T he CRSP is pleased to annouce that two Aquaculture CRSP collaborators, Kevin Fitzsimmons of the University of Arizona (UA) and Wilfrido Contreras-Sanchez of the Unversidad Juarez Autonoma de Tabasco (UJAT), are the recent awardees of a Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) grant.
The
-Mexico Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES) Partnership Initiative is a program initiated by the State Department as an adjunct to the North American Free trade Agreement (NAFTA). It covers all fields of education with the goal of increasing academic interactions between US and Mexican institutions of higher education. The intention is that the TIES will address a variety of issues including job creation, environmental stewardship, food security, as well as education.USR>
Fitzsimmons and Contreras-Sánchez developed an aquaculture focused program that will provide two scholarships per year for graduates from Mexican institutions to earn a Masters degree at UA. The project will also provide
funding for a Mexican faculty member and a student to attend the Shrimp Pathology summer short course at UA. Two aquaculture internships will be provided through the program each semester. These 5-month positions will be split between Panorama Acuicola magazine in Mexico and a commercial tilapia farm in Southern California. Five scholarships will be provided per year for Master¹s students at Mexican Universities.
In addition, each summer a UA aquaculture faculty member will teach a summer short course in Mexico. The project will also support an extension conference in Mexico to disseminate results of research from the project and a bi-lingual Aquaculture website with Aquaculture TIES information and Spanish language aquaculture extension documents. Finally, the project will support participants to attend profession aquaculture meetings in Mexico and help to organize the International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture VII conference in Mexico City in 2007. The lead institutions on the project are Universidad Autonoma de Tamaulipas, UJAT, and UA.
CRSP Researchers Awarded TIES Project
gression from these methods to artificial
pond systems.
For poor villagers raising fish in natural
depressions enables them to supplement
wild catches without the time and effort.
They may not rely greatly on this food
source, since wild fish catches usually peak
during the low water season in any case.
Perhaps labor saving is the main motive.
The above observations imply that, like
agriculture, aquaculture originated from
adapting natural systems to the needs of
people. However, it is possible the villagers developed the practice following efforts by aquaculture extension workers in the recent
past. Thus, formal studies are needed to
confirm whether this is a plausible mech-
anism representing a transition from wild
fisheries to aquaculture.
References
1. http://www.bcsga.ca/
industry_history.html#two
2. http://www.masla.com/
beginner/history.html
Natural depression in riverbed used by Peruvian Amazon villagers to stock wild-collected fish and grow to harvest size (note the vegetation placed to provide shade).
¥ effectiveness of communication among members
¥ accessibility of new knowledge and technical training
¥ ability of sharing local experiences
¥ contacts with policy makers for influencing resource allocations for tilapia
¥ accessibility of market information, and
Tilapia Connection
...from p. 2
The Missing Link
...from p. 1
€ ability of identifying and expressing future needs for training and technical assistance
The Tilapia Connection is structured as a network organization connecting six working groups, each with a primary area of activities:
Planning and Organizing Future Events
Activities: regularly survey emerging opportunities for the tilapia industry, identify industry needs, organize forums and meetings with decision makers and industry leaders, and plan other such events that will benefit members.
Communication and Website Content
Activites: update the content of the Website <www.acuacultura.org> periodically, train members on the use of the web for communication, facilitate virtual meetings between members, and connect with other relevant institutions and organizations.
Education and Research
Activities: identify critical research needs of the industry and engage in
