AID grant no. HNE-0158-G-00-2062-00 to Texas A & M Research Foundation for a cooperative marine technology program for the Middle East

Research will measure the effect of the trophodynamics of the Eastern Mediterranean coastal shelf ecosystem on commercially important fishes; evaluate the ecosystems of two lakes in Israel and Egypt; and assess the feasibility of fish decontamination. In the first research area, Texas A&M in cooperation with the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology and Israel"s Kinneret Limnological Laboratory will outline the food web leading to commercially important fishes, with consideration given to the role of picoplankton and nanoplankton, and the dominant prey of selected fishes at the larval, juvenile, and adult phases; quantify standing stocks of commercially important fishes, examining production rates, and the potential for increasing the harvest; and attempt to identify unexploited stocks of pelagic species, which could support an offshore fishery. In the second research area, Texas A&M will work with same two organizations to study the ecosystems of Lake Kinneret in Israel, and Lake Qarun in Egypt. In Lake Kinneret, the researchers will examine phytoplankton, nutrient content, water quality, fish stocks, management policies, commercial fisheries, food webs, and the impact of different fish populations on the Lake"s ecosystem. In Lake Qarun, they will assess water quality and soil conditions, the relationship between parasitic diseases and fish kills, growth rates of endemic and introduced fish and prawn species, the effectiveness of planting fish, and the catch efficiency of various fishing equipment. Research will result in the development of a stocking policy. The goal of the third research area is to improve seafood safety by constructing a scientific and technological basis for the chemical decontamination of fish, a process already widely employed by Egyptian fish farmers. Researchers will identify and assess the rate at which various fishes eliminate contaminants, determine the survival rate of hepatitis A virus (HAV), compare contaminant levels in fish produced in treated wastewater with those of fish produced from planktons grown in treated wastewater, and determine the feasibility of lowering contaminant levels by keeping fish in clean water and feeding them plankton feed grown in treated domestic wastewater. These efforts will lead to mathematical models for predicting contaminant elimination rates in fish during depuration in clean water and/or after growth in clean water and using clean feed following a wastewater growth phase, and expand these models to include the economic feasibility of these processes. Additionally, project researchers will develop depuration techniques, and if necessary, post-exposure growth techniques, and determine their effectiveness. A data bank for contaminant bioaccumulation and elimination rates on fishes will be assembled using research results. Finally, the project will result in the development of public health advisories and safety guidelines for the consumption of contaminated fish. Cooperating institutions in this effort will include Egypt"s National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries; Ain Shams, Alexandria, and Hebrew Universities, and the University of Michigan.