Browsing by Author "Stead, Selina M."

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Co-culture of sea cucumber Holothuria scabra and red seaweed Kappaphycus striatum
    (John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2014) Beltran-Gutierrez, Marisol; Ferse, Sebastian C.A.; Kunzmann, Andreas; Stead, Selina M.; Msuya, Flower E.; Hoffmeister, Thomas S.; Slater, Matthew J.
    Commercially valuable sea cucumbers are potential co-culture species in tropical lagoon environments, where they may be integrated into established aquaculture areas used for seaweed farming. In the current study, wild-caught juvenile sea cucumbers, Holothuria scabra, and red seaweed Kappaphycus striatum were co-cultured on Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania. Sea cucumbers (97 g 31 SD, n = 52) were cultured in mesh enclosures at initial cage stocking densities of 124 21 SD and 218 16 SD g m 2 under seaweed culture lines. Over 83 days, individual growth rate (1.6 g d 1 0.2 SD) of sea cucumbers at low stocking density was significantly higher (v2 = 8.292, d.f. = 1, P = 0.004) than at high-stocking density (0.9 g d 1 0.1 SD). Seaweed individual growth rates [6.27 ( 0.3 SE) g d 1] were highest in co-culture with sea cucumber at low density but did not differ significantly from high sea cucumber density or seaweed monoculture treatments (v2 = 3.0885, d.f. = 2, P = 0.2135). Seaweed growth varied significantly (v2 = 35.6, d.f. = 2, P < 0.0001) with sampling period, with the final sampling period resulting in the highest growth rate. Growth performance for seaweed and sea cucumbers (v2 = 3.089, d.f. = 2, P = 0.21 and v2 = 0.08, d.f. = 1, P = 0.777 respectively), did not differ significantly between monoculture and co-culture treatments, yet growth in co-culture was comparable with that reported for existing commercial monoculture. Results indicate H. scabra is a highly viable candidate species for lagoon co-culture with seaweed. Co-culture offers a more efficient use of limited coastal space over monoculture and is recommended as a potential coastal livelihood option for lagoon farmers in tropical regions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Community based aquaculture in the western Indian Ocean: challenges and opportunities for developing sustainable coastal livelihoods
    (Resilience Alliance, 2018) Ateweberhan, Mebrahtu; Hudson, Joanna; Rougier, Antoine; Jiddawi, Narriman S.; Msuya, Flower E.; Stead, Selina M.; Harris, Alasdair
    The small-fisheries social-ecological system in the western Indian Ocean (WIO) represents a typical social-ecological trap setting where very poor natural resources dependent coastal communities face local and global threats and engage in unsustainable practices of exploiting limited resources. Community-based aquaculture (CBA) has been implemented as an important alternative or supplementary income generating activity for minimizing the overdependence on marine natural resources and promoting biodiversity conservation. Despite its proliferation throughout the WIO region in recent decades, little is known about the degree to which CBA activities have contributed to achieving the objectives of breaking the cycle of poverty and environmental degradation and promoting community development and biodiversity conservation. In order to improve understanding of common challenges and to generate recommendations for best practice, we assessed the most common CBA activities practiced in the region through literature review and workshop discussion involving practitioners and key stakeholders. Findings indicated that despite favorable environmental conditions for various CBA practices, the sector remains underdeveloped, with few activities delivering the intended benefits for coastal livelihoods or conservation. Constraints included a shortage of seed and feed supplies, low investment, limited technical capacity and skills, insufficient political support, and lack of a clear strategy for aquaculture development. These are compounded by a lack of engagement of local stakeholders, with decision making often dominated by donors, development agencies, and private sector partners. Many of the region’s CBA projects are designed along unrealistically short time frames, driven by donors rather than entrepreneurs, and so are unable to achieve financial sustainability, which limits the opportunity for capacity building and longer-term development. There is little or no monitoring on ecological and socioeconomic impacts. Except for a few isolated cases, links between CBA and marine conservation outcomes have rarely been demonstrated. Realizing the potential of CBA in contributing toward food security in the WIO will necessitate concerted investment and capacity strengthening to overcome these systemic challenges in the sector. Lessons herein offer managers, scientists, and policy advisors guidance on addressing the challenges faced in building strategic development initiatives around aquaculture in developing countries.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Effect of social and economic drivers on choosing aquaculture as a coastal livelihood
    (Elsevier, 2012-12-10) Slater, Matthew J.; Mgaya, Yunus D.; Mill, Aileen C.; Rushton, Steven P.; Stead, Selina M.
    Aquaculture is proposed as a means to income generation and food security in developing nations. Understanding drivers of attitudes and perceptions towards choosing aquaculture as a livelihood is essential to aid policy makers in promoting its development. This paper takes a new approach to establishing a baseline of these social and economic drivers. We used simple metrics familiar to policy makers collected in face-to-face semi-structured interviews – e.g. education level, time availability to work and income level – to predict willingness of individuals to adopt aquaculture as a livelihood. We compared modelling approaches ability to provide insights into effects of social and economic factors on willingness of 422 household decision-makers in coastal villages in Tanzania to participate in sea cucumber aquaculture as an alternative livelihood. Linear regression identified the factors; time available for a supplementary livelihood, gender, social network strength and material style of life as significantly predicting individuals' willingness to adopt aquaculture. A Bayesian Belief Network (BBN) model of community data created using logistic regression results, open response analysis and critical literature appraisal allowed intuitive manipulation of factors to predict the influence of aquaculture uptake drivers and constraints. The BBN model provided quantified predictions of the effect of specific policy interventions to promote aquaculture uptake within the modelled community. The analysis from the BBN model supports its broader use as an assessment tool for informing policy formulation by highlighting key areas of intervention to increase willingness to uptake aquaculture among target groups, such as low income households and women. BBNs provide a modelling approach that allows policy makers to visualise the influence of socio-economic factors on the success of introducing aquaculture in different local contexts.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Perceptions of rule-breaking related to marine ecosystem health.
    (2014-02-27) Slater, Matthew J.; Mgaya, Yunus D.; Stead, Selina M.
    Finding effective solutions to manage marine resources is high on political and conservation agendas worldwide. This is made more urgent by the rate of increase in the human population and concomitant resource pressures in coastal areas. This paper links empirical socio-economic data about perceptions of marine resource health to the breaking of marine management rules, using fisheries as a case study. The relationship between perceived rule-breaking (non-compliance with regulations controlling fishing) and perceived health of inshore marine environments was investigated through face-to-face interviews with 299 heads of households in three Tanzanian coastal communities in November and December 2011. Awareness of rules controlling fishing activity was high among all respondents. Fishers were able to describe more specific rules controlling fishing practices than non-fishers (t = 3.5, df = 297, p<0.01). Perceived breaking of fishing regulations was reported by nearly half of all respondents, saying “some” (32% of responses) or “most” (15% of responses) people break fishing rules. Ordinal regression modelling revealed a significant linkage (z = −3.44, p<0.001) in the relationship between respondents' perceptions of deteriorating marine health and their perception of increased rule-breaking. In this paper, inferences from an empirical study are used to identify and argue the potential for using perceptions of ecosystem health and level of rule-breaking as a means to guide management measures. When considering different management options (e.g. Marine Protected Areas), policy makers are advised to take account of and utilise likely egoistic or altruistic decision-making factors used by fishers to determine their marine activities