The invitation to the last FROVcast this year was accepted by Ing. Jan Kašpar, the head of the Processing Unit and Shop with ish and Aquaculture Products of the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters USB.
See the article about our faculty and the centre CENAKVA on the website of the Universitas magazine of univerzities (only in Czech).
In this year's competition of the Czech Science Foundation, a project entitled "Characterization of effects of substances with anti-progestogenic activity occurring in the aquatic environments on lower vertebrates" was selected for funding on behalf of the FFPW USB. In 2022-2024, the staff of the Laboratory of Aquatic Toxicology and Ichthyopathology and the Laboratory of Environmental Chemistry and Biochemistry will participate in the project under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Hana Kocour Kroupová.
In recent decades, evidence has been gathered that certain compounds that enter the environment can adversely affect the endocrine system (hormone-producing organs) of wildlife and humans. These substances are collectively referred to as endocrine disruptors. Due to the occurrence of some endocrine disruptors with estrogenic activity, for example, relatively frequent occurrence of intersex (hermaphroditic) fish individuals in rivers has been reported. The supported project focuses on substances with so-called anti-progestogenic activity, repeatedly detected in the aquatic environment, not only in the Czech Republic. Substances with anti-progestogenic activity block the progesterone receptor and thus prevent the action of natural progestogens (e.g., progesterone), which are female hormones that play a crucial role in the reproduction of all vertebrates. There is a reasonable suspicion that these substances could negatively impact the development and fertility of animals living in the affected areas. Therefore, in the project, emphasis will be placed on monitoring the effect of substances on various parameters related to the development and functional reproduction of exposed fish and amphibians. Information obtained under laboratory conditions may help predict the potential risk of these substances to animals living in a polluted environment.
On June 29, 2022, a graduation ceremony for bachelor's, follow-up master's, and doctoral studies graduates will take place at the FFPW USB´s Large Lecture Hall of the MEVPIS Center Vodňany. This academic year, 11 bachelor's students, 12 follow-up master's students and 4 doctoral students completed their studies at the FFPW USB. Congratulations to all!
You can watch the graduation ceremony online here.
Fakulta rybářství a ochrany vod JU získala od Národního akreditačního úřadu pro vysoké školství akreditaci habilitačnímu řízení a řízení ke jmenování profesorem v oboru Rybářství s 10letou platností, tedy do června 2033.
Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters USB has been granted the habilitation and professorial rights in the field of Fishery from the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education for 10 years, i.e. until June 2033.
The rector of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Prof. PhDr. Bohumil Jiroušek, Ph.D., appointed our colleague Martin Bláha as Associate Professor at the field of Hydrobiology from 1st January 2022.
Congratulations.
The rector of University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice Prof. PhDr. Bohumil Jiroušek, Ph.D., appointed our colleague Vlastimil Stejskal as Associate Professor at the field of Fisheries from the 1st June 2022.
Congratulations!
There is a new interview with our student Martin Musil, a winner of the Junior world championship and the coach of the Czech team. You can read more about him (only in Czech) in the current issue of the university JOURNAL.
A traditional intensive course focused on environmental topics was held for the Higher Vocational School from the Austrian Yspertal from 7th to 12th May 2023. Twenty students and two professors had the opportunity to experience a bespoke program with the topics: Contamination of the aquatic environments, Pond Ecosystems, Aquaponics, Crayfish and Quality of fish flesh, Legislation and Sensorics. The program was designed to include not only theoretical lectures, but above all practical teaching and field exercises. It was supplemented by sports activities, a social evening and a visit to the towns of České Budějovice and Vodňany. The course participants left excited and loaded with new knowledge.
We would like to thank all our colleagues for the perfectly prepared professional blocks of the program and the work done, thanks to which this school remains loyal to us and returns every year.
07.-12.05.2023 proběhl již tradiční intenzivní kurz zaměřený na environmentální témata pro Vyšší odbornou školu z rakouského Yspertalu. Dvacet studentů a dva profesoři měli možnost zažít na míru připravený program, jehož tématy bylo Znečištění vodních ekosystémů, Rybniční ekosystémy, Akvapónie, Raci a Kvalita rybího masa, legislativa a senzorika. Program byl sestaven tak, aby obsahoval nejen teoretické přednášky, ale především praktickou výuku a terénní cvičení. Doplněn byl o sportovní aktivity, společenský večer a návštěvu měst České Budějovice a Vodňany. Účastníci kurzu odjížděli nadšeni a nabiti novými vědomostmi.
Rádi bychom poděkovali všem kolegům za perfektně připravené odborné bloky programu a odvedenou práci, díky které nám tato škola zachovává věrnost a každoročně se vrací.
he 15th year of the competition Czech Carp, organized by the Association of Chefs and Confectioners of the Czech Republic, took place on 18.-19. of November in České Budějovice. Within the competition, the long-term cooperation with the Processing Unit and Shop with Fish and Aquculture Products was awarded with honorable mention. Both institutions prepare, among other things, a joint project to raise public awareness of the possibilities of fish gastronomy and its application in public catering. Detailed information about the competition can be found here.
Ponds serving as passive additional treatment mediators for treated wastewater are used in aquaculture of cyprinids. We investigated how the metabolism of carp originating in clean water can adapt to water containing many residual pollutants, including pharmaceuticals, which are not completely removed at the wastewater treatment plant. In addition, we observed the activation of enzyme defense mechanisms during oxidative stress in the fish body. We also wanted to investigate the time needed for fish to get rid of undesirable metabolites, including drug residues, if they are cultured from early stages in treated wastewater and then restocked into clean water.
In the liver of carp kept in treated wastewater, we recorded a high number of various metabolites, which did not occur in fish originating from clean water. The transfer of fish from clean to treated wastewater caused immediately high oxidative stress. Seven days after the fish restocking, we measured the concentrations of drugs in the carp liver comparable to fish living in the treated wastewater throughout the year. After fish restocking from the treated wastewater to the clean water, fish were able to get rid of most of the monitored drugs within 14 days, but metabolic changes in the liver and antioxidant response in other tissues remained significantly increased for 2-6 months. This study contributed to elucidating the potential of treated wastewater use for aquaculture in biological ponds.
Detailed information can be found in the original article: Koubová, A., Van Nguyen, T., Grabicová, K., Burkina, V., Aydin, F.G., Grabic, R., Nováková, P., Švecová, H., Lepič, P., Fedorova, G., Randák, T., Žlábek, V., 2022. Metabolome adaptation and oxidative stress response of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) to altered water pollution levels. Environmental Pollution 303, 119117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119117
The alterations in the water pollution levels affect the metabolic profiles of restocked fish.
Written by: RNDr. Anna Koubová, Ph.D.
The importance of effective and efficient protection of endangered and protected animals is still relevant, and it can be assumed that with the undoubted success of efforts to return them to our nature, the importance of situations that today are inappropriately called conflict will also increase. Our aquaculture and fisheries, in general, are no exception in this respect. The losses caused by the protected (otter) or endangered (cormorant) fish-eating predators is partly compensated for fish farming entities based on the evaluation of the number of predators present according to the methodologies of the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic. The methods of determining cormorant and otter numbers on fish farms are defined in them in such a way as to minimize the influence of subjective factors (counting of cormorant individuals, evaluation of residence signs and their conversion to estimation of otter numbers) for the purposes of losses calculation. Nevertheless, these procedures are logically burdened with subjective error caused by different levels of expertise and experience of evaluators, instrumentation, or sampling frequency. For this reason, it is advisable to look for new options for monitoring, which would be more objective, conclusive and save the time required for monitoring. These advantages are brought about using camera systems in combination with modern computer image processing methods. As part of the project “Automation and objectification of piscivorous predator monitoring” (QK1920102), we created a solution for cormorant monitoring using drone photos, which is available to users via the website for free. The project was financially supported by the Ministry of Agriculture within the ZEMĚ program, mediated by the National Agency for Agricultural Research.
Currently, the number of cormorants in the Czech Republic is estimated at 813 breeding and 13,148 migrating and wintering birds in 2019 (RS ČR, internal data 2020), which caused a loss in aquaculture production of approximately CZK 100 million. While birds in nesting colonies contribute 13 million CZK to damages, losses caused by non-resident cormorants amount to 87 million CZK. Reimbursement of these losses to fishing enterprises, even if their extent does not fully correspond to real total extent, is based on the data reported by the monitoring of the applicants and the subsequent quantification carried out by the relevant experts. This undoubtedly increases the need to reduce subjective bias and methodological limits, which relate in particular to the difficulty in counting cormorant numbers in flocks exceeding 50–100 individuals.
The biggest weakness in monitoring the number of cormorants in the pond is the objective determination of their number. Two factors influence this: being there at the right time when the cormorants are on the pond and correctly counting the individuals that may overlap from the observer's point of view. To solve the first problem, an island system (Figure 1) was created, which is placed on a pond and can detect incoming cormorants. The system consists of a camera that can scan the entire sky (Figure 1) and a photovoltaic panel that recharges a battery that provides electricity for the camera. However, the processing of the video recording must be done on a computer, so the system is more suitable for determining the times when cormorants are present on the pond than for providing immediate information about their arrival.
To accurately determine the number of cormorants present on the pond, a system was created using an unmanned aircraft equipped with a so-called thermal camera. The drone operator will photograph the cormorants on the water, in the trees or on the island. After uploading the data to the web application, the software detects individual cormorants. Cormorants typically have a higher temperature than their surroundings, and because of this, they "glow" in the thermal camera recording. The software is thus able to determine their exact number with a success rate higher than 97 percent. The drone can photograph cormorants from a height of 30–130 meters without scaring them. Based on the detected cormorants, the web application can create an overview of the occurrence of cormorants on selected ponds and calculate losses based on the existing methodology.
Detailed information is available in the original article: Polenský, J., Regenda, J., Adámek, Z., Císař, P., 2022. Prospects for the monitoring of the great cormorant (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) using a drone and stationary cameras. Ecological Informatics 70, 101726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoinf.2022.101726
Link to web interface: http://wat.frov.jcu.cz/ login: Tato e-mailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty. Pro její zobrazení musíte mít povolen Javascript., password: Slun94koSv9t9.
Testing data are here.
Picture description (see below): Example drone picture of cormorants sitting on the water. A – picture in visible spectre, B – picture from thermal camera, C – result of automatic detection (green rectangles).
Written by: Dipl. - Ing. petr Císař, Ph.D.
We cordially invite you to the III. Representative Ball of the FFPW USB which will be held at the multipurpose hall in Vodňany on 10.02.2023 from 8 p.m.
For tickets contact Milada Vazačová, Tato e-mailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty. Pro její zobrazení musíte mít povolen Javascript., +420 602 395 620.
Srdečně Vás zveme na III. Reprezentační ples FROV JU, který se bude konat 10. února 2023 od 20:00 hod. ve víceúčelové hale ve Vodňanech.
Vstupenky rezervujte u Milady Vazačové na e-mailu: Tato e-mailová adresa je chráněna před spamboty. Pro její zobrazení musíte mít povolen Javascript. nebo tel.: +420 602 395 620.
Dne 13. října 2022 se na FROV JU ve Velkém přednáškovém sálu střediska MEVPIS Vodňany FROV JU uskutečnily slavnostní imatrikulace studentů prvního ročníku bakalářského studia. Imatrikulací se zúčastnilo celkem 25 studentů a studentek. Všechny srdečně vítáme mezi členy akademické obce a přejeme mnoho úspěchů ve studiu!
Ve stejný den se uskutečnily také slavnostní promoce absolventů doktorského studia, kterých se účastnilo celkem 7 nových doktorů oboru Rybářství. Všem srdečně gratulujeme a přejeme mnoho úspěchů!
Dne 13. října 2022 se na FROV JU ve Velkém přednáškovém sálu střediska MEVPIS Vodňany od 9:00 hodin uskuteční slavnostní imatrikulace studentů prvního ročníku bakalářského studia. Od 11:00 se dále uskuteční slavnostní promoce absolventů doktorského studia.
Promoce můžete sledovat online zde.
On Thursday, September 1, 2022, we had the honor of welcoming 80 general directors and attachés for fisheries from the member countries of the European Union to the Faculty of Fisheries and Water Protection of USB.
This visit took place within the framework of the Czech Republic's presidency of the Council of the EU. We are very pleased to be able to present our CENAKVA research centre, which is listed on the map of major research centres, to all representatives of the member states. Our goal was to show European officials and politicians that even freshwater aquaculture, whether traditional or using modern technologies, can play an important role in the production of quality food and at the same time has an important role in protecting the environment. Mrs. Charlina Vitcheva, the director of DG MARE of the European Commission, especially appreciated the interlinkage of aquaculture research with the protection of aquatic ecosystems and the impact of our research in the applied sphere and fishing practice. She was pleasantly surprised by the very high level of basic and applied research, the modern facilities of the CENAKVA research center and praised the effectively used investments from EU structural funds.
We were honored.
