Annual Report 2012e

AKUATROP Activities
AKUATROP ORGANIZED WORKSHOP ON PERFORMANCE EVALUATION AND RESEARCH STRATEGIC
PLANNING TOWARDS HiCoE ACCREDITATION
AKUATROP is one of the centre of excellence which is proactive in doing research activities and courses in
aquaculture field and aims to be a Regional Reference Centre in this field in the future. In line with the
appointment of the new Director, AKUATROP has organized a workshop namely the Workshop On
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Performance Evaluation And Research Strategic Planning Towards HiCoE Accreditation on 1 to 3 March 2012
at Hotel Grand Continental , Langkawi, Kedah.
The objectives of this workshop were to evaluate the work performance for 2011 (previous year) and ways of
improvement in order to achieve better performance for the coming years. Besides, AKUATROP has decided its
research focus and niche area which were tropical aquaculture and breeding technology. As a conclusion this 2
days’ workshop showed that AKUATROP’s research directions are well planned to achieve HiCoE status and
producing excellence graduates in aquaculture field.
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mhd Ikhwanuddin Abdullah delivered his guideline to the participants and led the discussion
during the 3 days workshop at Hotel Grand Continental, Langkawi, Kedah.
AKUATROP staffs during the workshop on Performance Evaluation and Research Strategic Planning towards
HiCoE Accreditation.
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WORKSHOP ON ‘FAIL MEJA’ AKUATROP 2012
Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP) has successfully organised a workshop on ‘Fail Meja’ AKUATROP
2012 at Bilik Gerakan HEPA, Kompleks Siswa during 29 Mei 2012. This workshop was attended by AKUATROP
Management and Professional (P&P) and supporting staff. This workshop aimed to expose the staff to the right
format of preparing and updating their job descriptions and scope in Fail Meja.
This one-day workshop began with the opening ceremony by the AKUATROP’s Director, Prof. Dr. Anuar
Hassan, followed by a talk on Fail Meja (FM) by the guest speaker, Mrs. Zuraifah Mamat, Auditor of ViceChancellor Office. During this workshop, a few files were selected and reviewed by Mrs Zuraifah to make sure
that the staff prepared the files according to the right format and procedure. As a conclusion, this workshop
has created a positive impact among staff in which they have updated their work procedures and the work
process will be more systematic and efficient.
Mrs. Zuraifah Mamat, Auditor of Vice-Chancellor Office delivered her knowledge and experience to the
participants during the workshop.
WORKSHOP ON INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTOLOGY EQUIPMENTS AND TECHNIQUES
Histology Aquatic Laboratory is one of the new laboratory units created under the Aquatic Organisms and
Health Unit, AKUATROP to fulfill particular needs in the field of aquaculture research. Therefore, various tools
related to research involving histology were purchased using a special budget allocation from the Ministry of
Higher Education.
Histology Aquatic Laboratory is the third histology laboratory in Universiti Malaysia Terengganu. The lab was
created to assist researchers and students in their study. Besides, this laboratory was established to help
AKUATROP in acquiring the High Center of Excellence (Hi-CoE) status. This workshop was held successfully on
Thursday 13 September, 2012 at the Histology Aquatic Lab, AKUATROP. This event was a joint venture
between AKUATROP and Leica Malaysia, Histocentre Malaysia (M) Sdn. Ltd.
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The objective of this workshop is to train researchers, staff and students in handling equipments for
histological research purpose. A total of 15 participants involving staff and students participated in the
workshop. The training was delivered by Mr. Chua Eng Siong and Mr. Azly Nor Aliff Bin Hamdan from Leica
Malaysia which brought Histocentre (M) Sdn. Ltd. There were no financial implications during the workshop
took place as the cost of foods has been sponsored by the Histocentre Company (M) Sdn. Ltd.
Figure 1: Training on histology equipments peformed by Mr. Chua Eng Siong (Leica Malaysia) and
Mr. Azly Nor Aliff bin Hamdan (Histocentre (M) Sdn. Ltd).
ACADEMIC VISIT FROM STUDENTS OF SEKOLAH MENENGAH KEBANGSAAN ISMAIL PETRA, KOTA
BHARU, KELANTAN
Institute of Tropical Aquaculture (AKUATROP) is a
research centre specialised in aquaculture. As a
centre of knowledge, AKUATROP warmly receives
visits from numerous agencies which are interested
to gain experience and knowledge in our research
field. This gesture is hoped to encourage people to
get involved in the aquaculture industry and aquatic
science.
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This was further proven when on 30 of October
2012, AKUATROP accepted a visit from 120 students
and teachers of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan
Ismail Petra, Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The school chose
to visit AKUATROP in order to give a realistic
experience in science stream environment to the
students and at the same time to attract students to
the science subject in school. During the visits, the
students were informed about the aquaculture and
aquatic science research conducted in AKUATROP by
our Fisheries Officers.
The students were also brought to the Marine
Hatchery and Laboratories in AKUATROP and were
given the opportunity to try out the advanced
equipments in the laboratories. At the same time,
the students were given an opportunity personally
communicated with PhD and master students in AKUATROP.
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ATTACHMENT AT BATAVIA COAST MARITIME INSTITUTE, DURACK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGIES,
GERALDTON, WESTERN AUSTRALIA
Once in three years officers were given an opportunity to improve their skill and seek new knowledge. For this
year, Gusti Afiz Bin Gusti Ruslan Noor was the lucky person to get the chances to work at Durack Institute of
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Technology, Western Australia, from 8 till 21 November 2012.
Durack Institute of Technologies is a great institute for local community at Geraldton. It has many divisions for
different study. Batavia Coast Maritime Institute is a division for aquaculture and marine study. Batavia Coast
Maritime Institute is led by DR SURESH JOB as the director and DR. MICHEAL CHEAH as a senior lecturer. This
institute has many facilities related to the study such as hatchery and ponds. Most of the research here are
focused on fish and aquatic life.
Figure 1: Visit to Fisheries Radio Control Station Geraldton.
Basically, the main research here is focused on fish breeding especially in broodstock management. The focal
fish species of this institute are ornamental fish (clownfish), Kingfish and Cobia. Apart from research, Batavia
Coast Maritime Institute also plays it’s role to provide basic training to all levels of the industry related to the
maritime community.
Figure 2: Fish broodstock in the Batavia Coast Maritime Institute Hatchery. 40kg Kingfish (left picture) and
50kg Cobia broodstock (right picture).
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Figure 3: Lecture given by Gusti Afiz during special seminar at Batavia Coast of Maritime Institute, Geraldton.
WORKSHOP ON FRESHWATER GIANT PRAWN BREEDING TECHNIQUES
AKUATROP aspires to become one of the freshwater giant prawn seedstock producers in Malaysia with the
hope that it can be commercialised to generate income for the institute. To move towards the goal,
AKUATROP have organised "Freshwater Giant Prawn Breeding Workshop" to equip the staff with proficient
freshwater giant prawn breeding techniques.
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On 21 to 22 November 2012, the workshop was held with the help and guidance by Assoc. Prof. Aizam
Zainal Abidin. He was very generous during the workshop and shared his entire knowledge and experience
with the 25 participants, which consisted of 20 students and 5 staff.
The participants were given exposure during the theory class in the morning and the practical activities in the
afternoon. In the hatchery they were divided into 5 groups and each group was provided with a nursery tank
and broodstock. Each group was entitled to maintain the broodstock until the larvae were released and were
consequently cultured until the Postlarvae (PL) stage. As a requirement to complete the practical knowledge,
the training were sustained for a month until the
larvae had successfully molted to the marketable PL
stage. At the end of the workshop, all participants
were able to produce the seed up to PL stages, and
their month-long hard works and dedication were
acknowledged by the director of AKUATROP through
certifications.
It is hoped that this workshop would be the
fundamentals in transforming AKUATROP into the
main freshwater giant seed producer in Malaysia.
Berried female of freshwater giant prawn were used in
the practical session.
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Larvae of freshwater giant prawn image captured
under advanced microscope.
Postlarva (PL) of freshwater giant prawn successfully
breed by the participants during the workshop.
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