MRCMariculture Research Center

HISTORY

1917 Mariculture Aquaculture Experiment Station, formerly Tainan Branch, Was established in Tainan City.
After World War II, Tainan Fisheries Branch was a branch under Taiwan Fisheries Research Institute, Taiwan Province.
Mar 1976 The Branch was moved to Cigu, Sangu, Tainan County from Tainan City.
July 1998 The Branch was subordinated to Fisheries Research Institute, Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan.
Sep. 2002 The Branch and Taishi Branch combined and became the Mariculture Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute.

MISSION

Establishment of the isolation experimental facility of transgenic organisms in aquaculture.
Development of culture, breeding, and propagation in marine finfish and shellfish.
Development of artificial feeds in marine finfish and shellfish.
Inspection and analysis of aqua-product and cultural environment.
Service of aquaculture technique and prevention of disease in marine organism.
Study on the resource management and cultured mode of marine cultured organism .

RESEARCH

Establishment of the isolation experimental facility of transgenic organisms in aquaculture. 　 　 Development of culture, breeding, and propagation in marine finfish and shellfish. 　 　 Development of artificial feeds in marine finfish and shellfish. 　 　 Inspection and analysis of aqua-product and cultural environment. 　 　 Service of aquaculture technique and prevention of disease in marine organism. 　 　 Study on the resource management and cultured mode of marine cultured organism . 　 　 　 Establishment of the isolation experimental facility of transgenic organisms in aquaculture The aquatic GMO (genetically modified organism, GMO) become an important research direction either in academic or in economic potential. To prevent serious impact on ecosystem caused by GMO and provide an isolated-experimental facility to do risk assessment, we need to establish a standard experimental isolation. Mariculture Research Center, Fisheries Research Institute set “ the isolation experimental facility of transgenic organism in aquaculture “ and establish the source management acquisition of information for running the transgenic finfish experimental facility. We wish the facility could become an important risk assessment center, which determinate whether a GMO can be distribute on market. 　 　 　 Production of healthy grouper broodstock and larvae In recent years, some virus as nervous necrosis virus (NNV) and Taiwan grouper iridovirus (TGIV) often cause heavy mortality of grouper during larviculture . The transmission of virus is considered to both horizontal and vertical infection. So, the egg and larvae of grouper may be virus carrier. To solve the current problem of virus infection among groupers, production of virus-free fertilized egg, disinfection of ponds, water, tools and feedstuff, as well as quarantine of viruses are the short-term methods. Currently, to achieve mass production of grouper larvae, establishment of the SPF grouper broodstock is in process. 　 　 　 Establishment of the culture system through constructed wetlands The experiment is to build a set of water-circulating facilities on a piece of constructed wetland reformed from traditional milkfish ponds, and let it become a feasible system for cultivating fish, shell and shrimp brood stock. It is expected that the experiment will be a pragmatic model for enhancing fishery's economic profit. 　 　 　 Study of probiotic bacteria in shrimp culture To clear the relationship between the survival rate of tiger shrimps and bacterial composition of their digestive tract, we investigated the total bacterial number and bacterial flora in infected and healthy shrimps. The total bacterial numbers of the wild, cultured and disease shrimps are 7.6× 10 5 CFU/g (body weight), 9.2×10 5 CFU , and 5.3×10 8 CFU/g, respectively. We found that Aeromonas spp. and Pseudomonas spp. were dominant bacterial fauna in normal shrimp. In infect shrimp, Vibrio sp. was dominate species, and its number was much higher than that in normal ones. Application of probiotic bacteria to feed shrimp could prevent them from disease. The methods should be a new trend to culture healthy shrimp. 　 　 　 Studies on the veterinary drug residues and tissue pharmacokinetics in fish Use of veterinary drugs in aquaculture may cause health, environmental, and drug-resistant microbial problems. The aim of our laboratory was to develop analytical procedure to be applied in the drug residues determines and pharmacokinetic studies in fish. 　 　 　 Study and application of immunostimulant on abalone The small abalone, Haliotis diversicolor , is a widely cultured gastropod in Taiwan. However, mass mortalities caused by diseases in the abalone have occurred in recent years. The pathogens have been deduced to possibly be Vibrio spp. and a herpes-like virus. Abalone does not possess immunoglobulins. The major roles of defense systems in abalones are hemocytes and humoral systems. When the abalone is challenged with the virus and bacteria, the immune systems will response to face the infection. We thus feed the abalone with immunostimulants, which can increase the disease-resistance of abalone, and investigate their effects on the immune responses of abalone. 　 　 　 Development of artificial feeds on shrimp broodstock High quality and low pollution of artificial feeds are developed to increase source of shrimp broodstock. We conducted experiments to investigate effect of diets containing different sources of lipid on growth, survival rate, sexual maturation, and spawning condition of shrimp broodstock. The results indicated that the feed containing suitable composition of lipid could partially replace fresh food to stimulate sexual maturation and spawning. 　 　 　 Establishment of multi-culture system in hard clam pond with net cage of shrimp and fish Auto-feeding feeder does not need to use special ordering products. Parts of the feeder can be processed by oneself from general material and be assembled by oneself. The feeder can be installed on the square frame of the three-dimensional type that floating on water in net cage. The square frame and floating vessel are consisted by oneself from various sizes of PVC pipe. These square structures of net cage that can be installed upright on water surface and floated are consisted by oneself from various sizes of PVC pipe also. 　 　 　 Study on the resource management of hard clam and cultured mode The experiment was conducted to collect the basic data of hard clam culture and introduce HACCP into the cultural procedure in practice. The focus of management is not only notice on the quality of water resource for clam culture, but also detected the material for human health for example the heavy metal. Beside water resource, to analysis the concentration of heavy metal on feeds is necessary too. The relationship of heavy metal between feed and cultured hard clam is need to realize. 　 　 　 Setup of standardization and specification in logistic system of hard clam This study aimed to research the sands expelling method, grade standardization and packing design for hard clam. The results showed the best sands expelling condition for hard clam was in 15-20 ppt of saline water for 1.5 hours, and each container loaded 20-30 kg. The grade standard of hard clam separated to super-excellent, excellent, senior and middle. Packing design for hard clam can use vacuum treatment. 　 　 　 Mass production of the cultchless oyster and its pre-market rearing and changes in quality after depuration The oyster ( Crassostrea gigas ) in Taiwan is one of the important commercial mollusks. The main goal in the present study is to understand and solve the problems encountered during the production of cultchless oyster. Several techniques including natural spawning, diet programming and natural settlement are applied. An pre-market rearing and depuration system is developed, too. The oysters under stock rearing with algae reveals the highest average weight, soft contain index, glycogen contain, and survival rate. The optimal depuration system are flowing water systeam and low temperature depuration. The oysters had beast depuration at 20 ° C than other temperatures. The quantities of oysters reached raw-eating sanitary standard after 6 hours flowing depuration seawater.

PROSPECT

　 　 Development in physiological and ecological studies of marine finfish and shellfish and their aquaculture.
　 　 Development of aqua-product inspection service center.
　 　 Establishment of the isolation experimental facility of transgenic organisms in aquaculture.
　 　 Service and extension of aquaculture in marine organisms.