36 MARCH 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG TABLE 8. Summary of Aquaculture without Frontiers tsunami relief work. Location Project title & partners Species & activity Beneficiaries INDIA LACC tsunami relief Marine shrimp Multiple local farmers Tsunami #1/YSI (Tambak) Marine shrimp; 426 farming households in three pond rehabilitation districts of Aceh INDONESIA Tsunami #2/YSI (Hatchery) Marine shrimp; Three small-scale shrimp rehabilitation of hatcheries hatcheries rehabilitated, with consequential effect on seed supply Tsunami #3/Professionals Marine shrimp; Advice to another NGO working International pond rehabilitation, etc on Aceh tsunami relief Tsunami #4/YSI (Seaweed) Gracillaria culture Demonstration of seaweed culture as an alternative activity for tsunami-affected shrimp farmers (numbers not specifically quantified) Tsunami #5/MercyCorps Marine shrimp; Advice to another NGO working (Technical advice) pond rehabilitation, etc on Aceh tsunami relief Tsunami 6/YSI – Gracillaria and marine Continuation and expansion of Tsunami #4/YSI; AquaFish/CRSP shrimp polyculture training in seaweed culture; improved seeds; (Sustainable coastal pilot project of Gracillaria & shrimp polyculture aquaculture) (numbers of beneficiaries not specifically quantified but potentially considerable) The AwF Nepal project has had very good impacts and Nepal is moving very fast now towards commercial fish farming2. One of the project recipients said: It is a most profitable business because if we invest 1 Rupee (US$ 0.01) to buy a fingerling and stock it in a pond, there is no need of other investment - feeding can be just kitchen wastes - and that fingerling will grow and be ready to sell at minimum of 100 Rupees (US$ 1.0). Is there any other business that gives such a high return? Tsunami relief Aquaculture without Frontiers carried out tsunami relief in Indonesia and India, supported by YSI Incorporated and the Latin American and Caribbean Chapter of WAS (Table 8). AwF work in Aceh included shrimp pond and hatchery rehabilitation and training in the culture of other organisms to diversify production by the local shrimp farming community. In India AwF aid was, unusually, in the form of small grants to specific shrimp farmers that had lost their livelihoods; this program was organized by the Fisheries Department of Kerala Agricultural University3. The devastation caused by the tsunami in Aceh was extreme. Shrimp ponds and livelihoods were destroyed (Fig. 8) and many family lives lost. Some of AwF’s work in Aceh was coordinated with other organizations, including a cash-for-work program with the Network of Aquaculture Centres in Asia-Pacific (NACA), where farmers who had lost their only source of income were paid to reconstruct their ponds (Fig. 9). The scale of the work can be illustrated by the following cutting from a project report (AwF 2013f): By early June, 85 farmers in both villages had been working for approximately three weeks, for a total of 1,530 worker-days. During this period they cleared approximately 2,500 m of canals, 78 percent of the original objective, and removed about 1,650m3 of silt. Further AwF work in Aceh expanded into training shrimp farmers to diversify into other forms of aquaculture (Table 8), including polyculture and the culture of red seaweeds (Fig. 10). Some AwF activities in Aceh were supported by the University of Arizona and the Aquaculture Collaborative Research Support Program. One intervention: • Conducted two workshops with artisanal aquaculture farmers and another for representatives from NGOs, FAO, Indonesian Department of Fisheries staff, and faculty and students from Ladong Fisheries College; • Visited three hatchery restoration projects partially supported by AwF to observe and consult on progress and future efforts; • Delivered donated textbooks, reference materials,
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