com
 Name the Parts of the Fish.

Nares
3 (Nostrils) Spiny Dorsal
4 Fin Soft Dorsal
5 Fin

Operculum (Gill
2 Cover) Caudal6 (Tail) Fin

Eye
1

Mouth
14 Peduncle
7

Vent
10 Lateral
8 Line
Pectoral
13 Fin
Scales
11
Anal9Fin
Pelvic
12Fins Click here
for Answers

FISH EXTERNAL ANATOMY

Source: www.floridafisheries.com
• The Characiformes, Cypriniformes,
Siluriformes,Osteoglossiformes,
Mormyriformes the Perciformes (noteably
the family Cichlidae and Centropomidae)
• Biogeographically the distribution of strictly
freshwater species and genera are,
respectively 4,035 species (705 genera) in
the Neotropical region, 2,938 (390 genera)
in the Afrotropical, 2,345 (440 genera) in
the Oriental, 1,844 (380 genera) in the
Palaearctic, 1,411 (298 genera) in the
Nearctic, and 261 (94 genera) in the
Australian.
Ichthyoregions are currently identified in Africa
Maghereb
Nilo-Sudanian
Upper Guinea
Lower Guinea
Quanza
Zairian
Zambezian
Cape
East coast
Ethiopian
Main drainage basins
 Drainage Basins and Fish
species
Drainage No. o f No. of
Basin species endemic
species

Abay 36 23
Awash 15 6
Baro 87 1
Omo 26 2
Rift lakes 32 7
Wabishebelle 26 4
Tekeze 30?? ???
Numerous fish-species flocks have been
identified in various ancient lakes that are
exceptional natural sites for the study of
speciation.
The major threats to fish biodiversity are
intense and Have not been relatively well
documented:

Overexploitation,flowmodification, destruction
of habitats, invasion by exotic species,
pollution including the worldwide phenomena
of eutrophication and sedimentation, all of
which are interacting.
 A fishery population is affected
by three dynamic rate functions:

• Birth rate or recruitment. Recruitment

means reaching a certain size or
reproductive stage. With fisheries,
recruitment usually refers to the age a fish
can be caught and counted in nets
• Growth rate. This measures the growth of
individuals in size and length. This is
important in fisheries where the population
is often measured in terms of biomass.
• Mortality. This includes harvest mortality
and natural mortality. Natural mortality
includes non-human predation, disease and
old age.

• If these rates are measured over different

time intervals, the harvestable surplus of a
fishery can be determined. The harvestable
surplus is the number of individuals that can
be harvested from the population without
affecting long term stability (average
population size)
• Care is needed when applying population
dynamics to real world fisheries. Over-
simplistic modeling of fisheries has resulted
in the collapse of key stocks
Virtual population analysis
Virtual population analysis (VPA) is a cohort
modeling technique commonly used in
fisheries science for reconstructing
historical fish numbers at age using
information on death of individuals each
year. This death is usually partitioned into
catch by fisheries and natural mortality
Maximum sustainable yield
In population ecology and economics, the
maximum sustainable yield or MSY is, theoretically,
the largest catch that can be taken from a fishery
stock over an indefinite period

Under the assumption of logistic growth, the MSY

will be exactly at half the carrying capacity of a
species, as this is the stage at when population
growth is highest. The maximum sustainable yield is
usually higher than the optimum sustainable yield
MSY is extensively used for fisheries management
Recruitment
Recruitment is the number of new young fish that
enter a population in a given year. The size of fish
populations can fluctuate by orders of magnitude
over time, and five to 10-fold variations in
abundance are usual. This variability applies across
time spans ranging from a year to hundreds of
years.

Overfishing
Biological overfishing occurs when fishing mortality
has reached a level where the stock biomass has
negative marginal growth (slowing down biomass
growth)
 Age class structure

• Age can be determined by counting growth rings in

fish scales, otoliths, cross-sections of fin spines
for species with thick spines such as Catfish, or
teeth for a few species. Each method has its
merits and drawbacks. Fish scales are easiest to
obtain, but may be unreliable if scales have fallen
off of the fish and new ones grown in their places.
• Fin spines may be unreliable for the same
reason, and most fish do not have spines of
sufficient thickness for clear rings to be
visible. Otoliths will have stayed with the
fish throughout its life history, but obtaining
them requires killing the fish. Also, otoliths
often require more preparation before
ageing can occur
 Species diversity and
relative abundance
• An Index of Relative Importance (IRI) and
Shannon diversity index (H') are used to
evaluate relative abundance and species
diversity of fishes, respectively. An index of
relative importance (IRI) is a measure of the
relative abundance or commonness of the
species based on number and weight of
individuals in catches, as well as their
frequency of occurrence
• Where % Wi and % Ni is
percentage weight and
number of each species of
total catch respectively; %
Fi is percentage frequency
of occurrence of each
species in total number of
settings. %Wj and %Nj
are percentage weight and
number of total species of
total catch. %Fj is
percentage frequency of
occurrence of total
species in total number of
settings. S is total number
of species
• The Shannon index • Where, pi is the
of diversity (H') is a proportion of
measure of the individuals found in
number of species the ith species.
weighted by their Shannon’s diversity
relative abundances index (H') is used to
(Begon et al., 1990). indicate diversity at
Shannon index of different sampling
diversity (H') is sites. A high value
calculated as: indicates high
• H' =  pi ln pi species diversity
 Length-weight relationship
The relation ship between total length and
total weight of the most dominant species is
calculated using power functions as in
Bagenal and Tesch (1978) as follows:
• TW= aXTLb
• Where TW= total weight (gm)
• TL= total length (cm)
• a= intercept of the regression line
• b= slope of the regression line
 Condition factor
• The well being or stoutness of each dominant
species is studied by calculating Fulton condition
factor (Lecren, 1951; Bagenal and Tesch, 1978).
Fulton condition factor (%) is calculated as:
• FCF = TW x 100
• TL3
• Where, FCF = Fulton condition factor, TW = total
weight in grams, and TL = total length in cms.
 Fecundity

• Fecundity is determined gravimetrically. It is

calculated for specimens of female fish.
Three sub-samples of 1 gm eggs can be taken
from different part of the ovary and
counted, and an average of these will be
calculated. Then, the total number of eggs
per ovary will be calculated by extrapolation
from the mean calculated.
• After calculating the relative fecundity by
dividing the number of eggs per fish by its
total body weight, the relationships of
fecundity to some morphometric
measurements will be determined. This is
done by relating fecundity to total length,
total weight and ovary weight as in Demeke
Admassu (1994) using the following formulae:
• F= aXTLb
• F= aXTWb
• F= aXbOW
• Where F= Fecundity
• TL= Total length (cm)
• TW= Total weight (gm)
• OW= Ovary weight (gm)
• a= constant
• b= exponent
 Sex ratio
• Sex ratio can be determined using the
following formula:
• Sex ratio = Number of females / Number of
males
 Trophic cascades
• Trophic cascades occur when predators in a
food chain suppress the abundance of their prey,
thereby releasing the next lower trophic level from
predation (or herbivory if the intermediate trophic
level is an herbivore)

• For example, if the abundance of large piscivorous

fish is increased in a lake, the abundance of their
prey, zooplanktivorous fish, should decrease, large
zooplankton abundance should increase, and
phytoplankton biomass should decrease
• This theory has stimulated new research in many areas
of ecology. Trophic cascades may also be important
for understanding the effects of removing top
predators from food webs, as humans have done in
many places through hunting and fishing activities

• In lakes, piscivorous fish can dramatically reduce

populations of zooplanktivorous fish, zooplanktivorous
fish can dramatically alter freshwater zooplankton
communities, and zooplankton grazing can in turn have
large impacts on phytoplankton communities. Removal
of piscivorous fish can change lake water from clear to
green by allowing phytoplankton to flourish
 Introduction to
Aquaculture
• Define Aquaculture
• Identify how Aquaculture is important to our
society
• Identify the components of fish hatchery
(Aquaculture) being established at the research
center
 Definition
“Aquaculture is the farming of aquatic organisms,
including fish, molluscs, crustaceans and aquatic
plants.

Farming implies some form of intervention in the rearing

process to enhance production, such as regular
stocking, feeding, protection from predators, etc.

Farming also implies individual or corporate ownership of

the stock being cultivated.”

SOURCE: FAO FISHERIES CIRCULAR NO. 815 REVISION 8, 1996

 In Other Words

• The controlled raising of aquatic animals and

plants in a confined environment.
 How Long Has Aquaculture Been world wide
Around ?
• First Developed in Asia
– 3500 BC Chinese raised carp in ponds
– Developed breeding techniques for increased
production
– Potentially nutritious feeds developed
– Different production techniques developed
– Fastest growing sector from any agricultural
farming systems
– Good quality of protein low in fat
– Better Production to Cost Ratio (1 1/2 lbs of feed
to 1 lb of fish)
 Status of Aquaculture in Amhara Region
• Aquaculture farms in Ethiopia are at small scale,
subsistence oriented.
• It started in 1996 E.C at small scale or subsistence
level to nourish farmers household families with
quality protein source fish.

• Over 351 small scale fish pond owners (2008 and

2009 E.C)

• Over 67,000 fingerlings distributed by the

research center and Regional Animal production
and promotion Agency annually
 Cont…

• Currently there is a need to shift towards intensive

farming

• Very recently, aquaculture is identified as one of

the strategic areas of intervention to address the
problem of food insecurity and poverty in the rural
areas

• This opportunity is well recognized by the

government (In GTP II)
 Cont…

• Some times more than 500,000 fingerlings

requested per year.

• In addition to developing different intensive

aquaculture set ups or approaches. There is a
need to perform rebuild fisheries / restore
fish stocks
 Cont…

• Culture based small water bodies both lakes

natural and man made reservoirs (such as Tana,
Lugo, Tekeze, Ribb, Koga,Tirba, Zengena, Shiburit,
Abrajit, Borsho, Legemera, Selamiko, Mitsili, Gomit,
Genborie,Gudera, Bahiregiorgis, etc…
Hatchery development for Tilapia and Cat fish
fingerling production to enhance aquaculture

In open ponds, reproduction ponds are usually 60 to

90 cm deep and less than 0.2 ha. Brood fish are
stocked at a rate of 0.2 to 0.5 kg/m2 (2000 to
5000 kg/ha). One male per 2 or 3 brood females is
more efficient but not critical
Ponds should be equipped with a 30 cm deep harvest
basin lined with large mesh netting before filling
with water. Brood ponds are drained and completely
harvested 15 to 20 days after stocking brood fish,
depending on water temperature.
• In tropical countries the duration of nursery
is usually 5 to 13 weeks, depending on
desired final size. Desired final size may be
less than 10 g but does not exceed 50 g

• With relatively good diet and water

temperatures above 25oC, fingerlings reach a
weight of 10 to 15 g in 5 to 6 weeks and 25
to 30 g in 8 to 10 weeks
 Farmed fish species

Indigenous Spp.

• Cichlidae, Clarridae,
Primitive (Basal) fishes
– Oreochromis
niloticus
(Nile tilapia)
• Clarias gariepinus
(African cat fish)
• Centropomidae
– Lates niloticus
 Farmed fishes

Exotic Spp.
• Common carp (Cyprinus
carpio)
• Crucian carp (Caracius
caracius)
 Existing facts to be mentioned

Fishes makes up on average 19 percent of total animal

protein supply in Africa. This varies across the
continent with fish making up over 50 percent of
animal protein in few African countries.

However, in many areas of sub-Saharan Africa fish

consumption levels remain too low and some countries
are failing to benefit from the contributions that
fisheries and aquaculture are increasingly making
elsewhere in terms of sustainable food security and
income (FAO, 2012).
 Cont…
• Population of Ethiopia increases year after year
with expectations of being second populace country
in Africa next to Nigeria

• The current demand for fish and culture of

consuming fish as a good protein source by the
people is improving compared to the previous years.

• Reports from Ministry of agriculture indicate that

the per capita fish consumption of the country
reached 0.5 kg which has been 240 g in 2013.
Ethiopia is endowed with enormous inland water
resources comprising of over 8800 km2 of lake,
reservoirs as well as major river basins which stretch
over 8000 km long (Gashaw & Wolf, 2014).

Moreover, current estimates of the potential fish

production from the capture fishery are estimated to
be 94500 ton per year (Wolf & Gashaw, 2014). But,
over all production remains below 50,000 tones per
year.