Toshi's work

We transported San pedro broodstock from Antofagasta to our hatchery, 300 miles away from Iquique , on Dec. 27, 2007 . Antofagasta is capital city of 2nd region and the biggest city at north of Chile http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antofagasta . The city is developing very quickly by expansion of mineral businesses, especially exportation of copper. In fact, the population increased from 297 thousands (2002) to 548 thousands (2006) and it has big shopping mall and hotels. We left Iquique in the afternoon passing Atacama Desert drive all night. One of my colleague wanted see his mother who lives near Antofagasta and he turned to sub road. The road was wide and asphalted at the beginning then going to gravel and finally sandy road. So, he chose wrong road and the car got stacked in beach around 10 PM . We tried to pull out the car joking at beginning but were silent passed 3 hours. Finally, he requested mother to send somebody to pull out the car. We arrived Antofagasta Univers...

I worked in Ecuador as JICA ( Japan International Cooperation Agency http://www.jica.go.jp/ ) expert in CENAIM (Centro Nacional de Acuicultura e Investigaciones Marinas "Edgar Arellano M." http://www.cenaim.espol.edu.ec/ ) from 1993 to 1997. The jobs were technical transfer of marine fish seed production, particularly broodstock collection, maturation inducement, seed production and juvenile rearing of snook and flounder. The part of broodstock collection is one of the most important and exciting job, because premium broodstock promise to produce excellent seeds. We used to buy the fish from fisherman directory by cash during fishing. Once we pay, the cost was non refundable even if we found some defect of the fish later. Thus, broodstock purchaser require the abilities which evaluate fish quality in an instance under chaotic fishing condition. The conditions of broodstock are as follows. · The fish is matured or the size is able to mature · Less ...

I worked in Ecuador as JICA ( Japan International Cooperation Agency http://www.jica.go.jp/ ) expert in CENAIM (Centro Nacional de Acuicultura e Investigaciones Marinas "Edgar Arellano M." http://www.cenaim.espol.edu.ec/ ) from 1993 to 1997. The jobs were technical transfer of marine fish seed production, particularly broodstock collection, maturation inducement, seed production and juvenile rearing of snook and flounder. Fine flounder ( Paralichthys woolmani "Lenguado") is one of very popular fish in Ecuador . The fish were fished by gill-net at off-shore where 30 to 50 m depth during winter season, June to September. Water temperature showed 21 to 25C at surface during collection season. The nets, more or less 10 cm mesh and 200 m long, were set in the afternoon and raise in the following morning. We followed the fisherman in the morning and purchased fish which was ideal for brood stock. The conditions for brood stock are the same as robalo. Especially, d...

I worked in Malawi as JICA ( Japan International Cooperation Agency http://www.jica.go.jp/ ) expert in NAC ( National Aquaculture Center in Domasi http://project.jica.go.jp/malawi/5241021E1/index.htm ) from 2000 to 2004. The jobs were technical transfer of broodstock collection, seed production and juvenile rearing of carp, catfish and tilapia. Ntchila ( Labeo mesops ) is very popular and abundant fish before like it figure show in coin. I hard that Ntchila gather and swing grasses at shore during spawning season. But we can't see in market except inside national park. We collected Ntchila at Shire River inside Liwonde National Park http://www.theplateau.com/malawi/liwonde.htm with fishing permission. First thing to do, we visit fisherman village to get fisherman and bring to fishing area to drew a canoe. Fisherman set drift gill net on sunset and drew a net every an hour and it was done until late midnight . Brood fish should not have any damage, such as bleeding f...

I worked in Malawi as JICA ( Japan International Cooperation Agency http://www.jica.go.jp/ ) expert in NAC ( National Aquaculture Center in Domasi http://project.jica.go.jp/malawi/5241021E1/index.htm ) from 2000 to 2004. The jobs were technical transfer of broodstock collection, seed production and juvenile rearing of carp, catfish and tilapia. We collected broodstock at Shire River inside Liwonde National Park http://www.theplateau.com/malawi/liwonde.htm with fishing permision. The fish were scarce due to over fishing except inside the park where fishing is prohibited. Shire River is 402 Km length starting from the outlet of Lake Malawi passing through the middle of country to Zambia . We had fishing during night time when fish are active. We worked with park ranger who armed with M1 rifle to protect from poacher and animals. There was atime when a crocodile was tangled by the gill-net and pulled our canoe. Hippos rouse to the surface and intimidated to blow snort wh...