The students will give their presentation on October 8th at 9am during the plenary session. The session will be moderated by Kathrin Steinberg, the EAS Student Group representative.

Hanlin Xu - IMPROVED USE OF LOW FM AND LOW FO DIETS IN GILTHEAD SEABREAM (Sparus Aurata) JUVENILES OBTAINED BY COMBINED BROODSTOCK SELECTION AND NUTRITIONAL PROGRAMING

My name is Hanlin Xu, and now I am a PhD student of The University Institute of Aquaculture and Sustainable Marine Ecosystems (IU-ECOAQUA), Universidad de las Palmas de Gran Canaria, supervised by Pro. Marisol Izquierdo. I graduated as a master student from the Ocean University of China and then I got the support from China Scholarship Council and came to Spain for PhD study. It is an honor that my abstract was chosen as one of the finalist for the Aquaculture Europe Student Spotlight Award 2019
I am now working on the effect of nutritional programming by feeding the broodstock with fish oil replacement diet during spawning season on the low fish meal fish oil diet utilization of the offspring. Meanwhile, we included the selection of broodstock based on the fatty acid desaturase 2 expression in blood. The growth performance of the juvenile was evaluated, and we are also interested in the mechanism behind the changes of utilization. The study is supported by the European project PerformFISH.

Renata Goncalves - NUTRITIONAL REQUIREMENTS OF EUROPEAN LOBSTER (Homarus gammarus, L.): EFFECT OF PROTEIN, LIPID, AND CARBOHYDRATE DIET CONTENT ON METABOLIC POSTPRANDIAL RESPONSE

I hold a BSc. in Zootechnic Engineer from the University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (Portugal) and a MSc. in Sea Sciences – Sea Resources from University of Porto (Portugal). After graduation, I was involved in several research projects at CIIMAR (Porto, Portugal), Aarhus University (Denmark), and CCMAR (Faro, Portugal) in different research areas, namely, ecotoxicology, ecology, and aquaculture. Recently have been focusing my research in Aquaculture of marine species.
I started my PhD in September 2018 at the Technical University of Denmark - National Institute of Aquatic Resources (DTU Aqua) titled “Uptake, assimilation, and utilization of nutrients by European lobster larvae and post-larvae”. The focus of this PhD project is to explore the nutritional requirements and metabolism of European lobster larvae and post-larvae, with the overarching goal to produce high-quality post larvae for release in the coastal waters of Skagerrak, North Denmark.

Frank Thomas Mlingi - GONAD DEVELOPMENT AND PLASMA LEVELS OF SEX STEROIDS IN FARMED LUMPFISH Cyclopterus lumpus UNDER DIFFERENT PHOTOPERIOD AND TEMPERATURE REGIMES

I entered in the field of aquaculture not knowing that it is one of the fastest growing and most promising sectors for the future’s sustainable supply of protein and other very important nutritional ingredients. My knowledge and skills in aquaculture are from a bachelor’s degree at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania, and a Master’s degree at the Ghent University in Belgium. I have worked in African catfish (Clarias gariepinus) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) hatcheries in Tanzania and Indonesia. I have also assisted in teaching aquaculture reproduction and hatchery management courses at the Sokoine University of Agriculture in Tanzania.
I have and am still learning that production of good quality and quantity seeds serves both the growing aquaculture industry and rescues the dwindling wild fish populations. Having this cross-cutting experience from my working in the industry and academic sectors in aquaculture, I became fascinated by fish reproductive biology as a field with very instrumental contributions towards the development of protocols for higher efficiency production in aquaculture. Therefore, I decided to focus on and thus pursue opportunities to further my understanding in solving challenges related to aquaculture seed production and management. I was thrilled to be offered an opportunity to pursue a Ph.D. in the reproductive biology of Lumpfish (Cyclopterus lumpus) at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).
My Ph.D. project seeks to understand how sexual maturation and egg quality in lumpfish respond to manipulations of light and temperature regimes in a captive environment. Understanding the responses will ensure control of sexual maturation and egg quality to close the life cycle and obtain subsequent generations of lumpfish during under hatchery production. I have positive expectations that, this project, will valuably contribute to the scientific and industrial communities in the ongoing efforts towards sustainable year-round production of the right sized juveniles of lumpfish as a biological cleaner fish for the removal of sea lice from Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) cages. Nonetheless, this opportunity is imparting in me very valuable experiences in modern techniques of studying fish reproductive biology. I strongly believe that, I will be able to better contribute in the field of aquaculture through training, research and the industry.