The Tilapia Journal - Fish the information you really want out of the net

Great Opportunity!

admin — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 01:20:15 +0000

Take advantage of our great advertising rates and make the most of your advertising budget with the newest and most innovative aquaculture and Tilapia industry reporter.

We can, and will, work with you to make the best out of your campaign, regardless of ad unit size or duration. Everyone is welcome at The Tilapia Journal.

Click on our ADVERTISING page by clicking on the word advertising or on the top menu to learn more about rates and ad unit sizes.

World Aquaculture Society Conference

admin — Thu, 03 Mar 2011 16:16:16 +0000

Welcome to all of our new readers and friends that join us from the World Aquaculture Conference currently held in New Orleans.

We know this yearly event is an important gathering for the industry and we sincerely hope that during these conference days, bonds are strengthened, minds enlightened and stern conviction is placed on advancing aquaculture and research.

We are glad to have you stop by and join our community.

Stills From Epcot

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 23:16:54 +0000

A Measure of Success

admin — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 23:39:29 +0000

Take a look at the fish in your local supermarket and you’ll likely find that tilapia is featured front and center in most display cases. Tilapia is now in the top ten seafoods consumed in the United States, and is featured in almost every fish recipe you find while browsing the web.
Did you know that for that fish to get on your plate, a long road of ecological impact had to be traversed? In fact, most of us have no idea how our food arrives on our table, and it is our responsibility to inform ourselves, and to demand ecologically friendly farming practices as well as other improvements that can make our next meal one we can feel good about.
Approximately 2.3 million metric tons of tilapia is produced annually and of that 73% is farmed. As we know by the many charts that we’ve posted throughout these last months, China is the largest producer of farmed tilapia in the world. As you can imagine from your experience with other Chinese industries (does drywall ring a bell?), the economy-of-scale fish farming, brings familiar problems that pressure farmers into cultivating even cheaper tilapia to satisfy the demand for protein in the West. What many farmers and resellers don’t see is that the equilibrium of nature cannot be disturbed without consequences.
Pollution is one of the largest problems brought on by the large-scale fish farming. As we’ve seen with salmon farms in Canada, excess waste can create a dantesque problem for the bio diversity and can render a water source a bane and lifeless environment. The same can happen with tilapia, not only is the fish waste being disposed directly into the water source, but as some reports suggest, it is being reused along with other forms of waste water to include human waste and other industry derivatives.
The problem, as we’ve seen many times with other products and industries is that Third World governments tend to omit environmental issues due to sidelined economic incentives or ineffective supervisory structure. Many governments around the world are not trained, or don’t have the manpower or expertise to deal with problems that, when placed in perspective, don’t appear to be of urgency.
Let’s talk about solutions. The world wildlife fund better known by its acronym WWF, has drafted a series of standards to be adopted by governments near and far [that are involved in tilapia farming and/or other large-scale fish production], in order to follow ecologically responsible practices and ensure the local biodiversity will not be impacted by farming or its byproducts. The goal of the standards is to measurably reduce or eliminate the negative impacts of tilapia farming, address the food safety and human health concerns related to the imported tilapia and to achieve performance levels while permitting the tilapia farming industry to remain economically viable.
In a bold, grandiose, and brilliant effort, the world wildlife fund will give the standards to a new organization called the Aquaculture Stewardship Council or ASC, that will be responsible for the enforcement and compliance of the standards. It is important to note that the tilapia production facilities will be evaluated based on performance standards and will not be prejudged as environmentally or socially acceptable. This means that they must “obey the law and comply with all international national and local regulations, expand farms or move to conserve natural habitats or biodiversity, conserve water resources, local fish species, and use the resources efficiently all while ensuring food safety, social responsibility and environmental health”.
These standards make it much easier for local governments, institutions and NGOs and other involved parties, to have measurable objectives to analyze which will also aid in the promotion of eco-friendly farming and aquaculture related efforts around the world. The real problem facing responsible farming of tilapia species, is the generalized fear of adverse consumer reaction to rising prices. To aid this issue is important to promote local production as well as consumer education. As consumers learn about where their food comes from and how it was grown, they will take more eco-friendly stances and will approve of a higher price in order to be responsible with the environment. Let’s not forget that in 2009 alone the organic food and beverage market made over $24 billion in sales, while before that it had been growing at the rate of $1 billion per year. If farmers need more incentives to take care of the environment there are more than 24 billion reasons for them to consider eco-friendly practices.
To learn more about this great WWF initiative go to: http://www.worldwildlife.org/what/globalmarkets/aquaculture/dialogues-tilapia.html

The Wonders of Epcot

admin — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 00:33:19 +0000

During a recent visit to Epcot theme park at Walt Disney World, we experienced the attraction called Living with the Land. This ride, as original as they come, features a ride through an impressive system of greenhouses that showcase a vast array of crops, fruits, legumes and other interesting fare. The highpoint of the ride, or at least the part that interested us the most, features an Aquacell with Tilapia, Bass, Sturgeon, Catfish and shrimp, as well as some alligators thrown in the mix.

For more information on the ride or Disney in general, visit:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/attractions/living-with-the-land/

Please take a moment to view our video and preview the experience that this wonderful and informative ride has to offer.

What do we produce?

admin — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:16:05 +0000

Did you ever wonder how much seafood -specifically Tilapia- does the U.S. produce?
Here is a very interesting table from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), dated 2008 and which illustrates how much ground we still have to cover to supply our large demand for Tilapia and other species.

Source: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Royal Tila

admin — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 02:36:25 +0000

Last weekend we were lucky to have a sneak peek at Royal Tila’s operation in Punta Gorda FL.
With more than 12 pools and growing fast, Royal Tila is growing exponentially and is a fantastic asset for the Florida Tilapia Industry.

Instilling confidence in locally grown products and promoting healthy organic choices is the flag of this start-up operation, which will be serving Tilapia at a restaurant and supermarket near you in the coming months.

Join us as we follow the footsteps of this innovative company in the strive to make local products the consumer’s first choice.

U.S. Tilapia Import Charts

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 07:18:21 +0000

All data is drawn from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Data set can be viewed in spread sheet format in previous post.

Tilapia in the World

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 06:28:39 +0000

Tilapia is the third most important fish in fish farming after carps and salmonids, with production reaching1,505,804 metric tons in 2002

Because of their large size, rapid growth, and palatability, tilapiine cichlids are the focus of major farming efforts, specifically various species of Oreochromis, Sarotherodon, and Tilapia, collectively known colloquially as tilapias. Like other large fish, they are a good source of protein and popular among artisanal and commercial fisheries. Most such fisheries were originally found in Africa, but outdoor fish farms in tropical countries such as Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Indonesia are underway in freshwater lakes.^[7] In temperate zone localities, tilapiine farming operations require energy to warm the water to tropical temperatures. One method uses waste heat from factories and power stations.^[8]
Commercially grown tilapia are almost exclusively male. Cultivators use hormones such as testosterone to reverse the sex of newly spawned females. Because tilapia are prolific breeders, the presence of female tilapia results in rapidly increasing populations of small fish, rather than a stable population of harvest-size animals.^[9]

Whole tilapia fish can be processed into skinless, boneless (PBO) fillets: the yield is from 30 percent to 37 percent, depending on fillet size and final trim.^[10] The use of tilapia in the commercial food industry has led to the virtual extinction of genetically pure bloodlines. Most wild tilapia today are hybrids of several species

Our Intro Video

admin — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 05:38:14 +0000