Economic analysis of Barramundi (Lates calcarifer) (Bloch 1790), in Pakistan and opportunities for its aquaculture development

1425-1434Barramundi, (Lates calcarifer) is one of the most commercially important fish species. In Pakistan, farming of this species is relatively new. Article delivers the economic analysis of Barramundi and its fishery resources in Pakistan. The analysis includes the capture production, aquaculture production and market price. The Capture production of Barramundi in Pakistan has shown a declining trend by average at 18 t y-1 from 605 t in 1986 to 121.2 t in 2018. Similarly, wholesale and retail market prices witnessed an increase from 2003 to 2018. During this period, the wholesale price rose to 384.3 PKR/kg from 69 PKR/kg, while the retail price surged to 395.2 PKR/kg from 97 PKR/kg. On the other hand, the increasing operational fishing fleets from 15513 (1990) to 30000 (2018) has reduced Fishery resources of barramundi i.e. from 312 ton to 130 and its body weight from 13.42 kg to 3.5 kg during the period from 1990 to 2018. On the contrary, aquaculture production registered a rising trend by average of 0.5 t y-1 from 05 t in 2009 to 8.2 t in 2018. The rise in aquaculture production of Barramundi is not satisfactory when compared to its growth rate in other countries like Bangladesh, Thailand, Australia, China, India etc. In this study, we find out the major causes of non-satisfactory rise in aquaculture production by the using AGR model. Results show that the main reasons beyond decline in the growth included inaccessibility of Barramundi Seed, unavailability of Barramundi Hatcheries and lack of government Support

Microbial Induced Carbonate Precipitation: Environments, Applications, and Mechanisms

Since the beginning of life on Earth, microbes are incessantly interacting with minerals. Microbial mineral dissolution and biomineralization are two key processes, both playing crucial roles in the Earth biogeochemistry and having significant applications in technology at large and in biological technologies for environmental protection in particular. Our current knowledge of such phenomena, despite the considerable amount of work done in this regard, is far from being complete. The current understanding of the role of microorganisms in mineral precipitation is here reviewed in the light of the environmental characteristics driving the microorganism's activity, the specific microbial ability in mineral precipitation, and the environments from which mineral precipitating microorganisms have been isolated. This review focuses on microbial-mediated mineral precipitation in different natural and man-altered environments, microbiological methods and their applications like soil consolidation, concrete healing

Co-Precipitation of Cd, Cr, Pb, Zn, and Carbonates Using Vibrio harveyi Strain Isolated from Mediterranean Sea Sediment

Heavy metal contamination is listed among the most alarming threats to the environment and human health. The detrimental effects of heavy metals in the natural environment span from a reduction of biodiversity to toxic effects on marine life—through microplastic born heavy metals, to impairment of microbial activity in the soil, and to detrimental effects on animal reproduction. A host of different chemical and biological technologies have been proposed to alleviate environmental contamination by heavy metals. Relatively less attention has been paid to the microbial precipitation of heavy metals, as a side mechanism of the most general process of microbially induced calcite precipitation (MICP). This process is currently receiving a great deal of interest from both a theoretical and practical standpoint, because of its possible practical applications in concrete healing and soil consolidation, and its importance in the more general framework of microbial induced mineral precipitation. In this study, we analyse the ability of the marine bacteria Vibrio harveyi in co-precipitating CaCO3 minerals, together with Cd, Cr, Pb, and Zn added in form of nitrates, from solutions containing CaCl2. The precipitated carbonatic minerals were a function of the different heavy metals present in the solution. The process of co-precipitation appears to be rather effective and fast, as the concentrations of the 4 heavy metals were reduced in 2 days by 97.2%, on average, in the solutions. This bioremediation technology could be used as environmental friendly procedure to de-contaminate suitable environmental matrices. The high performance of this process makes it particularly interesting for an upscaling from lab to field