UNAIR NEWS – Universitas Airlangga’s Faculty of Fisheries and Marine (FPK) (UNAIR) invited a Malaysian professor Prof. Dr. Wan Maznah Wan Omar to give a guest lecture. In a guest lecture on Tuesday, April 23, 2019 at the FPK Building, Prof. Maznah talked about the Phycological Research for Sustainable Aquaculture.
Prof. Dr. Wan Maznah Wan Omar is a professor from the School of Biological Sciences Universiti Sain Malaysia. The guest lecture, she explained about phycological research or study of algae.
According to her, algae is very important in an ecology and acts as the first autotrophic organism that forms a food web in the waters. In addition, macroalgae production for the benefit of human consumption in Asia, South America and Africa is the largest developed in aquaculture industry.
“There are many aquaculture studies and a wide range of them. This is because algae also have many characteristics that can be studied in various studies in the world of aquaculture itself, “said Prof. Maznah.
Prof. Maznah also said that the diversity of research carried out was also one of the effects of Industrial Revolution 4.0.
Prof. Maznah stated that various species of algae found mostly are very useful as natural feed, especially for juvenile shrimp. Prof. Maznah mentioned examples of natural feed that has been cultivated as juvenile like Nannochloropsis sp. , Chlorella sp. , Tetraselmis sp. , and Chaetoceros sp.
“There are many kinds of algae culture systems, such as food, animal feed, useful for aquaculture, waste treatment, nutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals, biogas, and biofuels, “said Prof. Maznah.
Algae cultivation is indeed closely related to the feed industry. It returns to the main function of algae itself as the first autotrophic organism that forms a food web in the waters.
In the guest lecture, crop failures that often occur in algae farmers were also discussed. These failures can occur due to climatological variations and shifts in the ecological regime from time to time.
Failure of algae harvest can also occur due to applied traditional methods, low knowledge on algae life cycle, and hybridization of cultivated algae strains with wild algae.
From the material that has been delivered, Prof. Waznah hoped that students can develop natural feed cultivation in the field of aquaculture.
The guest lecture held on Tuesday was one of the supporting courses for Natural Feed Cultivation (BPA) for fourth semester students of FPK UNAIR. The participants were students of Aquaculture program. The guest lecture is mandatory because in addition to getting knowledge that is useful for soft skills, students were also honed through their presence in the guest lecture hall. (*)
Author: Dhea Meidiana
Editor: Binti Q. Masruroh
