01/10/13: Effect of US government shutdown on fish farmers; olive pomace as an aquafeed ingredient; cats living on a floating fish farm

The US government has shut down after Congress failed to agree a budget. This means an unexpected holiday for some government employees but some staff have to remain at work. 

Fish hatchery workers are in the group that must report to work as usual, alongside international space station scientists and nuclear submarine engineers.

This infographic from the New York Times shows who can stay at home and who has to go to work.

A team from the University of Athens and Nireus Aquaculture SA have published an interesting paper titled, Evaluation of the in Vitro Anti-Atherogenic Properties of Lipid Fractions of Olive Pomace, Olive Pomace Enriched Fish Feed and Gilthead Sea Bream (Sparus aurata) Fed with Olive Pomace Enriched Fish Feed.

One of the authors, Ioannis Zabetakis, has written the article on the health benefits to human health of fish fed feeds enriched with olive pomace in the next issue of International Aquafeed.

Zabetakis kindly wrote an article on working towards aquafeeds with increased food security in International Aquafeed March/April 2013.

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A pair of cats have made an unusual home aboard a floating fish farm in Kudamatsu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan.

Chii and Dorami, live on a 120x14 metre floating platform about 400 meters southeast of the fish farming centre.

According to farm workers the cats sometimes catch small fish, but ignore the tiger puffer fish that the centre is growing on a trial basis. 

The cats also provide a value security service, chasing crows away from the puffer fish. 

Check out this video of these moggies with sea legs. 

A Puffer Fish,Arothron hispidus is kissing my camera at Big Island of Hawaii (Photo credit: Wikipedia)