AVCLSC to Lead in Areas of Quality Standards | Graduate Student Projects | AVC Lobster Science Centre in the Classroom | FSRS Conference (March 2011) |Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island: Understanding Lobster Health Equals Quality Equals Revenue | 9th Annual ICWL Conference (June 2011) | 7th Annual Lobster Science Workshop | LAF 33 & 34 Moult and Quality Monitoring Project - Update Nobember 2010
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AVCLSC to Lead in Areas of Quality Standards
In November, 2010 the Canadian Lobster Strategic Marketing Plan lead by a Gardener Pinfold consortium was released and approved by the industry wide Lobster Council of Canada. AVCLSC has been asked to lead the efforts in defining, developing, training and implementing quality standards industry wide.
The objective is to improve the “marketability” of the products to the existing as well as new markets like China, India and Africa.
2011 will be an exciting time for AVCLSC as there are high expectations that advances in both the DNA and Bio Chem research will lead to the introduction of new tools to monitoring the lobster life cycle developing.
AVCLSC is in the process of applying for an ACOA AIF round 9 Grant to support further basic lobster research as well applying the findings to exploring the health status of snow crab. Further science research expansion will include areas of listeria, PSP to support food safety initiatives as well there will be leading research in developing a cell line for crustaceans.
 When you cook fresh lobster how long could it be keep in a cold place before is not good?
Answer:
If the lobster is maintained at 1 to 3C it will remain good for three to four days |
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Graduate Student Projects
Mike Ciaramella (winner of a Graduate Student Fellowship Award from Innovation PEI) - Nutritional Condition of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, during the moult
Decapod crustaceans such as the American lobster, Homarus americanus, have a hard chitinous exoskeleton that must be shed periodically to grow through the process known as moulting. The high energy demand and taxing physiological events taking place during this period cause drastic changes in nutritional condition. Nutritional condition is the extent to which an organism has accumulated energy reserves to maintain normal physiological function and growth. Condition is a means of assessing health and will play a key role in many important aspects of the lobster’s life cycle. Moulting and growth, reproduction, susceptibility to disease, and ability to cope with changing environmental constraints (i.e. temperature and food supply) can all rely heavily on it. For a complete understanding of lobster physiology it is important to be able to assess changes in condition as well as be aware of the natural fluctuations that occur. The hard exoskeleton of the lobster makes visual assessment of condition impossible.
The nutritional status aspect of the Atlantic Lobster Moult and Quality project investigates the natural changes in stored energy (fats and carbohydrates) and hemolymph (blood) biochemistry at different stages of the moult cycle. Correlations between hemolymph biochemistry and energy reserves will be evaluated as a novel non-lethal method for assessing condition in the lobster. The development of such methods and a more complete understanding of nutritional condition could aid in the advancement of practices for better monitoring, management and conservation of lobster populations. This data could also be useful for the development of models to predict growth and reproductive success on an individual and population basis.
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Mitchell Moore - Determining sexual maturity in female American lobster by use of microarray analysis
Current methods for determining the minimum legal catch size is done by Fisheries and Oceans Canada based on a ‘size at maturity’ model, which is not uniform across all lobster fishing areas. This method requires scientist to kill thousands of lobster to examine the ovaries because their hard exoskeleton prevents external examination. The lobster industry has been reviewed twice by the Fisheries Resource Conservation Council (FRCC) and both times they recommended an increase in egg production. Using a new lobster microarray, which measures thousands of genes in a short period of time, tissue samples from female lobsters were analysed to determine genetic changes in mature/maturing lobsters. My research focuses around ovary stages 4a and 4b lobsters, as this is the physiological transition point when they either proceed to spawning that year or not. Identifying unique ovary stage changes may lead to the development of a non-biased method of determining sexual maturity in females.
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Peter Gaudet - In vitro cultivation of Hematodinium sp.: characterization of developmental stages and optimization of growth conditions
First reported in 1931, Hematodinium sp. has become a significant threat to wild crustacean fisheries, especially the snow crab industry. Hematodinium sp. is a microscopic parasite that infects the blood and other organs of the crab, and usually causes death. Though not infectious to humans, it is a significant threat to wild crab populations, and has accounted, in part, to past die offs in tanner and blue crab. We know very little of the parasite’s life cycle and optimal growth conditions. It is my goal to grow the parasite outside the crab (in vitro), and to study how it transitions from different life stages. Different microscopic tools (such as electron microscopy and special staining procedures) will be used to accomplish this goal. Furthermore, part of my research is to investigate at what conditions the parasite grows best. This work will hopefully increase our knowledge of this significant parasitic threat, and better help fishery management.
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Megan Bauer - Analysis of gene expression in endosulfan exposed H.americanus larvae using an oligonucleotide microarray
Agriculture and fisheries are two economically important industries in Atlantic Canada, particularly potato farming and lobster fishing on Prince Edward Island. Lucrative potato crops can be threatened by fungus, virus and various insect pests. The application of pesticides to maintain the integrity of the crops has potential to cause detrimental effects on the environment and to non-target organisms. Endosulfan is a popular organochlorine pesticide sprayed on PEI potato fields to combat against the Colorado potato beetle, however its presence is being detected in the air and in marine environments as a result of soil run off. Endosulfan has been shown to cause developmental delays in other crustaceans and it is suspected to affect the development of lobster larvae living in the water column. Lobster larvae go through a period of development known as metamorphosis where significant changes in physiology, morphology and behavior make the larvae vulnerable to environmental conditions. The presence of endosulfan during this sensitive developmental period could therefore have harmful or fatal effects on the larvae.
The purpose of my project is to determine the effects of endosulfan on lobster larvae development using novel microarray technology that allows the monitoring of thousands of genes simultaneously. The microarray results will provide insight into the mode of action of endosulfan and the implications it may have on the lobster population.
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Dan Hines - Analysis of gene expression changes during larval development in American
Lobster larvae are very active and fast growing when compared to their adult counterparts. Larvae develop from an egg to a juvenile lobster in 4-12 weeks during the summer months. During this time they more than double in size, and undergo many different physical changes. To gain a better understanding of the processes that control the changes that are observed during development, this project uses a tool that is capable of measuring the amount of several thousands of molecules simultaneously. By comparing the amounts of these molecules at different stages of development, particular molecules have been implicated as likely having an effect on the physical changes that occur. This will set a baseline for normal development in lobster larvae and may serve as a platform to examine the effects of different stressors on larval development. This kind of information will assist in a better understanding of factors that affect future lobster populations.
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Fraser Clark (winner of a Graduate Student Fellowship award from Innovation PEI) - Garnering insight into crustacean immunity through transcriptomic profiling in lobster
Healthy adult lobsters are susceptible to relatively few known lethal diseases, but the two most common are gaffkemia, caused by the gram-positive bacterium Aerococcus viridans var. homari, and bumper-car disease, caused by the ciliated protist Anophryoides haemophilia. Fraser’s PhD research endeavors to explore the impact that these two pathogens have on the immune response of adult lobster to develop biomarkers of lobster and crustacean immunity.
The primary immune defense mechanism in lobsters is a physical barrier made up of a rigid exoskeleton. However, some harvesting practices, as well as lobster-lobster or lobster-predator interactions, can cause damage which creates portals of entry for opportunistic pathogens. Once inside a lobster, a pathogen faces numerous cellular and humoral innate defense mechanisms including: antimicrobial peptides, agglutinins, phagocytosis by foreign-particle recognizing cells, pathogen encapsulation and activation of reactive oxygen generating immune cascades. Research to date has primarily focused on haemolymph based macromolecular and histologically evident mechanisms of immunity, but this study aims to elucidate differential expression of genetic mechanisms of immunity in adult lobsters to generate commercially valuable biomarkers of crustacean immunity. These biomarkers will be a valuable tool for assessing lobster health status geographically and temporally in both in wild and live storage conditions.
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AVC Lobster Science Centre in the Classroom
Students Learn ‘All About Lobster Biology’. At the beginning of December our field technician in Yarmouth, Alison Darling, gave a presentation about lobster biology to Drumlin Heights Consolidated School‘s 4th grade class. The children were quite open eyed when she illustrated how there were blue, yellow and albino lobsters, when they learned that lobsters had teeth in their stomachs or when they learned how to tell the difference between male and female lobsters. The young students, ages 9 and 10, had plenty of questions and stories about their family members being out on the sea lobster fishing; it was a change for them to learn about the science side of the lobster industry. They are constantly surrounded by stories their fathers and grandfathers tell them about how it is out on the sea and most of the time the students don’t think about the biology of lobsters, how they eat, breathe and see the world.
A more advanced presentation was given to both Yarmouth Consolidated Memorial High School and Drumlin Heights Consolidated school Oceans 11 program. The students learned about all the different systems in the lobster such as circulatory, respiratory, digestive and nervous system and the lobster’s external anatomy. The presentation incorporated various photos of dissections; the class was able to observe what lobsters heart, stomach intestines, gills, neural cord and hepatopancreas really looked like. Some of the students were a bit surprised by the pictures but most of them were pretty impressed that lobsters had organs similar to ours. The presentation generated a great discussion with several questions, including how one becomes a lobster biologist! It was a great opportunity for them to learn about different career choices in the lobster industry and how to follow your passions. Before the end of the school year, Alison will be visiting other schools to reach out to more students and show them the science side of the lobster fishing industry.
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FSRS Conference (March 2011)
The Fishermen and Scientists Research Society (FSRS) held its 18th Annual Conference on March 24 - 25, 2011 at the Best Western Glengarry Hotel in Truro, NS. Several AVCLSC staff were in attendance.
Dr. Andrea Battison presented "Lobster Blood Biochemistry: There's more to it than just protein"
A brief overview of some of the preliminary findings from the Blood Biochemistry component of the Atlantic Lobster Moult & Quality project. Over the past 2 ½ years, blood biochemistry profiles have been completed on over 1,600 samples collected in LFAs 25, 26A, 33, and 34. Each profile consists of 22 different parameters used to evaluate different body systems. The goal was to develop ‘normal’ or reference ranges for each of these parameters. This will assist researchers as they study the effects of different stressors and disease on lobster physiology.
Regional differences were detected with lobsters in the Northumberland Strait having higher levels of metabolites such as triglyceride and cholesterol and lower blood osmolality compared to lobsters from southwest Nova Scotia. These are thought to be due to the different environments - water temperature and salinity, respectively - in which the lobsters live. Trends in other parameters appear to be related to the moult cycle and egg production in females; however, will require further evaluation to confirm.
Mike Ciaramella (Graduate Student) prepared and presented a poster on the “Nutritional condition of the American lobster, Homarus americanus, during the moult cycle” to those in attendance. The presentation addressed the metabolic changes in the hepatopancreas of the lobster as it progressed through different stages of the moult cycle. Significant changes in lipid (Fat) and glycogen (Carbohydrate) identified them as important reserves in the lobster. Assessment of the overall composition of the hepatopancreas classified lipid as the most abundant metabolite with glycogen comprising a very small portion of the total weight. These findings will lead to a better understanding of the natural fluctuations in lobster physiology and could have important implications on the methods of assessing condition and health in crustaceans.
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Mi’kmaq Confederacy of Prince Edward Island: Understanding Lobster Health Equals Quality Equals Revenue
As part of their growing capacity in the commercial fishery, the PEI First Nations of Lennox Island and Abegweit have recognized the importance of lobster health and quality in meeting demands of the marketplace. Through their Tribal Council, the Mi’kmaq Confederacy of PEI, the two communities approached the AVC Lobster Science Centre requesting training courses to better ensure they supplied a top quality product to their markets.
In April, Melanie Burton of the AVC Lobster Science Centre, travelled to both communities, providing both with a half-day seminar covering lobster biology, proper handling techniques and blood protein measuring. Fifty fishermen and shore workers attended the sessions and were excited to learn aspects of lobster anatomy, biology, stressors and quality issues that, regardless of their industry experience, was new to them. Group members also had the opportunity for hands on practice of bleeding lobster and determining the blood protein (Brix) level of the lobster on their own.
“This is definitely a step in the right direction,” said Roger Sark, Abegweit Fisheries Co-ordinator. “Understanding the animal being fished and the consequences of improper handling can only help us supply a better quality product and improve fishing revenue for our communities.”
Each First Nation has since purchased equipment to test lobster blood protein levels. “We’ll be doing random measurements throughout the season,” said Robert Augustine, Fisheries Manager at Lennox Island. “Our buyers will be assured that when they purchase First Nation caught lobster it will be of the highest quality.”
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9th Annual ICWL Conference (June 2011)
The 9th Annual International Conference on Lobster Biology and Management will be held in Bergen, Norway on June 19-24, 2011 by the Institute of Marine Research in collaboration with other institutions and agencies working with lobster research/fishery/export in Norway and Europe. This international event for lobster research and management is the largest of its kind and is held every 4 years. More than 300 participants from all disciplines of lobster research and management attend. This is the top international event to network-with the world’s leading experts on all kinds of lobster species. The AVC Lobster Science Centre held the event in 2007 and will be sending a delegation of presenters to the 9th Annual ICWL Conference.
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7Th Annual Lobster Science Workshop
Come join us for our 7th Annual Lobster Science Workshop at the Amphitheater, Don and Marion McDougall Hall, University of Prince Edward Island, PEI, mid-late October. This year’s theme is "On the Road Again - Optimizing Lobster Survival During Transport to Markets". Presenters will be discussing issues of interest to all involved in the Lobster Industry.
For more information, contact the AVC Lobster Science Centre at (902) 894-2884 or lobster@upei.ca.
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The AVC Lobster Science Centre would like to thank all its sponsors and supporters for their ongoing contributions.
