Project description

My present research is multifaceted. The central theme of my work is to develop culture technology for the rabbitfish Siganus rivulatus. This is a local Lebanese teleost species with rapidly growing market demand in the Middle-East and in the Indo Pacific region. I am working on determining optimal environmental requirements such as salinity, temperature, culture density, ammonia and nitrite tolerances, diseases and tolerances, hematology, stress response etc. in order to develop an aquaculture protocol for the fish. I am also working on developing a diet for S. rivulatus. Rabbitfish are herbivorous fish and thus we might be able to feed them a diet without fishmeal to improve long-term sustainability of the industry. Another research program in my lab is the determination of seasonal effects on nutritional value of the rabbitfish for human consumption. We have several publications with regards to nutritional value of herbivores compared to carnivores and how that affects dialysis patients. A new line of research we are developing is in fish hematology and stress response. We optimized techniques for measuring various hematological parameters in rabbitfish and presently several of my graduate students are working on various facets of this theme, mostly studying the effects of various environments on hematology and immune response. I expect to be working on this fish for years to come, refining culture techniques and processing technology. Our lab at AUB is without doubt one of the premier labs in the world with regards to siganid aquaculture research although I know that various countries are starting to invest heavily in this genus. I hope to try to collaborate with these labs to help siganid aquaculture reach its potential.

Researchers

Keywords

Environmental geography Ecology Marine biology Naval engineering