VOLUME 6 NUMBER 6 JU~E 2004

Announcements

Extension Demonstrations

Readers' contributions are invited with aloha, and much appreciated, though not all, can be used. They may be mailed, faxed oremailed to the editor at this address. Contributors understand that materials may be edited for space and other considerations.This newsletter is part of a cooperative project funded by the University of Hawaii Sea Grant Extension Service, the UHCooperative Extension Service, and the State of Hawaii Aquaculture Development Program.

Editor: Jim Styper875 Komohana St., Hilo, HI 96720-2757

telephone: 808 981 5199 fax: 808 981 5211 email: jstyper@hawaii.edu

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Workshop: Fish Disease Prevention andManagement: Preliminary Examination OnSaturday, July 24, this free workshop will bepresented at the Komohana AgriculturalComplex in Hilo from 9 AM to noon. Fol-lowing a brief introduction to fish health, thesession will focus on how to look at a fish

when disease is suspected. It will be helpfulto fish producers and hobbyists to be ableassess troubled fish, and to communicatethese results to those who can help later. Ex-amination of critical parts and areas of fishwill begin by eye, and progress to micro-scopic views of selected tissues. Slides andvideo will be shown for comparison. Theworkshop will be presented by Ms. DeeMontgomery-Brock from the statewide Dis-ease Management Program sponsored byCTSA and ADP, and Jim Szyper. It will be-gin at 9:00 A.M., with doors opening at 8:30for registration and refreshments. For furtherinformation call Jim at 981-5199 or email

j szyper@hawaii. edu.

Info Sources

A good site that provides both introductory

materials and some advanced technical infor-

mation on water quality issues iswww.fishdoc. co. uk/water/waterhome. htm.Major water properties and the effects of dif-ferent levels on fish are discussed.

A collection of info on the toxicity of pesti-cides and related materials to specific fishescan be found at www.pesticideinfo.org/List EcoChemSpecies.jsp.~Taxa Group='Fish'. Thanks to Gary Melt-zer for this item.

Your Aquaculture Extension Service tries todeliver useful information in many ways.One method with a long tradition is demon-stration. Farmers are well known to learn

from each other, particularly when one suc-ceeds at something new. We also set updemonstrations so that potential users can seeideas that work. A good example is thebiofilter built in a plastic trash can at theUHH farm, which has been observed andtried by some folks in our community.

Working technology is one thing. Productmarketing is another. We tell our clients thatthey should know how and where they could

sell a product before they invest in produc-tion systems, but we know that their situa-tions will be unique, and we don't have muchto offer except standard introductory printedmaterials. We don't usually set up produc-tion and marketing situations ourselves, be-cause we don't want to interfere in marketingby existing producers. Some past sales ac-tivities by university organizations havedrawn criticism.

A recent new opportunity came up thatserves as a marketing demonstration. Thefollowing article describes it. We hope itgenerates interest and thought. Let us know.

Tilapia at Hilo Farmer 's Marketby Cristin Gallagher

The UHH Aquaculture Club recently soldwhole, fresh, chilled tilapia at the SaturdayHilo Farmer's Market and received a varietyof reactions. Some people wanted to filltheir freezers with the fish; others saw onlythe word TILAPIA on the "fresh farmed tila-

pia" sign and sped up their walking pace.The countries of origin of the market's

prised and excited to see tilapia for sale andthey all asked if we would be there the fol-lowing week. Some wanted to tell their rela-tives to come and others wanted to bring acooler. The fish we sold were 1-3 poundsand up; we sold them by the piece as "small"or "large." Asian customers were amazed tosee the largest fish, nevertheless they boughtboth small and large depending on how theywere going to cook it. One woman boughttwo large fish to make stew and two smallfish to fry. Many Asian customers askedwhen and how we harvested and why we didnot just bring them live to the market. Afterchecking the gills to make sure the fish werefresh, they approved of our morning harvest-ing method of putting the fish in ice water.

Tilapia is a relatively new species in manyparts of the US and Caucasian customers atthe market asked a variety of questions de-pending on their perceptions. The most com-mon question by far: "What do you feed thetilapia?" In addition, many asked in whattype of system we raised the tilapia. Afterexplaining floating pellets, aboveground

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tanks, and that yes, I actually do eat tilapia,many were curious and decided to buy one totaste. One couple who came to the market ona motorcycle asked for ice in their bag so thefish would stay fresh on the ride home. An-other couple said they were trying to eathealthy and decided to purchase our tilapiabecause it was cheaper than the other fish atthe market. One man bought a small tilapiato sample because he heard that Jesus Christate tilapia.

Of the customers that stopped at the boothand did not buy tilapia, their reasons varied.Many had never tasted tilapia and did notwant to be disappointed after going throughthe work of cleaning it. One woman said shewould have bought tilapia if her cooler werein her car. One man said he would never buytilapia because these fish eat sewage. Weassured him there is no outflow into our

tanks, but he still did not want any.Our one-time tilapia sale at the Hilo

Farmer's Market proved profitable in manyways. We learned that there is an untappedtilapia market in Hilo with growth potentialas consumer awareness of tilapia increases.Consumers' perceptions of tilapia vary andthe key to success seems to be reliability.People who know that fresh tilapia tastesgood and are not able to find it elsewherewould keep coming back. Most people witha bias against tilapia will become consumersafter they are more informed, but of course,there are those whose minds you will neverchange. There will always be those who turntheir nose up at tilapia, but after our experi-ence at the Hilo Farmer's Market, I believethere will be a line of people already eager tobuy fresh-farmed tilapia.

Cristin Gallagher is a recent graduate of the UHHilo College of Agriculture's AquacultureProgram, who has been working as a studentassistant with the extension service for more thana year. 8'e are grateful for the help of JeanetteRondo, student assistant at the farm, andespecially for the large, generous and essential

help of Mr. Yoga Ida Bagus, a UHH businessmajor. The UHH Aquaculture Club has no plansfor further sales at the Farmer's Market. Anyonewho would like to try this opportunity can get thenecessary information from Jim Szyper.

TECHNICAL NOTES

Disease Diagnosis

It's often hard to tell why a fish is sick ordead. Many of us have seen fish that "havenothing wrong with them except that they' redead." This usually means that I! they haveno obvious signs of infection or parasites and2! it might be something about water proper-ties, or a subtle disease. But if measurementsdon't identify bad conditions, we' ll neverknow.

We are fortunate in Hawaii to have a

statewide Disease Prevention and Manage-ment Program, supported by the USDA Cen-ter for Tropical and Subtropical Aquaculture CTSA! and the state Aquaculture Develop-ment Program ADP!. They serve the com-munity with diagnostic, treatment, and edu-cational services. They discuss cases with usby phone and email, and they offer to exam-ine fish that we may send them from this is-land and others. However, the ideal ship-ment consists of a diseased fish that arrives

alive, or only recently dead. The air freightschedules and condition of fish don't alwaysmake that possible.

It is likely that more cases could be solved diagnosed! if more sick fish could be exam-ined for possible causes before shipment.Even if the examination shows that none of

the easily-tested problems exists, this is valu-able information. This is the rationale for the

July workshop announced on page 1 of thisnewsletter.

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