24/07/2017: Zinpro Corporation names Dr Mihai Sun as aquaculture nutritionist

Zinpro Corporation announces that Mihai Sun, Ph.D., has joined the company as aquaculture nutritionist

Mihai Sun, Ph.D.
Image credit: Zinpro

 In this position, he provides technical support and research expertise for the company’s aquaculture customers across the globe. In addition, he develops and implements research protocols, as part of the Zinpro Corporation Research and Nutritional Services (RNS) team, to identify current and future needs for trace mineral nutrition in aquaculture production and provides solutions for customers.

“Mihai brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to provide our global aquaculture customers with research and technical support specific to this industry,” says Terry Ward, Ph.D., RNS global director, Zinpro Corporation.

“We are excited to have Mihai on our team to further help our customers to improve performance and wellness of their aquaculture species and to answer their questions about optimal nutrition for aquaculture production.”

Dr Sun has authored or co-authored a variety of peer-reviewed research articles related to aquaculture nutrition and is currently an animal nutrition reviewer for the North American Journal of Aquaculture.

He earned his doctorate in animal nutrition from the University of Missouri-Columbia, his master’s degree in fish nutrition from Pukyong National University in Busan, South Korea, and his bachelor’s degree in aquaculture from Dalian Ocean University in Dalian, China.

In addition to his research and academic pursuits, Dr Sun has spent more than a decade working in the aquaculture industry, most recently serving as an aquaculture nutritionist for a North American feed manufacturer with a focus on specialty and aquatic feeds. He has also worked as an aquafeed technical manager for a feed company in Shanghai, China.

As an industry leader in trace mineral nutrition for livestock and poultry, Zinpro is committed to delivering the technical expertise, products and educational tools needed to help customers improve the performance and profitability of their operations.

Visit the Zipro website, HERE.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news

24/07/2017: The benefits of abrasion and UV resistance nets

by Elihai Radzinski, Director, Fibras Industriales S.A.

Fibras Industriales S.A., commercially known as FISA has been around for over 70 years

Until the late 90s, the company focused mostly on the South American market with some sales to central and North America. The main reason for this was that until the millennium, Peru would fish around nine million tonnes per year and with Chile fishing an additional four million tonnes, the two countries alone represented around 15 percent of world fishing in terms of volume. 

 

Image credit: FISA

As FISA had around 40 percent market share of those two countries together with some additional sales to Ecuador, Mexico and North America, the company had a market share above eight percent of world netting requirements and much higher for ocean fishing considering that until recently FISA only dealt with multifilament netting and not the monofilament introduced over the past five years.

As always, times change and markets change, therefore over the past 20 years FISA has dedicated more and more resources for growth in the aquaculture industry on a global scale. The first stage was to divert existing knotless Raschel machines towards production for the Chile Salmon aquaculture market.

As this market grew with extreme speed, it was within no time that FISA was obliged to invest in new machinery for this netting and with this extra capacity new markets were entered like the lake farmed tilapia in Honduras and Mexico and during the first years of the century, FISA started supplying rigged cages and bulk netting to European customers with tougher weather conditions such as The Canary Islands and Greece.

Each time the company entered new markets, we learnt together with our customers the specific requirements for each market and developed new products that better suit each requirement. The biggest advantage FISA has over other netting manufacturers is that we have a complete range of products and not just Raschel Knotless netting. This means we can always innovate and adapt to each markets specific requirements.

FISA Polymax ropes
In The Canary Islands, there are very strong currents that cause the vertical ropes of the cages to rub with the structural cage. This leads to friction and abrasion of the rope. Apart from adding plastic hoses to the first 1.5 meters of the rope, we proposed to our customer the use of Polymax ropes instead of polypropylene or Polysteel.

For those of you not familiar with the difference between these products, Polysteel is basically a mix of polyethylene and polypropylene (mixed at extrusion stage, not production of rope stage) thus giving the product the benefits of both materials. In the case of Polymax the rope is composed of Polyethylene and Polyester a combination that highlights flexibility and high abrasion resistance. What we have done is taken a polyethylene rope and wrapped it in multifilament Polyester.

This product is slightly more expensive but its benefits in abrasion resistance and at the same time UV resistance (thus delaying the downgrading of the rope) greatly outweigh the extra costs that can add up to a couple of hundred US dollars per cage. Polyester has a higher density than the monofilament polysteel or polyethylene thus could increase the weight of the cage in an unnecessary manner.

That is the main reason we have not proposed polyester ropes but we definitely don’t discard that option for customers willing to try it although it would be more recommendable to use the FISA polytar rope.

FISA Polytar ropes
An additional product we recommend for harsh conditions is the Polytar rope that is made of high tenacity polyester but at the same time coated with a tar solution developed by FISA that will work as a lubricant during manoeuvring specially with the stretching of the rope in open sea conditions.

It is important to mention that we don’t simply tar the ropes but rather the actual twines that compose the ropes so it is not just a top layer of protective tar but also actually a rope produced with tar inside. This protective coating also gives added protection against the UV rays.

Read the full article, HERE.

Visit the FISA website, HERE.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news

Biomin company profile

BIOMIN are dedicated to finding innovative, trend-setting solutions that empower their customers to master existing and future challenges in animal nutrition– the natural way. The application of their scientific know-how and expertise, based on an in-depth understanding of their customer’s needs and concerns, enables them to deliver solutions that support animal health, optimise performance and production efficiency.

Research and development is one of the cornerstones of BIOMIN. Their strong in-house research and development, and global cooperation with leading institutions and organisations form the basis by which innovative solutions are developed for their customers.

Through joint projects with renowned universities and research institutes, BIOMIN is constantly in touch with the latest scientific know-how, from which novel feed additives are developed and produced. Their global network of collaborating institutions has grown to over 100.

One of the cornerstones of BIOMIN’s success is the ongoing improvement of their inhouse quality standards. In 1997, BIOMIN introduced the international ISO 9001 standard. The HACCP system, introduced subsequently at BIOMIN’s production sites, provides the quality assurance our customers seek from them. In addition, the feed quality standards QS and GMP+ guarantee the utmost degree of control and quality for their products – from raw material inputs right through to the final product.

Concerns over climate change and the role of greenhouse gases continue to rise. In September 2011, BIOMIN was internationally recognised through the award of ISO 14040 ‘Life Cycle Assessment’ certification. By optimising feed use and improving animal performance, it is possible to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from livestock operations.Through innovative production technologies and advanced, scientific know-how, BIOMIN has pioneered several trend-setting solutions for a range of animal nutrition products, all of which utilise fully natural processes and ingredients.

An in-depth understanding of what the customer’s needs and concerns are has enabled BIOMIN to create and deliver solutions in-line with performance and efficiency goals.

Visit the BIOMIN website, HERE.

The Aquaculturists
This blog is maintained by The Aquaculturists staff and is supported by the
magazine International Aquafeed which is published by Perendale Publishers Ltd

For additional daily news from aquaculture around the world: aquaculture-news