Tuesday, December 24, 2013

ウナギ稚魚豊漁

ウナギ稚魚、豊漁スタート 台湾・中国で漁獲量20倍 
取引価格、昨年ピークの3分の1

2013/12/24 23:07
日本経済新聞 電子版
 ウナギの養殖に使う稚魚(シラスウナギ)の漁がアジアで好調な出足だ。資源枯渇が深刻な近年は極端な不漁が続いていたが、漁の始まった台湾や中国の漁獲量が前年の同時期に比べて20倍程度となっている。取引価格は昨年のピークの3分の1程度に下がっている。
 日本国内のウナギ養殖業者は冬から春にかけて取れるシラスを仕入れて育て、夏以降に出荷する。11月以降に漁が始まった台湾や中国での漁獲量は業界推計で5トンを超…
関連キーワード
シラスウナギ、ウナギ稚魚、ウナギ、漁獲量

Sunday, December 22, 2013

鰻苗破40元...

2013.12.23
日本鰻苗入池價新台幣38元...

Sunday, December 15, 2013

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

人才培育白皮書推動策略及行動方案

等著看!希望能持續而且有用...

=人才培育白皮書推動策略及行動方案=

教育部推動策略
行動方案
具體重大措施(摘要)


12創新課程教學
12-1提升課程教學品質評核方案
1.推動大學教學品質保證機制。
2.學生學習表現列為大學校務必要辦理項目。含就業、發展、再學習及社會貢獻。同時該資料必須回饋到各教學單位
Ø    
Ø    

12-2創新課程與學制變革方案
1.試辦學院為核心,透過國際標竿學習,建構課程設計、品保、支持及回饋系統。
2.將學位區分:
1)碩士學位概分為學術型實務型學位;
2)學士班及博士班則強化實務導向培養。
3.學生職涯發展為主體之多元學習制度設計。
Ø    
Ø    

12-3建立終身學習與數位學習新平台方案
1.修業彈性-第三學期、線上課程之推動與開設。
2.鼓勵跨領域、實務課程及多元學習模式,突破校園界線,強調實習、校外教學。
3.建立以學生學習為中心之數位學習課程與教材典範:
1導入<大規模線上開放課程-磨課師>教學模式。
2)自103年開始推動磨課師計畫,並建立課程發展支援機制-如,教學平台、智財權及錄製剪輯等支援。
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Ø    
13靈活大學治理
13-1推動大學管理分流方案
1.針對人事、財務支用、校務治理等面向鬆綁,引進董事會之自主管理。
2.強化內部控制機制,尤其是設立專任或兼任之稽核人員。
Ø    
Ø    
13-2合理調整學校招生規模並輔導私立大專校院改善及停辦方案
1.6-8所學校為合併目標
2.各校申請各學年度招生名額總量,不得超過前一年核定數。
3.學士班招生規模應予凍結。逐步調降博碩士班招生名額

Ø    

13-3精進大學評鑑方案
1.調整為教學品質控制為目的。
2.發展多元自主大學評鑑制度,健全外部品保機制。
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13-4改革教師升等及待遇退撫方案
1.”教師自審列為大學校務必要辦理項目,政府改由事後監督。
2.校務發展、申請政府重要獎補助,皆應呈現教師升等制度成效及學生學習成果關連性
3.教師薪資待遇應與教、研成效有連結,並訂出不同級距之彈性薪資待遇。
4.延攬國際人才,提升教研品質及外籍教師比例。
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Ø    
14多元培育機制
14-1試辦以學院為核心教學單位方案
1.系所之招生名額調整,試辦由提出,非由,建立由學院統整調度之運作機制。
2.試辦為主的 <不分系>招生,以利前段實施跨域性質的博雅通識及核心課程。

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14-2兼顧產業及尖端研究的碩博士培育方案
1.博士班論文研究將由大學與業界共同指導
2./業界合作型態可提升至為學生就業提供能力本位課程
3.國內大學至海外設立據點,由教育部與各大學組成具官方性質之高教國際合作組織。
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14-3強化多元選才及弱勢就學方案
1.進行大學多元入學方案改革。
2.推動研究所招生以甄選方式,取代 學科考試
3.大學學雜費自主調整,並由學校自行向外界說明,教育部僅就調整程序及教學品質進行後端管控。
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15佈局全球人才
15-1提供多元國際交流及策略性留學方案
1.鼓勵與國內外頂尖大學或機構進行策略聯盟,引進海外大學在國內開課(學程)。
2.制度性鼓勵學生赴海外頂尖大學進修。
3.全面拓展學生國際視野,並納入正規課程,鼓勵學生透過國際志工、度假打工、壯遊體驗等,拓展視野。
4.建立國際化程度之訪評制度。
5.積極推動高等教育輸出計畫,深耕中國大陸、東協、印度、東歐及中亞等。
6.持續鼓勵國內學校與大陸地區學校交流。
Ø    
Ø    
16訂定人才專法
16-1研訂<促進人才培育條例(草案)>方案
<規劃立法之方向>
1.教師部份:朝向非公務化,設計以個人績效核算薪資,非以年資計算。
2.行政人員:朝向非公務化,以保障現有人員權益下,引導以校務發展為工作導向,創造績效,為法人化做準備。
3.行政主管進用:一定比例得由外國籍教學或研究人員兼任。並得透過契約式績效責任,引進各類專業人才擔任行政主管。
4.鬆綁校務基金投資程序及可投資之項目。


Monday, December 09, 2013

日本鰻未列入IUCN滅絕危機種名錄!?

日本鰻未列入IUCN滅絕危機種名錄
  國際自然資源保護協會(IUCN)是由世界各國政府及專家所組成之協會,該協會於2013年11月5日對日本鰻是否應指定為「有滅絕危機物種」做出再觀察之方針。原因是IUCN判斷日本鰻指定為瀕危物種所必要之諮詢不足,所以不列入11月改訂之名錄中,留待2014年6月再做判斷。此一決定固然暫時規避了國際交易禁止之危機,但預期日本鰻之保護議題會持續燃燒,主要消費國之日本當然會受到影響。日本鰻於2013年7日首次在IUCN作業部會中,被列入「紅色名錄」,即所謂有滅絕危機物種之檢討對象種。專家等對日本鰻等19種鰻魚的生息實態做調查,以作為指定必須進行漁獲及國際交易規制的有滅絕危機物種是否妥當之討論。
  然而,判斷日本鰻有滅絕危機之科學數據之彙整不充分,所以11月21日公告的滅絕危機物種名錄中並沒有日本鰻。IUCN每年之夏天與秋天2次重新改訂滅絕危機物種之名錄,所以2014年6月預期會再檢討日本鰻是否納入指定之名錄中。又IUCN之判斷雖然不具法律之約束力,但其判斷結果是保護有滅絕危機之野生物種為目的的華盛頓公約(CITES)改訂名錄時的重要判斷材料。
  日本鰻在捕獲量增加及環境惡化之背景下,其生息量大幅減少,日本2012年之國內供給量(含進口量)約有3.7萬公噸,不到高峰期之四分之一,日本已經其列入其國內之有滅絕危機種。

(許金漢,摘譯自日刊水產經濟新聞,7 November 2013)

Sunday, December 01, 2013

Eel research in Todai

Same time, same place, on the night of the new moon

Univ. of Tokyo Researchers Locate the Spawning Area of the Japanese Eel


Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
2011/12/01
The life of eels and their spawning in particular had long been shrouded in mystery, a mystery that a University of Tokyo team set out to solve through an ambitious ocean research project starting in 1973. After sampling for eel larvae during multiple expeditions in the western North Pacific over almost 40 years, the first collections of Japanese eel eggs were made in May and June of 2009 and 2011, allowing the team to successfully determine the exact location of spawning sites of this important species.

A Date on the High Seas: Finding When and Where Japanese Eels Spawn

The life cycle of the eel
The life cycle of the eel
The eel is a familiar and much-loved fish in Japan, but it was not widely known that Japanese eels (Anguilla japonica) migrate across the western North Pacific Ocean to reproduce, in some cases over distances of more than 3,000 kilometers, because until recently when and where they spawn had remained a mystery.
This mystery of their lives has fascinated people for more than 2,000 years – the Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle said of eels that they are born from the “earth’s guts, that grow spontaneously in mud and in humid ground”.
In 1973, researchers from the University of Tokyo’s Ocean Research Institute (currently, the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute) embarked on a survey vessel, the R/V Hakuho Maru, on the first high-profile research expedition to study the Japanese eel. Their primary aim was to discover the spawning area of the Japanese eel. Professor Katsumi Tsukamoto, who is now at the forefront of eel research, took part in the project as a graduate student of the University of Tokyo.
After being spawned in the ocean, Japanese eels, in the form of flat, leaf-like larvae called leptocephali, were thought to be swept by the Kuroshio Current to recruit to rivers in East Asia, but where they had originated was a mystery. Assuming that examining the collection locations and size of leptocephali would give a clue to where they spawn, the team began sampling and examining the larvae.

A Great Voyage of Hypothesis and Demonstration

Research expeditions in the Pacific Ocean
Research expeditions in the Pacific Ocean
To sample leptocephali, the team repeatedly towed a plankton net 15 meters long and 3 meters across in prospective Pacific waters. Starting in a region south of Okinawa of southwestern Japan in 1967, the team then moved to areas east of Taiwan in 1973 and Luzon (the largest island of the Philippines) in 1986, and then to the west of the Mariana Islands starting in 1991.
Locating an eel spawning area in a great ocean is not easy task and most sites are unknown for the 19 freshwater eel species or subspecies around the world. Such sites are elusive because they may not exceed a volume of about 1000 cubic meters for a single instance in which many eels release their eggs at the same time. The task becomes all the more difficult because the eggs hatch quickly – in about a day and a half. To overcome these constraints of time and space, Tsukamoto and his colleagues advanced, and ultimately proved, a number of bold hypotheses.
The first was the New Moon Hypothesis. Examining the otolith (ear stone) of a leptocephalus reveals the number of days that have passed since hatching and after being spawned. From this, Tsukamoto found that leptocephali sampled in July had hatched in the preceding months of May and June, each on a night near a new moon, a finding that prompted him to hypothesize that synchronized spawning happens on a large scale on new-moon nights during the spring and summer.
The second was the Seamount Hypothesis. From data on leptocephalus distribution and ocean currents obtained from many survey cruises, the team determined that the eels spawned in a region near 15°N and between 142° to 143°E, where a ridge of seamounts, some as high as Mount Fuji (3,776 m), rises from the ocean floor 4,000 meters below. Tsukamoto argued that male and female eels may be able to detect special odors, water turbulence, upwelling, local magnetic fields or other characteristics associated with the seamounts that would help them to gather together to mate near the ridge.
The third concept was the Salinity Front Hypothesis. Seawater masses of slightly higher and lower salinity meet and cross the seamount region. As the data indicated that leptocephali are found just south of this front, Tsukamoto and his colleagues theorized that eels use this salinity front to identify the latitude at which they should spawn.

The Scientific Method: A Deductive Approach in Action

Topographical ocean floor map and egg sampling sites
Topographical ocean floor map and egg sampling sites
Collections of small larvae over the years during their surveys showed that the Japanese eel spawned far offshore in a band of westward current called the North Equatorial Current, but exactly where spawning events were taking place was still difficult to determine.
However, in May of 2009, at last, Tsukamoto’s team successfully collected 31 Japanese eel eggs at a depth of 150-200 meters in the open ocean, near the southern tip of the West Mariana Ridge and just north of the Mariana Trench, the deepest place in the world’s oceans. This collection of eggs, the first ever for any species of anguillid eel, was made in the deep of the night at the ridge’s intersection with the salinity front, just two days before a new moon. All at once, all three of Tsukamoto’s hypotheses gained significant supporting evidence.
In the recent sampling expedition of 2011, the team set itself the goal of pinpointing eggs fresh from fertilization, resulting in successful collections of 147 eggs in several net deployments in June, which again were first caught during the darkness of a new moon night and south of the salinity front along the seamount ridge, further validating the three hypotheses.
Elaborately designed “grid surveys” also contributed to these successes. First employed in the fourthHakuho Maru expedition (1986), the grid survey is a method for systematizing the sampling process. A chart is divided into square sections like a grid, each section containing a certain area by latitude and longitude. Sampling is made at each intersection of latitudinal and longitudinal lines on the grid, as a way of surveying the entire target region at a predetermined level of resolution.
Of this, Professor Tsukamoto said, “I’m from the lab-research side of fish physiology, not from the field-study side. This may have helped me turn to various hypotheses and the idea of a grid survey.” His experimentally-oriented deductive approach has been a key to the success of his fieldwork. By collecting data, examining them and formulating hypotheses, and then testing the hypotheses, Tsukamoto and his team have now gained a greater understanding of when and where the Japanese eel spawns than any other species of eel in the world.

Showing the World: EEL EXPO TOKYO 2011

Poster for Eel Expo at the University Museum
Poster for Eel Expo at the University Museum
Tsukamoto’s team collaborated with the University Museum of the University of Tokyo to present an exhibition, EEL EXPO TOKYO 2011, which introduced these research frontiers and other aspects of eel biology including their evolutionary origins, migratory behavior, endocrinology, and development. This EEL EXPO overviewed not only scientific research but also the connections of eels and humans, such as cultural aspects, history, legends and socioeconomics surrounding these mysterious and important fishes.
Eels have long been a favorite delicacy in Japan, and today, Tokyo has some 950 restaurants that specialize in eels cooked in the traditional way. More than 99.5% of these eels are farmed, raised from wild juveniles called glass eels that normally accumulate in estuary regions as they prepare to enter freshwater. The implementation of “full farming” for production of glass eels from artificial spawning and hatching may protect wild eel stocks from further decreasing worldwide. This burgeoning technology has a “fair chance of success” according to Tsukamoto, and this is another area of research where he is now taking an active role.
Other than locating the spawning areas and researching issues related to eel aquaculture, Tsukamoto’s team has produced a huge volume of scientific research on eels in hundreds of research papers, which have often pushed forward the frontiers of understanding of these remarkable fishes. Over the years they have discovered a new species of eel, traced the origin and evolution of the freshwater eels through molecular genetic analysis, discovered that many eels never actually swim up into rivers as they were thought to, analyzed various behavioral aspects of eel migration, elucidated the reproductive physiology of eels, tracked eel migration with satellite-aided monitoring systems, and studied the legendary delicious “blue-green eel”, in addition to a full range of studies on the biology of eels. Tsukamoto’s laboratory has also been studying the life history and ecology of the species of tropical freshwater eels that live in equatorial regions of the Indo-Pacific, which have never been investigated in detail.
Tsukamoto emphasized that the team’s success was due to three factors. “The University of Tokyo has the excellent research vessel Hakuho Maru, and we could use the Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute’s overall superb capabilities as a center of ocean research that synthesizes various fields of science, such as physical, chemical, biological oceanography, earth science, fisheries science and climatology” and further, he added, “The most important was, being surrounded by excellent colleagues and first-rate young scholars”.
The three-month eel exhibition held at the University Museum from July to October 2011 showcased images of what Tsukamoto’s team has accomplished in eel research, with displays of wild eel eggs collected in their spawning area offshore, live leptocephali elegantly swimming in a specially designed circulating tank, and a migratory silver eel with a leisurely tailbeat in a swim tunnel. Many visitors came to the exhibition and were impressed with this “Eel World” that they had never before experienced. The exhibition will travel to European and other Asian cities after Tokyo.

A Long-term Relationship, and an Essential Resource

The eel is important to cultures from the Maori in New Zealand to the first nations in the Americas. It is also central to various South Pacific myths and legends and appears in the earliest Japanese literature. Over the millennia it has provided the Japanese with the stamina to survive the heat of summer, and the first nations with the energy to survive the cold of the North American winter.  Throughout much of the world, humankind lived with, and on, the eel.
But Atlantic eels have almost disappeared from some parts of Europe and North America, and the Japanese eel is falling in numbers. The discovery of the Japanese eel’s Pacific spawning area offers us a new view of this mysterious fish as a living creature in its natural habitat, and may provide the key to preventing the further decline of this essential creature.

Researcher

References

Kuroki, M. and Katsumi Tsukamoto, Tabisuru Unagi [Migrating Eels] (Hadano, Kanagawa: Tokai University Press, 2011).
Katsumi Tsukamoto et al., “Oceanic spawning ecology of freshwater eels in the western North Pacific,”Nature Communications 2, 179 (2011). doi:10.1038/ncomms1174
Katsumi Tsukamoto, “Discovery of the spawning area for Japanese eel,” Nature 356, 789 (1992).doi:10.1038/356789a0
Katsumi Tsukamoto, Izumi Nakai, I. and W-.V. Tesch, “Do all freshwater eels migrate?” Nature 396, 635 (1998). doi:10.1038/25264
Katsumi Tsukamoto, “Oceanic biology: Spawning of eels near a seamount,” Nature 439, 929 (2006).doi:10.1038/439929a

Title images

The first Japanese eel eggs ever to be discovered in the wild. ©Katsumi Tsukamoto, The University of Tokyo Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute
The first Japanese eel eggs ever to be discovered in the wild. ©Katsumi Tsukamoto, The University of Tokyo Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute

Metamorphosing larva of the artificially-hatched Japanese eel. ©Yoshio Yamada
Metamorphosing larva of the artificially-hatched Japanese eel. ©Yoshio Yamada

Scattered sakura petals. ©Unayoshi
Scattered sakura petals. ©Unayoshi