Flamingo flock moves into Zeeland

DutchNews, December 21, 2015

A colony of about 50 flamingos has moved into the Grevelingenmeer in Zeeland for the winter rather than moving on to warmer climes in Africa.

The group of distinctive pink birds is known to breed just over the border in Germany and appears to have moved north to the Netherlands because the lake contains just enough salt to stop it freezing.

‘The Grevelingenmeer is very suitable for them because they can find sufficient crabs and shrimp,’ William van der Hulle, of the Dutch forestry commission, told BNR radio. 

Flamingos are regular visitors to the lake but never in such large numbers, he said. 

Bijzonder! Gewoon in Nederland, flamingo's op het Grevelingenmeer. #flamingos #grevelingenmeer pic.twitter.com/shakNXx3Ko”

— ineke zonneveld (@inekezonneveld) March 14, 2015

Wadden Sea shark population may be on the rise

DutchNews, August 28, 2015

Fishermen working on the Wadden Sea have been urged to tag and register any sharks they fish up because biologists suspect the area’s shark population is growing. 

Shrimp trawlers have been pulling up an increasing number of young bottom feeding sharks and biologists think the sea is a perfect nursery, broadcaster Nos says on Friday. 

Bottom feeders are not dangerous to humans and most are around 40 centimetres long. Some can grow up to two metres, Nos says. 

The Wadden Sea’s shark population fell sharply in the 1970s. ‘Their return would be good news because sharks have a key role in the food chain,’ Wouter van der Heij of the Wadden Sea association told the broadcaster.

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"A Summary" – Apr 2, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll)

(Subjects: Religion, Shift of Human Consciousness, 2012, Intelligent/Benevolent Design, EU, South America, 5 Currencies, Water Cycle (Heat up, Mini Ice Ace, Oceans, Fish, Earthquakes ..), Middle East, Internet, Israel, Dictators, Palestine, US, Japan (Quake/Tsunami Disasters , People, Society ...), Nuclear Power Revealed, Hydro Power, Geothermal Power, Moon, Financial Institutes (Recession, Realign integrity values ..) , China, North Korea, Global Unity,..... etc.) - (Text version)

“… The Weather

Let's talk about the weather. We retreat to exactly what we told you before in this very chair. The water cycle is a cooling cycle, not a heating cycle. You're going to have more severe winters and storms. It's going to get colder. But it gets warmer before it gets colder. That is the cycle, and it has always been the cycle. You can see it in the rings of the trees and the cores of the ice. Don't let your scientists pull the political wool over your eyes for their own purposes. Start seeing these things for what they are. It's a recurring cycle based on four Earth alignment attributes, including the wobble (the precession). You're in this cycle. Prepare.

The beginnings of it will be with you from now at least until the end of the 2012 36-year window, and you can watch it work. The first thing that happens is that the ice melts at the poles, but not completely. It's the way it has happened before. As the redistribution of weight from the poles to the oceans of the earth takes place, the weight is redistributed to the crust, and that creates earthquakes. And the earthquakes that will be the most powerful are the ones that are closest to the poles. We told you that some time ago. So it's not a mystery that suddenly you have some of the most powerful earthquakes that you've ever had. Not only that, but a cooling ocean creates larger storms.

What do the conspiracists do with all this? "See? We're doomed. Here it comes," they say. "Here it comes! The end is here!" Twenty-two years ago, we gave you the information that is happening today. We told you about the weather. We told you to get ready for it, but we still haven't told you why the water cycle is needed. We've hinted at it since it is very controversial, and we'll lose many readers right here and now. Here's the prediction: The scientists are going to laugh and biologists are going to scratch their heads and roll their eyes.

The Refreshing of the Cycle of Life

When you change the temperature of the waters of the planet, it changes the life cycle of the ocean and it eventually renews itself. The life cycle of the planet has a limit to its viability over time. There has to be a refreshing of the very cycle of life, and this is what the water cycle does. Are there any places you've seen too many fish lately? Yes. Millions of salmon in the north. Odd that it was in Alaska, isn't it? Alaska is very close to the poles where the water temperature is being felt first. Oh, again the experts will tell you that this is not the reason. It's about hatcheries and rivers. But nobody predicted this, did they? Science is fast to give you reasons, but slow to give you logic in advance. They always seem to be surprised.

We are saying things we haven't said before. Again, watch for this, an actual change in the life cycle of the planet's oceans because of the water temperature shift. Biologists are going to have to start redesigning the paradigm of how everything works, including reefs, ocean bottoms, and how plankton survive and reproduce. Listen, this is not the first time that the life cycle has been refreshed! But again, this may take generations of humanity to complete. In the process, you may again lose species. This is normal. Gaia is slow, and Humans are impatient. Your textbooks may someday tell of how naive humanity was back in 2011 when they tried to blame weather changes on everything but a natural cycle. Now you know why there is a water cycle.

So what does that tell you about Gaia? Gaia is beginning the cycle of refreshing life on over-fished oceans. It tells you that in the cracks, there is love and caring about the Humans who live on the earth. There's a reason you're here. There's a plan here, and a benevolent Universe and quantum energy with intelligent design. All is there for you, precious, sacred Human Being. …”

British Columbia salmon return one of largest seen in region (Sep 2013)

Pink salmon, shown in a file photograph, 

have a lifespan of two years

Europe fish stocks 'heading for recovery', study claims
U.S. seafood catch reaches 17-year high
'Super' salmon resist climate change better: study


“2011 and Beyond” - What you are seeing, and why - Jan 16, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Text version)

"....The Prediction: The Renewal of the Life Cycle

When you change the temperature strata of the oceans of the earth, things start to change, for the life cycle of the food in the ocean depends upon that which is the smallest. The plankton of the planet survive in certain temperatures, and that's changing. Throw away what you think you know about how it's all supposed to work, and instead think "renewal" or "how did it begin." This will serve you to understand what is happening now. This cycle is built to replenish the ocean with life and not always by sustaining the kind that was there.

Let us just talk about the ocean for a moment. We won't even get to what's happening in the air and what mammals might experience. Let's just speak of the ocean. Have you heard about the salmon? What has your science warned you against? You're overfishing! The sea is dying. The coral is dying. The reefs are going away. You're not seeing the food chain that used to be there. You've overfished everything. Fishing quotas have been set up to help this. Oh, all those little people in the red room - they don't know about the purple. Red people only know about the red paradigm.

Did you hear about the salmon recently? There's too many of them! In the very place where quotas are in place so you won't overfish, they're jumping in the boats! Against all odds and any projections from environmentalists or biologists, they're overrunning the oceans in Alaska - way too many fish.

What does that tell you? Is it possible that Gaia takes care of itself? That's what it tells you! Perhaps this alignment is going to keep humanity fed. Did anybody think of this? What if Gaia is in alliance with you? What if the increase in consciousness that raised your DNA vibration has alerted Gaia to change the weather cycle and get ready to feed humanity? Are you looking at the ocean where the oil spill occurred? It's recovering in a way that was not predicted. What's happening?

The life cycle itself is being altered by the temperature change of the ocean and much of what you have believed is the paradigm of life in the sea is slowly changing. A new system of life is appearing, as it has before, and is upon you in your lifetime. It will compliment what you know and expose you to a new concept: Gaia regularly refreshes the life cycle on Earth.

Within this process, there will be the extinction of certain plants and animals, birds and fish. My advice to you, especially to those environmentalists, is to understand the cycle of life so that you may relax with what nature has always done. It puts life on the planet to serve the planet for a time. When certain life no longer serves the planet in the ways it used to, it takes it away. The extinction of life, especially through weather change, is normal for Gaia. It is honored, appropriate and normal, even if you don't think so. Don't try to save all the disappearing animals, fish and birds! Some are supposed to go away. And, dear ones, don't assign all this activity to something you did to cause it!

The red people are stressing. The purple is here, and they are trying to figure out what they did wrong. They don't know they are in the Rainbow Room. They think they are in the RED ROOM. This is what the Rainbow Room does; it changes colors. So as the room does what it has always done, the red people are sitting there in fear trying to figure out what it is that they did that possibly could have caused the purple to appear.

The Rainbow Room is beautiful. The color purple is significant. Going from red to purple has metaphysical significance within this parable, but I'll let you figure it out. For those who are into colors, there's a reason why I gave those two. The earth is becoming more sacred than it's ever been before. Gaia is with you in this. It's cooperating in ways you never thought it could, in the way biologists said it would not. You think you're killing it? Instead, it's giving birth to an altered ecological system. ...."

Jiangsu man finds fairy (shrimp) at bottom of his garden

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-06-29

Fairy shrimps. (Photo/CNS)

A man in Lianyungang in eastern China's Jiangsu province has found a fairy shrimp in the water tanks that he uses to plant lotus, reports the online media outlet Jiangsu China based in Nanjing.

Zhang said he put out two water tanks for the lotus in his winter garden. He changes the water in the tanks regularly because the garden gets a lot of sunshine in the afternoon. He found it remarkable that a shrimp could survive in the high temperature of the water.

Zhang took the shrimp out of the tank and placed it in a glass bowl. The shrimp is about five centimeters long, mostly green color with a little bit of red on its tail.

Speculating on how the shrimp arrived in his tank, Zhang said there is no way the shrimp could have been hiding in the tank when he first set it out or came through the tap water. He suspected it may have come in dirt from the mountain that he added to the tanks.

An expert said the shrimp Zhang found is a fairy shrimp (anostraca), a type of crustacean that has been on Earth for around 200 million years.

The expert said fairy shrimp require soil that is high in sodium and its life cycle is around one to three months. Its eggs are small with a tough shell that can protect against heat and drought. In the soil, an egg can remain unhatched for years until the conditions are right.

Jiaolong divers find new deep-sea organisms, break them

Want China Times, Xinhua and Staff Reporter 2015-01-15

Organisms collected by the Jiaolong scientists in the Indian Ocean,
Jan. 11. (Photo/Xinhua)

China's manned deep sea submersible Jiaolong collected 17 samples of deep-sea organisms from the seabed of the southwestern Indian Ocean on Wednesday, of which two were unknown to scientists aboard the vessel.

With a size similar to a regular sea cucumber, the first mysterious creature broke into three parts when it was taken to the vessel.

Since the organism was transparent, scientists could see its blue and brown viscera clearly.

"This might be a special kind of sea cucumber, but we need to make sure after further analysis in labs," said Lu Bo, a scientist with the Second Institute of Oceanography of the State Oceanic Administration.

Looking like a small pink snake, the second strange creature, 330 centimeters long and three centimeters wide, was completely unknown to the scientists. Two bubbles appeared in its body due to pressure change, said the scientists.

"These two organisms might be new species but we can't be certain with limited tools and data on the ship," Lu Bo said.

Additionally, the Jiaolong gathered 15 deep-sea shrimps, water and sulfide weighing 6.9 kilograms.

The Jiaolong, which made a dive of 7,062 meters in the Mariana Trench in June 2012, is on a 120-day expedition to study polymetallic sulfide, biological diversity, hydrothermal microbes and genetic resources in the southwest Indian Ocean.

Related Article:

Jiaolong sub collects perfect 'chimney vent' in Indian Ocean

New shrimp and moth species discovered in Sichuan

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-06-28

The shrimps found in a cave near Longmen Mountain, June 19. (Photo/Xinhua)

The moth, pictured on June 19.
(Photo/Xinhua)

New species of moth and shrimp have been discovered by scientists of the Insect Museum of West China in Chengdu who explored uninhabited caves in the city, reports the state-run China News Service.

According to the museum's curator Zhao Li, a team explored the caves in the Longxi-Hongkou National Nature Reserve and around Longmen Mountain in Pengzhou city. Many greater horseshoe bats live in the caves and the moths and shrimps live on the bats' feces.

The shrimps found in the caves in the mountain are around a centimeter long. Their bodies are almost transparent and they do not have a fan-shape tail or long feelers. They only move horizontally and swarm over bat feces when it drops into the water. The shrimps die after being exposed to the sun for over an hour or if the surrounding temperature fluctuates.

The moths have eyes but are not sensitive to light. They perch on the walls of the caves and can be easily caught with bare hands. Its larva crawl on the ground and seek out the bat feces for food.

The Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences said cave-living moths and shrimps were not discovered until recently in Sichuan but similar species have been seen in caves in neighboring Guizhou.

Help sought for mangroves, nature's dams

Deutsche Welle, 26 December 2013

Mangroves provide the tropics with protection from the increasing incidence of storms and flooding caused by taiphoons and tsunamis. But the coastal forests are in decline. Efforts are underway to bring them back.

A green forest, rising out of the ocean, hugging the coastline like a green lifebelt - mangroves live only in tropical areas. They need warm conditions and a mixture of salt and fresh water. Their branches and web of aerial roots are home to numerous bird species. The waters around their base are alive with fish, the sediment crawling with crabs.

But since the 1980s, mangroves have declined by around 35 percent for various reasons. They often have to make way for harbors, airports or housing. Even more of the mangroves have been sacrificed for shrimp ponds that feed international demand for the small crustaceans, Ulrich Saint-Paul of the University of Bremen's Leibniz Center for Tropical Marine Ecology, told DW.

Mangroves provide rich pickings
for fishermen

By destroying mangroves, tropical countries are paying a high price to consumers in other parts of the world who want cheap shrimp.

"[Mangroves] are not only important breeding areas for crabs and fish. They also protect the coast. They act as barriers against storms. And they play a major role in regulating the world's climate as a CO2 sink," explained Saint-Paul. Long-term objectives such as coastal protection, maintaining ecosystems or protecting the climate are being sacrificed for short-term profits, he added.

Building dams and diverting of rivers also poses a threat to mangroves.

"They need fresh water as well as salty," Rene Capote, who monitored mangroves in his native Cuba while working with the University of Bonn told DW. "Even if you are far inland and you divert or block a freshwater source, the water will stop reaching mangroves and kill them."

Mangroves also filter much of the sediment coming from the land side, keeping the sea water clean in many areas. "That is very important for tourism in beach areas, and for the health of related ecosystems like coral reefs," both important economic factors, said Capote.

Natural wave-breakers

In the case of extreme weather events, mangroves act as protective barriers in several different ways: by absorbing large amounts of water, reducing flooding after heavy rain and by breaking the power of wind and waves.

Mangrove roots absorb water
and filter sediment

The aerial roots and numerous branches of the mangroves obstruct the flow of the water, explained Femke Tonneijck, a manager at Mangrove Capital, a partnership between Wetlands International, the Nature Conservancy and several other organizations in Indonesia.

During Typhoon Haiyan, which hit the Philippines in November, mangroves could have reduced the impact of the storm surge.

A study by Wetlands International shows that every kilometer of mangroves can reduce the height of the water by up to half a meter. Even the smallest abatement can save lives. Tonneijck stressed that the trees also provide firewood and building material in the aftermath of an extreme weather event.

"But to really reduce a whole storm surge, you would need very wide greenbelts," she cautioned. For that reason, she advocates a combination of natural and man-made measures in threatened tropical areas where the mangroves have disappeared. "For example you could have a dike with a mangrove belt in front of it to protect the dike."

"Building with nature" in Indonesia

Traditional measures

Replanting the tidal forests can also help reclaim land that has eroded away. Tonneijck's group is working in an area of central Java where mangroves were replaced by aquaculture ponds for shrimp and fish, contributing to the erosion of hundreds of meters of coastline.

Restoration often fails in areas that suffer from erosion because the sediment balance is disturbed. Sediment can be trapped through "building with nature," using engineering techniques in combination with natural processes, says Tonneijck.

The project in Indonesia uses permeable dams made of local materials like bamboo and brushwood in front of the coastline. These structures mimic the function of mangrove roots and branches, as they dissipate waves and trap sediment. Once the sediment is stable, mangroves will naturally recolonize and form a new protective barrier. This method has been applied with salt marshes along the coasts of the Netherlands and Germany for centuries.

Bremen's Ulrich Saint-Paul says organizations like the World Bank are investing considerable amounts of money in projects to restore mangroves. "But in my view they always make one mistake: They plant the mangroves in monocultures, just like pine or fir plantations in Europe. This fails to take account of natural biodiversity, which lends a forest a far higher degree of ecological stability." 

Replanting mangroves helps if
conditions are right

Capote stressed the need for careful long-term planning and continual monitoring. "More frequently than not, after a few years all the planting effort has been lost, because the survival rate of the mangroves is low due to a lack of proper initial assessment and follow-up," he added.

Sustainable shrimp culture

Capote argues for a sustainable approach to existing mangroves as well as restoration projects. "You can have sustainable aquaculture in the sense that only a portion of the mangrove area is used and restored afterward, on a rotational basis."

Reducing pollution from shrimp feed is another important factor. "There is a limit to how many shrimps can be nursed in a mangrove area," Capote said. "You can either have very high short-term profits that end when all the mangrove area has been killed. Or you can have a longer-term approach, with lower profits, when mangroves are given time to recover naturally."

Awareness of the value of mangroves rises after every catastrophic extreme weather event in tropical areas. But it doesn't last long, says Ulrich Saint-Paul.

"We need a long-term education program, especially in schools and adult education, to make it clear to people in mangrove regions how important the forests are and why we need to protect them."

Dutch shrimp firm and EU market leader fined €27m for cartel forming

DutchNews.nl, 27 November 2013

 

The companies agreed on the price
of North Sea shrimps (Nos/ANP)

Three Dutch and one German shrimp processing firms have been fined a total €28.7m for cartel forming, with the biggest fine - €27m – going to Heiploeg.

The European Commission investigation found the companies had for years fixed the prices of North Sea shrimps, leading to too-high prices for consumers.

In a statement, competition commissioner Joaquín Almunia said: 'It is astonishing to see in what kind of detail North Sea shrimp traders in their frequent contacts with each other discussed commercially sensitive information concerning their business.

'And it is even more astonishing taking into account the sector had already received a clear warning via the previous conviction of some traders by the Dutch competition authority.'

Between them, the four firms controlled some 80% of the European North Sea shrimp market. Heiploeg, based in the small town of Zoutkamp in Groningen, is European market leader.

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Ministry hails WWF`s guidelines for sustainable fisheries

Antara News, Sun, June 10 2012

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Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - The maritime affairs and fisheries ministry hails the recent publication of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF)`s sustainable fisheries guidelines for Fisheries Better Management Practices.

(ANTARA/Yusran Ucang)

The guidelines are in line with the current fishery trend which follows the code of conduct for responsible fisheries (CCRF), Endroyono, an official of the maritime affairs and fisheries ministry, said here, Sunday.

The guidelines will be distributed among others to fishermen, farmers, and fishery companies in Indonesia, he said.

WWF-NTT officer Yeni Nomeni said the Fisheries Better Management Practices (BMP) guidelines, the first ever published in Indonesia, are very applicable by fisheries actors; fishermen, farmers and fisheries companies.

The guidelines have been drafted from learning experiences of a WWF-Indonesia team when they worked with fishermen and farmers in several regions such as in Tarakan and Berau in East Kalimantan, Aceh, Lake Toba in North Sumatra, Wakatobi in Southeast Sulawesi, Solor Alor Isles in East Nusa Tenggara, Bali, and Bitung in North Sulwesi.

WWF-Indonesia`s National Fisheries Program Leader Imam Musthofa Zainuddin said WWF`s BMP for Sustainable Fisheries are different with other similar guidelines since they emphasize both sustainability aspect and operational level.

The complete set of sustainable fisheries guidelines for Fisheries Better Management Practices concern a number of major fisheries commodities, for instance groupers, snappers, shrimps, tuna and tilapia.

Editor: Priyambodo RH

Marine Biologist is a Giant in World of Shrimp Medicine

Jakarta Globe, Lisa Siregar, April 03, 2012

Sidrotun Naim, the recipient of a For Women in Science fellowship, is a
 visiting scholar at Harvard University, where she hopes to crack the code
of  the deadly IMNV virus, which last year caused shrimp farmers in Indonesia
losses of up to $200 million. (JG Photos/Lisa Siregar)  

        

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After Aceh was devastated by the 2004 tsunami, its economy had to be rebuilt to meet the demand for food and to provide jobs.  Marine biologist Sidrotun Naim, 32, the “shrimp doctor” to her Acehnese colleagues, is playing a pivotal role in this rebuilding, and in the future health of Indonesian shrimp farms.  

Sidrotun arrived in Aceh’s Pidie district in 2006, after she graduated in marine biology from the University of Queensland in Australia. Working as part of a tsunami rehabilitation program through the World Wildlife Fund, Sidrotun was asked to consult on a shrimp breeding project.

“They said, ‘You’re clever and still young, you must study the shrimp and help us,’ ” Sidrotun said. And so she dedicated herself to shrimp, and helping the people of Pidie and Aceh get back on their feet.

Sidrotun is from a large Javanese family and excelled at school, picking up a number of prestigious scholarships as she furthered her studies. She is thought to be one of the first crustacean pathologists in a country that is one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world. 

Shrimp farming is a high-risk business, with shrimp being highly prone to a handful of illnesses, the most dangerous of which is white spot syndrome, a viral infection that can wipe out an entire broodstock (a term in aquaculture that refers to a group of mature individuals used for breeding purposes) in three days.

Although Indonesia is among the biggest shrimp exporters in the world,  along with China, Thailand and Vietnam, the country still does very little scientific research to support local shrimp farmers. Plenty of studies have been carried out on fish and crabs, Sidrotun said, but not shrimp.

“The shrimp industry began in the ’80s when people stopped catching shrimp and began breeding them,” she said. “But shrimp are prone to illness because of the density of the broodstock.”

In 2009, Sidrotun won a Fulbright scholarship to the University of Arizona in Tucson, a reference laboratory for studying illnesses in shrimp, where she is now completing her master’s thesis on the effects of adding tilapia (a type of fish) to shrimp broodstock. 

After 16 weeks of research in Arizona, Sidrotun found that tilapia can help the health of the stock.  In a regular broodstock, shrimp typically live at the bottom of the pond.

Sidrotun’s experiment involved breeding tilapia above the broodstock by putting them in a large fish net. This improved the quality of the water, as the fish seemed to consume the bacteria before it could filter down to the bottom of the pond and attack the shrimp.

“[Adding tilapia] also adds economic value for our farmers, because they can breed fish, algae and shrimp all in one broodstock,” Sidrotun said.

But the exact reasons behind the results are inconclusive, and she hopes to investigate the results further.

Last week, Sidrotun won a fellowship worth $40,000 from For Women in Science, a collaboration between Unesco and the L’Oreal Foundation in Paris. Sidrotun said she planned to use the fellowship, which was awarded by a jury led by Nobel winners, to fund her postdoctoral studies at Harvard’s medical school, where she is a visiting scholar.

The seventh of 11 children, Sidrotun said her family usually ate rice and tempeh when she was growing up, and rarely indulged in seafood. Her father, Abidullah, was a high school teacher, and is now retired with his wife, Siti Muslichah.

Despite a humble upbringing, half of Sidrotun’s siblings went to school overseas through scholarships, including her third brother, who is now pursuing his studies in management at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands.

Sidrotun has a  6-year-old son, and is married to Dedi Priadi, who studies psychology at the University of Arizona.

Upon completion of her dissertation and graduation, Sidrotun intends to study IMNV, one of the most threatening shrimp viruses found in Brazil and Indonesia. The virus first appeared in Indonesia in 2006, and has since caused harvest failures costing millions of dollars, she said.

“Last year, our farmers suffered a loss of $150 million to $200 million because of this virus,” she said. 

Upon graduating from the University of Arizona, Sidrotun intends to study how IMNV and shrimp interact. A large number of shrimp survive the virus, and she hopes to discover what allows some shrimp to survive while others die. It is a scientific long-shot, but every major breakthrough begins with a single step.

“To be able to design a system to minimize the risk, we have to understand the virus first,” she said. “I hope in 5 to 10 years, our native shrimp can be more stable, so that traditional farmers can have a more solid bargaining position.”

The fishing industry has not been kind to shrimp farmers, Sidrotun said. The industry will often help farmers start their stocks, she said, but then make them shoulder all the costs for failed harvests.

“It should be the part of the company’s risk and not just farmers, because some crucial things, like disease, are out of their control,” she said.

It might seem like a scientist dedicated to producing healthy shrimp stock would harbor a certain disdain for disease, but Sidrotun speaks about viruses with respect.

“Viruses have been on earth much longer than bacteria and humans have, so we have to understand them,” she said. “Through evolution, humans have become smaller and smaller, but what we don’t know is if viruses have become stronger.”

What we do know, she said, is that unlike plants and animals, which are all built on unchanging  DNA, viruses can mutate and adapt very quickly, which is why they are so difficult to study.

The cure for HIV, for example, continues to elude scientists despite years of research and billions of dollars in funding. But IMNV is more complicated because it is a double-strand, where HIV is a single-strand.

Sidrotun is passionate about improving the understanding of — and someday finding a cure for — IMNV.  She is currently working with Max Nibert at Harvard, who discovered the 3D structure of the virus.

Sidrotun also hopes her research will be useful for scientists invested in study of the rotavirus, which kills about 500,000 children every year worldwide.

She said, “A virus may seem like a minor thing because to us it’s invisible, but it can destroy months of efforts by our local farmers in days, so yes, it’s important.”

Govt. extends import on shrimp species

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Fri, 12/31/2010

The government has extended the ban on the import of shrimp from the species of penaeus vanamae due to reports that the shrimp carries thirteen viruses dangerous for human health as well as that of other shrimps.

According to Saut P. Hutagalung, the director of foreign marketing at the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry, the ban, which took into effect on Dec.23, will last indefinitely until the virus can be contained.

“The import [of the shrimp] will be banned for at least the first semester of 2011,” he said, as reported by kontan.co.id.

He added that the ban was based on the scientific findings of the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) which pointed out that the shrimp carried 13 viruses harmful for the health of humans and other shrimp species.

However, Fisheries Processing and Marketing Entrepreneurs Association chairman Thomas Darmawan said that the government should just limit and tighten vaname shrimp imports instead of implementing a full ban since the virus did not attack all countries.

“We can import from virus-free countries,” he added.

FAO rates RI as world`s fourth biggest shrimp producer

Antara News, Monday, November 22, 2010 15:43 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has placed Indonesia in fourth position on its list of shrimp producing countries in 2010 after China, Thailand and Vietnam, a fisheries ministry official said.

The ministry`s Chief of Statistic and Information bureau Soen`an H Poernomo said Indonesia was in fourth position after China was in the first position with a production 1.3 million tons, Thailand in second position with 560,000 tons and Vietnam in third position with 370,000 ons.

Marine and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad said last August 2010, the government had initially set the country`s shrimp production target for 2010 at 400,000 tons. But due to a disease that had infected shrimps, the figure had been revised downward to 350,000 tons.

The disease was still spreading in a number of shrimp producing regions such as Lampung, East Java and South Sulawesi.

To deal with diseases affecting shrimp and fish, the Marine and Fisheries Ministry was planning to build special shrimp and fish hospitals in Semarang, Central Java, and in Banten province at the end of 2010.

In 2008, Indonesia was able to produce 410,000 tons of shrimp making the country the third biggest shrimp producer in the world. Hence, the country`s shrimp exports in that year increased by 21 percent compered to 2007

During the past few years, Indonesia has been trying to increase its shrimp exports by entering new markets, namely in Russia, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

For 2014, the Marine and Fisheries Ministry`s shrimp production target was 699,000 tons.

Meanwhile, Secretary General of the People`s Coalition for Fishery Justice (KIARA), Riza Damani said the government must realize its shrimp pond revitalization program in an effort to boost shrimp production at home.

"The government must revitalize the program soon," he said.

He said that in Lampung there were at least 25,000 hectares of shrimp ponds which should be revitalized soon because their production at present was low. The revitalization was expected to increase farmers production.

The government was also urged to take stern actions against firms which had taken over traditional ponds in violation of existing regulations on the environment.

Shrimp farmers protest long-stalled refit program

Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandar lampung | Thu, 09/30/2010 9:37 AM

Hundreds of shrimp farmers staged a protest outside Lampung provincial administration Wednesday demanding an explanation for farm revitalization development that has not been completed on schedule.

The farmers, who are affiliated with the Windu Shrimp Plasma Farmers Association (PPPUW) of PT Aruna Wijaya Sakti (PT AWS), the company carrying out the project, disclosed that the joint venture agreement cited the revitalization project would be completed in 12 months ending May 2009.

However, the company requested the project be postponed until September 2009, but was still unable to meet the deadline.

PPPUW deputy leader Thowilun said the project had not shown progress since it was taken over by the company in July 2007.

He said the lack of progress has meant many shrimp farmers have not been able to earn a living since the ponds were not in operation while their debts had built up.

He said the farmers had initially welcomed the company that won the tender to carry out the project.

The company had then promised to revitalize the ponds owned by plasma farmers, including its supporting facilities. The move aimed at improving the welfare of farmers, employees and residents.

“However, PT AWS has never fulfilled its promises. Consequently, the shrimp farmers have become miserable,” Thowilun said.

“Now, each of us owe the company between Rp 80 million [US$9,000] and Rp 100 million. The debts will increase if the revitalization project is stalled and farmers cannot work.”

He said that during the management transfer to PT Central Proteinaprima (CP Prima), PT AWS’s parent company, thousands of plasma farmers had hoped for change.

“CP Prima had initially promised to revitalize 16 blocks of shrimp ponds in eight villages but failed

to deliver as only five blocks were completed.”

Thowilun said that farmers had expected an explanation from the company regarding on the revitalization program’s progress.

“When Maritime Affairs and Fishery Minister Fadel Muhammad visited Lampung three months ago, he even emphasized that PT AWS [and CP Prima] should stop operating there if they fail to complete the project,” he said.

During a hearing with a number of Lampung legislators and officials from the provincial administration, the farmers urged the legislature and governor to demand that PT AWS immediately complete the project.

“If necessary, the administration should take over PT AWS and replace it with other companies that have good intentions to improve people’s lives,” said legislator Syukri.

“We demand every debt burdened on farmers due to the delay be fully covered by PY AWS, as the core company,” he added.

Responding to the protest, CP Prima spokesman George Basuki denied the revitalization program had stalled. “So far, the program is still running on schedule,” he said.

Basuki also denied the delayed distribution of shrimp fry. He said the delay only took place in January due to the rainy season.

In response to the revitalization program, Basuki said the company management remained committed to complete it on schedule.