8 SEPTEMBER 2017 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG BOOK REVIEW This book is an update and expansion of Flowing Water Fish Culture, first published by CRC in 1994. The once 160-page book is now 272 pages. The 11-chapter core of the original book has been updated, with a major new section on “static water fish culture,” consisting of eight chapters. The strength of this book remains the section on flowing water fish culture. Most of the early chapters are classic raceway engineering, based on the pioneering work of Haskell, Piper, Willoughby and Westers, among others. Most of the early work on raceway engineering focused on rainbow trout farming and so this book emphasizes the culture of coldwater species in flowing water systems, although some information is provided about warmwater species such as tilapia and channel catfish. One of the strengths of this book is that this information is now gathered in one place, with a distinctively practical focus. The early chapters include discussion of the effect of temperature on growth, water sources – including a discussion of water flow in channels and pipes – and different kinds of culture units. There are two chapters on oxygen, one about the solubility of oxygen in water and the other about the oxygen requirements of fish, including respiratory physiology and effects of hypoxia. This focus on fish physiology is appropriate because it is the basis for understanding carrying capacity in flow-through systems. The section on carrying capacity is quite useful, with a review of methods based on feed loading, fish length and oxygen consumption rate, again with reference to rainbow trout culture. A discussion of fish rearing density, the spatial requirements of fish and use of the lengthbased density index of Piper conclude the chapter. Unfortunately, there was little discussion of carrying capacity with respect to warmwater species, despite the existence of commercial projects with tilapia in raceways. As understanding of fish bioenergetics has deepened, estimates of carrying capacity have become increasingly refined. To this point, the concept of cumulative oxygen consumption (see Colt, J. and K. Orwicz. 1991. Modeling production capacity of aquatic culture systems under freshwater conditions. Aquac. Eng. 10:1-29) was not addressed and deserved some treatment. The sections on reaeration, aeration and oxygenation are excellent, with many illustrative photos and drawings. The information on some of the aeration technologies is a bit dated and there is no discussion of airlift pumps in raceways but in general the subject is covered well. Similarly, there is an excellent section on pure oxygen systems, including PSAs, U-tubes, downflow bubble contactors (Speece cones), and LHOs. A short section on degassing ends the chapter and much more could have been written about this important topic. The chapter on ammonia production and toxicity covers the basics and has some nice photographs of gill hyperplasia. The discussion of ammonia toxicity should have been updated to include consideration of the Aquatic Life Ambient Water Quality Criteria for Ammonia - Freshwater published by EPA in 2013. In general, ammonia criteria are now more stringent than previously published estimates. The chapter on effluent control emphasizes solids removal in raceway quiescent zones and this subject is treated comprehensively. There was no discussion about diet modification as a way to control phosphorus discharge. The short chapter on water recirculation was adequate but fairly superficial, given the complexity of the subject. It is also difficult to understand why a chapter on water recirculation is included in a book on flowing water fish culture because water flow between unit operations in a recirculating system is not the same as using flowing water to provide oxygen and remove wastes in raceways. Readers interested in the subject would be better served by the so-called “Yellow Book” on Recirculating Aquaculture by Timmons and Ebeling. The second major section of the book is about static water fish culture. In recognition of the fact that most global fish production occurs in ponds, the author elected to expand the original book on flowing water fish culture to include consideration of static ponds. The section begins with a short (9-page) review of limnology (emphasizing stratification), eutrophication, DO dynamics, energy transfer and lake biology. The next chapter provides sixteen “Swingle’s principles” of static water aquaculture. To the best of my knowledge, there has been no formal publication of these, although these basic principles are fundamental to an understanding of pond aquaculture. They are related to pond fertility, plant production and fish production, fertilization and feeding, and carrying capacity. Another short (6-page) chapter on the ecology of static aquaculture ponds touches on the basics of pond food webs and includes a good discussion of fish growth and fish production, including the underused concept of “critical standing crop” as well as carrying capacity. The 5-page chapter on photosynthesis and respiration barely does justice to these critical processes, as does a short chapter on alkalinity and liming. The chapter on nutrient cycles and fertilization is somewhat more comprehensive, although the author would have been better served summarizing the current state-of-the-art understanding of the topic, rather than reviewing the rather lengthy history of fertilization research studies. A final chapter on feeding and aeration feels like an afterthought. Much of this material is better covered in the inexpensive water quality books authored by Claude Boyd. The end of nearly every chapter includes around ten practical sample problems, for which the answers are worked out in an appendix. All the photographs are black and white and some are dark and low-quality. Although the book is intended to be used as a textbook for a two-semester college course on aquaculture, it might be more useful to producers of fish in flow-through systems. There is an abundance of practical information, with quantitative analysis of problems and principles where appropriate. The examples could be used by fish farmers to better understand the operation of their own flow-through facility. — John A. Hargreaves, Editor-in-Chief Aquaculture Technology: Flowing Water and Static Water Fish Culture by Richard W. Soderberg, CRC Press, 2017
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