Field Document 1
January 1990
| FI:CPR/88/077 Field Document 1 January 1990 |
A report prepared for the project Fisheries Development in Qinghai Province
by
D. Edwards
Coldwater Fish Culture Specialist
This report was prepared during the course of the project identified on the title page. The conclusions and recommendations given in the report are those considered appropriate at the time of its preparation. They may be modified in the light of further knowledge gained at subsequent stages of the project.
The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the United Nations or the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area, or concerning the delimitation of frontiers.
FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS
Rome, 1990
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This electronic document has been scanned using optical character recognition (OCR) software. FAO declines all responsibility for any discrepancies that may exist between the present document and its original printed version.
2.4 National Financial Support
3. TROUT FARM SITE SELECTION AND PLANNING
3.1 Hatchery and Fingerling Production Unit
4. NAKED CARP HATCHERY SITE SELECTION AND PLANNING
Appendix 2: Programme of Instruction for the Training Course in Trout Culture and Lake Management
LIST OF FIGURES
2. Overview (Site Plan) of proposed hatchery/raceway trout farm at Nanmenxia Reservoir, Huzhu County
The Government of the People's Republic of China, assisted by the United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, are engaged in project CPR/88/077, Fisheries Development in Qinghai Province.
As part of project operations, FAO assigned Dr D. Edwards as Chief Technical Advisor/Coldwater Fish Culture Specialist from 4 July to 30 November 1989 with the following terms of reference:
to coordinate the activities of the other consultants in# partnership with the National Project Director (NPD) ;
to prepare progress reports for consideration by the tripartite review meetings, and write the project terminal report;
to be responsible for planning, building and operating the trout farms and the experimental naked carp hatchery, working in close cooperation with the NPD and consultants specialized in fish feed technology, aquaculture engineering, etc.;
to take a major part in the in-service training of national staff.
A detailed work plan for the project was drawn up during the mission. It is attached to the project document and copied here as Appendix 1.
In addition to the CTA, four other consultants were assigned to the project during 1989, as follows:
Dr I. Dunn, Specialist in Lake Fisheries Management, visited Qinghai Province from mid-August until late October. As the consultant responsible for the Qinghai Lake investigation, Dr Dunn will visit the project at regular intervals until its completion.
Dr L. Varadi, the Aquaculture and Drainage Engineering Consultant, was able to make only a very short visit to the project last year due to unforeseen circumstances. He stayed in China from 1 to 12 June when his assignment was unavoidably terminated. It is planned that Dr Varadi will make a second visit to the project during spring 1990.
Mr C. Smith, Consultant in Limnology and Lake Sampling Equipment, worked in Qinghai from 13 to 27 September, before returning to Rome to initiate equipment orders. Either Mr Smith or another limnologist will make two further visits to the project in the future.
Mr R. Coppola, a computer expert from FAO Headquarters in Rome, stayed in Xining from 30 September until 8 October to deliver and install computing equipment for the project. He may return in 1990 to help train counterpart staff in its use.
All the above consultants prepared reports on completion of their assignments, and their findings and recommendations will not be repeated here.
The only consultant unable to visit Qinghai as planned during 1989 was the Fish Feeds Specialist. His one-month mission has now been provisionally re-scheduled for May 1990. This delay will have no adverse effects on project progress and outputs, because no fish feeds will be required until 1991 when the trout and naked carp hatcheries become operational.
Under the overall charge of Mr Hu Xinghua, Director of Agriculture, the following staff of the Bureau of Aquatic Products, Department of Agriculture, Qinghai Provincial Government, were assigned to project CPR/88/077 during 1989:
The National Project Director (NPD) is Mr Qiu Benchen, Director of the Aquatic Products Bureau, and the Deputy NPD is Mr Ying Baicai, a Deputy Director of the Bureau. Both Mr Qiu and Mr Ying are working with the project on a part-time basis only, due to their many other commitments within the Bureau.
Administrative and technical support to the project as a whole is supplied by:
| Mr Chen Yuan | Senior Engineer (full-time) |
| Mr Shen Zhixin | Project Secretary (full-time) |
| Mrs Shuen Shufan | Administrative Officer (part-time) |
| Mr Wei Zhizheng | Supplies Officer (part-time) |
| Mr Wong Cleche | Driver |
| Mr Zhu Neifan | Driver |
Scientific staff assigned full-time to the Qinghai Lake investigation:
| Mr Wong Jilian | Team Leader |
| Mr Yang Hongzhi | Deputy Team Leader |
| Mr Yuan Yuonggua | Assistant Engineer |
| Mr Wan Zhenji | Technician |
| Miss Chen Yianqin | Technician |
| Mr Yan Zhongshuan | Technician |
Additional members will be added to this team when the lake sampling programme begins in 1990.
Bureau staff assigned to the rainbow trout culture programme:
| Mr Ying Baicai | Team Leader |
| Mr Chao Yiming | Deputy Team Leader |
| Mr Jang Shaohua | Technician |
| Miss Hu Chuhua | Technician |
| Miss Lin Li | Technician |
With the exception of Mr Ying, all the above staff are working with the project full-time. Further members of the Bureau's staff will be assigned to this team as required when the project's fish farms come into operation in 1991 and 1992. In addition, the farms will be staffed by employees of the local government and/or electric power companies in the countries where the units are located.
Interpretation (English/Chinese) for consultants was ably provided by Mr Yang Hongzhi for the Qinghai Lake group and Mr Chao Yiming for the trout culture work.
Generous office and storage space, and a meeting room, have been provided for the use of consultants and national project staff at the Bureau's General Extension and Training Building in Xining. A laboratory is being installed in the same building ready for use in 1990, primarily for the Qinghai Lake study. Working and storage rooms will be made available to the lake team in the Qinghai Lake fishing station complex at the lakeside, where living accommodation is also available. Working and living accommodation for trout culture team members will be built with the fish farms.
Much of the national financial support to the project is provided by the Finance Department of the Qinghai Provincial Government. It is understood that the Department has already committed approximately one million yuan to cover the costs of building the trout farms during 1990. Additional money to pay for farm running costs (fish food, power, fuel, etc.) will be provided by the County Government and/or the Electric Power Authority in the locations chosen for fish farm building (see below), in whom ownership of the units and their fish production will be vested.
Fellowships in rainbow trout culture were organized for four national project staff: Mr Ying Baicai, Mr Yang Hongzhi, Mr Chao Yiming and Miss Lin Li. The candidates will receive practical instruction in trout hatchery technology, on-growing of salmonid fishes in concrete raceways and earth ponds, cage culture, trout feeding and disease control. Their work will be organized and hosted by the Institute of Aquaculture, University of Sterling, Scotland, UK, but, in addition to working on the Institute's own trout farm, the trainees will be placed for periods on commercial salmonid farms in Scotland.
The three-month fellowships will begin on 7 January 1990. It is vital that the scheduled starting date should not be postponed, because the candidates must be back in Qinghai Province to work with the CTA and other consultants when they return in April/May 1990. Should the candidates for any reason be not able to begin their studies before the end of January the fellowships MUST be postponed until autumn 1990, after the international staff have left China. As key members of the national project team, the absence of these candidates from China during consultants' visits could seriously damage project outputs during ' 1990.
Two of the trainees, Chao Yiming and Yang Hongzhi, have passed an examination of proficiency in English set by the Xian Foreign Language Institute. Success in this examination is recognized by UNDP as qualifying the candidate to travel overseas on a fellowship. The four trainees will always travel and work together in Scotland as a group, with the two qualified linguists acting as interpreters to their colleagues. Since their instruction will be of a practical nature, involving the candidates in observing and then performing manual tasks, it is believed that language factors will not pose any problem during these fellowships. Both the qualified men have very competently acted as interpreters for international consultants during 1989.
A three-week training course was held at the General Extension and Training Centre of the Bureau of Aquatic Products, Department of Agriculture of the Qinghai Provincial Government, in Xining from 10 to 31 October 1989. Thirty students from Xining and other parts of the Province attended the course, which consisted of lectures, practical classes and field trips. Accommodation for trainees from out-of-town was provided at the Training Centre, and meals were served in the canteen of an adjacent factory.
The course was divided into two sections: trout culture was taught by the coldwater fish culture consultant (CTA), and lake fisheries management and limnology by the lake management consultant. All trainees attended both parts of the course. The course programme is attached to this report as Appendix 2. Lectures were delivered in English, and simultaneous translation to Chinese was provided by Mr Zhao Shu of the English Department of Qinghai Education College and Mr Yu Dunpan of the Northwest Plateau Biological Institute, both in Xining. They were assisted by Mr Chao Yiming and Mr Yang Hongzhi of the Bureau of Aquatic Products.
At the request of the Director of Fisheries, an examination was given at the end of the course. This took the form of a multiple-choice questionnaire. The marks achieved in this examination were excellent, revealing that all students had well understand the classes. During the closing ceremony, the Director of the Aquatic Products Bureau presented a certificate to each trainee, with special commendation to the four individuals who scored 95% or more in the examination.
First-class sites for construction of trout hatcheries are scarce in Qinghai Province. This is primarily due to the geological nature of the area. Although situated 2 000–5 000 m above sea level, the “rocks” of Qinghai are mostly composed of young, soft marine sediments - literally mountains of mud. Consequently most surface waters pick up large quantities of mud and become extremely turbid whenever it rains, and also during the spring snow-melt. This high silt content makes the water unsuitable for incubating and hatching trout eggs, and for rearing fry, unless it is first filtered. Further, many of the mountains are virtually devoid of vegetation cover, rendering rivers and streams prone to flooding during the wet season. There are few springs in the Province which could provide sufficient clear water from underground to supply a sizeable trout hatchery.
In addition to the requirement for a reliable supply of clean water, the hatchery site must be served by an adequate road (passable at all seasons by truck), and be close to electric power and telephone connections. It should also be within reasonable travelling distance of the provincial capital Xining, where national project staff are based, and within one day's road journey of the on-growing sites to allow delivery of trout fingerlings by truck. In this very large remote province, these requirements further greatly reduced the choice of hatchery location.
During this first assignment, the CTA spent a major part of his time in the search of a hatchery site. Approximately 10 000 km was travelled throughout the eastern half of the Province (the western half is mostly wilderness, very sparsely populated and with few roads), much of it over slow, rough roads. All possible trout farm sites known to the Qinghai Provincial Government's Bureau of Aquatic Products and Water Conservancy Department staffs were visited. Subsequently government records of promising waters were examined when available, and new measurements of water flow, temperature and turbidity taken when required.
The site finally selected for construction of the project's trout hatchery was an area immediately below the Nanmenxia Dam in Huzhu County, about 55 km from Xining City. The dam is about 2 700 m above sea level, and was constructed mainly for irrigation of farmland. The reservoir behind it holds 18.4 million m3 of water at normal operating level. The reservoir is supplied with water from two major streams, both of which originate as springs. According to records taken over several years by the Department of Water Conservancy, the quantity of inflow water fluctuates relatively little throughout the year, averaging 1.5 m3/sec.
Water leaves the dam in two ways:
Uncontrollable seepage underneath the dam supplies three major springs which all emerge within a few hundred metres of the dam on its eastern side. There is a fall of about 3 m between the springs and the proposed fish farm site.
The concrete discharge canal on the western side of the dam, through which flows can be determined by a water control tower inside the reservoir. The site chosen for the fish farm is close to the point of discharge from this canal into the natural stream bed in the bottom of the valley. There is a fall of about 10 m between the existing concrete irrigation canal and the proposed fish farm site.
The planned trout farm will be supplied with water from both of these sources. Being filtered as it passes through the ground underneath the dam, the spring supplies are very suitable for use in a trout hatchery without further treatment or filtration. This is a rare advantage in Qinghai Province. The quantity of water emerging from the springs varies according to the head of water behind the dam, but with the reservoir at its normal operating level the total issuing from the three springs has been measured at more than 0.5 m3/sec. The three springs will be channelized into a single concrete canal or pipeline to supply all parts of the fish farm by gravity. The second source of water, from the concrete discharge canal, can very easily be diverted to the fish farm through a new, short concrete canal. Because it can sometimes become turbid, the discharge water will only be supplied to tanks and concrete ponds used for growing fingerlings and market fish, but not to hatchery incubators and fry tanks.
At the time of the CTA's visit, the Nanmenxia Dam was under repair on its western side to reduce observed seepage through the dam wall itself and avert the consequent risk of eventual structural collapse. Thus the reservoir has been kept empty for several months to permit work on the inside face of the dam, and water flows from the springs have been small. Uncertainty about the date of completion of the work, the possibility that the work itself will eventually reduce spring flows, and doubts over the accuracy of data about water inflows, were major reasons why the CTA searched Qinghai Province for alternative hatchery sites, despite the fact that Nanmenxia was one of the first locations suggested by national counterpart staff and was being strongly “pushed” by Government. However, all other usable sites also had negative aspects to them. Detailed discussions with engineers of the Department of Water Conservancy and the Huzhu County Government (which owns the dam and is carrying out the repair work) resulted in a firm commitment by Government to finish the work and refill the reservoir by autumn (October) 1990. Specialist engineers also gave their assurance that spring flows will be unaffected or very little affected by the dam repairs. Accepting these assurances, the CTA agreed to recommend the construction of the project's trout farm at the Nanmenxia site during 1990, ready to take in its first batch of rainbow trout ' eggs early in 1991.
Following the choice of site, the CTA prepared diagrams of the facilities required at this fish farm (Figs. 1–2). These were explained and discussed with the Qinghai Provincial Government's Design Institute for Electricity and Water Conservancy, which is now drawing up detailed blueprints ready for use by the builders when they begin work on the farm in spring 1990.
Although the target for trout fingerling output given in the project document is 250 000 fish/year, Government wishes to build a unit with the capacity for expansion to at least twice this number to supply fish farms in other parts of the Province in future. This was taken into account during hatchery planning.
Most of the money for building the trout farm at Nanmenxia will be provided by the Qinghai Provincial Government's Department of Finance. However, the farm and its fish will be owned by the Government of Huzhu County, which will pay most of the running costs. An agreement has been drawn up between the Bureau of Aquatic Products and the Huzhu County Government. At the time of writing, negotiations were continuing on some points about “who pays what” and consequently the agreement had not been signed. However, the basic elements of technical concern to the CTA were already agreed as follows:
Ownership of the farm and its fish rests with the Huzhu County Government, which will provide the land and water at no cost to the project.
The Bureau of Aquatic Products, through the project, will provide technical expertise, extension backup, some equipment as specified in the project document, and trout eggs.
The County Government agrees to buy and use the fish feed recommended by the project's consultants.
Records must be kept of the fish mortality, growth, food usage, and eventual fish sales (including prices), and these records must be made available to project staff.
The hatchery must provide fish for on-growing at the cage culture and earth pond site (see below) in the numbers and at the times specified in the project document, at a fair price to be determined by the Bureau of Aquatic Products.
Construction of the Nanmenxia farm will begin when the CTA returns to Qinghai at the beginning of May 1990. In the meantime, Bureau staff will monitor chemical and physical parameters of the water supplies to further ensure their suitability for, trout farming.
Three units are planned for on-growing trout fingerlings to market size:
(a) Concrete Raceways
The project document requires the construction of a concrete raceway unit capable of producing at least 20 t of market-sized trout per year.
Sites suitable for building concrete raceway units to grow-on fish from fingerling to market size are more numerous in Qinghai Province than are good hatchery locations, because larger fish can better tolerate periodic exposure to water of high silt content. Several usable locations were identified, but for ease of management and to minimize building costs during the project period, it was decided that the first concrete raceway facility will be constructed at a site adjacent to the hatchery at the Nanmenxia Dam (see above and Figures 1 and 2). Initial target production will be 25 t/year, but again Government wishes to retain the option to increase this in future years, subject to proven adequacy and reliability of the water supplies. The raceways are included in the detailed plans being drawn up by the Institute of Design, and construction work on them will begin in summer 1990 (although the project document does not require them to be ready for use until early 1992). The ownership and use of the concrete raceways will be covered by the same agreement between Huzhu County Government and the Bureau of Aquatic Products discussed above.
(b) Floating Cage Unit
A seemingly excellent location for siting floating cages was identified in the Longyangxia Reservoir, about 150 km from Xining. The reservoir was recently created by the damming of the Yellow River at the border between Gonghe and Guide Counties of Qinghai Province, 2 650 m above sea level. The Longyangxia Dam was built for electricity generation, and is reported to be the second largest hydro-power scheme in Asia. Power production is now coming on-stream, but the reservoir is still filling towards its eventual storage capacity of 24.7 billion m3 of water.
Current fishery yield of native Yellow River species in the reservoir is negligible. The owner, the Longyangxia Dam Hydro-Power Authority, has conducted some experiments in cage culture of common carp in the reservoir, but growth rates were poor. This is attributable to the low water temperature, which rarely rises above 15°C even at the surface. Consequently the Power Authority intends to suspend carp culture, but is very interested in cooperating in the introduction of coldwater trout farming to its reservoir.
The total area of Longyangxia Lake at its normal operating level will be about 383 km2. The main body of the lake is narrow and 108 km long. Though severe weather is rare in this area, winds blowing down such a long fetch can occasionally create waves big enough to cause difficulties for conventional floating cages. Consequently the site selected for the cage unit is in a more sheltered 20 km long fjord-like side-arm on the south side of the main reservoir. The site used by the Power Authority for its experimental carp culture was a very sheltered location at the blind end of this arm. However, water quality and water exchange are poor there, and it is proposed to site the trout cages much closer to the junction of the side arm with the main lake. Depth of water in this area is currently about 60 m. In this more exposed location a more robust cage design than that used in the carp experiments will be required. Designs will be made by the CTA during 1990, and cages be constructed during 1991 ready to receive fingerlings from the hatchery early in 1992 as originally planned.
In the reservoir's short history to date no complete ice cover has formed in winter, probably because water level has been continually rising. It is possible that fluctuating levels will continue to maintain ice-free conditions in later years, and in that case the cage site will be usable all-year-round, rather than only during spring-autumn as envisaged in the project document. In this case it will be possible to bring forward the first transfer of fingerlings to cages to autumn/winter 1991.
Water quality and temperature regimes in the lake appear very good for trout, but additional monitoring, especially of oxygen levels at various depths, will be carried out by Bureau staff from now until production of trout in cages begins there, where-upon this work will be taken over by staff of the Power Authority.
An ownership/management agreement similar to that for the hatchery and raceway units has been drawn up for signing by the Bureau and the Longyangxia Dam Hydro-Power Authority. Its main components are:
The cage farm and its fish will be owned by the Power Authority, which will provide the site.
The Bureau of Aquatic Products, through the project, will provide technical expertise, extension backup, cage nets and some other equipment as specified in the project document.
The Power Authority will build cage frames, provide boats suitable for servicing cages, and make available such land-based facilities as are necessary to support the cage site.
The Power Authority agrees to use and pay for fish feeds' recommended by the project's consultants, and to keep records of feed usage, fish mortality, growth and sales (including prices).
The Power Authority agrees to purchase trout fingerlings from the hatchery at the time and in the numbers specified in the project document and at a fair price to be determined by the Bureau.
The initial target production of the cage unit is 25 t of trout/year (20 t was specified in the project document). As with the other fish farms, Government of course retains the option to increase production beyond this if it wishes, at its own expense and without increase in the UNDP contribution to the project. It is believed that the cage site chosen in Longyangxia Reservoir has the potential to support a trout farm many times the size of the pilot unit specified in the project document.
Cages can be serviced by boat from the town situated on the northern bank of the lake opposite the site, but a small land base to accommodate a watchman and for temporary food and equipment storage will probably be needed closer to the cages. Details of construction and working logistics will be decided during 1990 and 1991 as originally planned.
(c) Earth Pond Unit
The project document originally envisaged a small production of trout in an artificial canal supplying an existing carp farm with water from the Yellow River in Guide County. However, water quality observations during 1989 have shown that this water is not suitable for growing rainbow trout because it periodically becomes extremely muddy during the wet summer season. Nevertheless, the Government of Guide County remains enthusiastic about introducing trout culture in its area. Consequently, the CTA looked for alternative locations in the county where trout might be grown. Few sizeable sources of clean, cold water are available, but one promising spring-fed stream (called Guide Shijia) was found close to Guide town. At the time of the consultant's visit it was carrying about 0.3 m3/sec of clean, cold water. Adjacent land suitable for building earth ponds is also available. Observations on this stream will continue during 1990 and, if it proves suitable, plans will be made to build a small number of earth ponds at the site to demonstrate this third technology for production of market-size trout. In this case it is anticipated that a similar agreement between the County Government and the Bureau will be made to those described above for concrete pond and cage culture. However, in Guide County only a very small production target of about 5 t/year will initially be set due to limitations on availability of water.
The CTA and national staff generally agree with the recommendations on naked carp hatchery design made in Varadi's (engineering consultant) report, which therefore need not be repeated in detail here.
Briefly, it is planned to establish a temporary facility on the Buha River, the main spawning river for the naked carp population of Qinghai Lake. Wild broodfish will be captured by seining on or near their spawning beds in the river, and held in the hatchery until ready for spawning. Stripping, fertilization and initial egg incubation will be attempted at the same unit using standard “Hungarian” technology.
When they become resistant to handling, a proportion of the eggs will be transported to an existing carp hatchery owned by the Bureau of Aquatic Products in Xining. This hatchery and its adjacent earth ponds are routinely used for culture of common and Chinese carps, but the earlier spawning season of the naked carp will allow the same facilities to be used for all species in succession. In Xining, the naked carp eggs will be hatched, and larvae first-fed, probably with Artemia salina nauplii. After about one week's feeding in fibreglass tanks and funnels, fry will be transferred to conventional earth ponds and reared throughout the summer. The resulting juveniles will either be released into Qinghai Lake, or used by the Bureau for further on-growing experiments in ponds. For the sake of economy, existing ponds at the Xining hatchery will be used for fry-rearing instead of constructing new ones as previously suggested.
Those eggs retained at the temporary hatchery on the Buha River will be hatched and larvae first-fed in the same way (using Artemia), but will be released into the Buha River and hence into Qinghai Lake after only about one week's artificial feeding. The temporary hatchery will be dismantled after the spawning season finishes (June/July) and stored in sections until it is again required the following spring.
No target for naked carp juvenile production could be specified in the project document, because the technology for artificial propagation and rearing of this species is not yet well developed. The naked carp hatcheries are experimental units, and techniques tried may change during the project period according to their initial success. However, for the purpose of designing the hatcheries it was necessary to assume a target production, so that the sizes and numbers of equipment components required could be determined and ordered. For this purpose a target of one million naked carp eggs was assumed, and this would require the capture of about 200 male and 100 ripe female broodfish during the spawning season. It should be understood, however, that at this stage it is not known whether such numbers of ripe fish will be obtainable, and that this part of the project should not be considered a failure if this “working target” is not met. In contrast to the trout culture component of the project, the purpose of the naked carp hatchery work is to develop a workable technology for juvenile fish production only, not the production of specific quantities of fish.
As planned in the project document, the experimental naked carp hatcheries will be built and equipped during 1990, ready for operation in spring 1991.
In general, equipment ordered for the project was in accordance with the specifications set out in the project document. Exceptions, for which agreement from UNDP Beijing and clearance by FAO Headquarters were first obtained, were:
An extra vehicle (15 seat Nissan Urvan microbus) was ordered. It will be used to convey teams of consultants, national counterpart staff, and trainees to widely spaced project sites in this very large province. The purchase was financed from “savings” in the cost of the truck ordered for the project.
A new 150 HP Chinese-made diesel engine was ordered to replace the worn-out unit currently installed in the wooden trawler which is being converted into a sampling vessel for the Qinghai Lake investigation. A 12 KW generator will also be bought for this vessel. It is needed to power scientific equipment on board, and was overlooked in the project document equipment list. Both these items can be financed from the budget allocation for small boats and engines, because Government has agreed to supply existing boats to service the rainbow trout cage site on Longyangxia Reservoir.
All equipment for which a need is foreseen during 1990 will have been ordered by the end of 1989, and some has already arrived in Qinghai. Secure storage areas were provided for equipment until it is needed on site, and requisitioning and record-keeping procedures were established.
No budget difficulties arose with equipment costs or in other areas of expenditure.
The project made a satisfactory start on schedule during 1989. The CTA considered both consultants and national staff to be well chosen, backup from FAO and UNDP Beijing was excellent, and no insuperable administrative or technical difficulties were encountered.
PROJECT No. CPR/88/077
PROJECT TITLE: FISHERIES DEVELOPMENT IN QINGHAI PROVINCE
Tuesday, 10 October
Trainees travel to Xining. Allocation of accommodation
Wednesday, 11 October
Morning: Mr Qiu Benchen, Dr David Edwards and Dr Ian Dunn
Opening ceremony and introduction to the training course
Afternoon: Dr Edwards
Lectures on trout culture I: The salmonid fishes; classification, geographic distribution, environmental requirements, natural life cycles
Thursday, 12 October
Morning: Dr Dunn
Lecture: The limnology of inland waters and the relevance of limnological investigations to the fishery of Qinghai Lake
Friday, 13 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture II: Water and site requirements for trout farms. Farm design and construction. Fish production cycles. Selection and care of broodstock
Afternoon: Round-table discussion on salmonid fishes, and trainees questions
Saturday, 14 October
Dr Dunn
Morning: Lecture on the investigation of lake animals and plants, and a discussion of production and food webs
Monday, 16 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture III: Stripping and fertilization of eggs. Egg incubation and development. Hatching and rearing of fry
Afternoon: Screening of Norwegian videos on salmonid culture, water quality in fish farms, and disease control in hatcheries
Tuesday, 17 October
Dr Dunn
Morning: Lecture on the investigation of fish populations and the relevance of these investigations to the Qinghai Lake fishery
Wednesday, 18 October
Dr Dunn
Morning: Lecture: Introduction to fishing techniques, processing and marketing
Thursday, 19 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture IV: Production of trout fingerlings, use of tanks and ponds, grading, stocking densities, etc.
Friday, 20 October
Dr Dunn
All day field trip to Qinghai Lake to see the fishing base, fish factory, vessels, and spawning streams of the naked carp
Saturday, 21 October
Dr Dunn
Morning: Lecture on the importance of and the handling of scientific data. Introduction to the use of computers
Monday, 23 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture V: On-growing of trout to market size in earth ponds, concrete raceways and floating cages
Afternoon: Practical class on the use of pHmeters and salinity refractometers
Tuesday, 24 October
Dr Dunn
Morning: Lecture and discussion of the objectives of the project. What is meant by fisheries management and its relevance to the Qinghai Lake fishery. Discussion of the Qinghai Lake fishery investigation sub-project of CPR/88/077
Wednesday, 25 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture VI: Harvest, slaughter, packaging, processing and marketing of trout. Transport of eggs, live and slaughtered fish
Afternoon: Practical class on the preparation of oxygen probes and calibration of oxygen meters
Thursday, 26 October
Dr Edwards
Morning: Trout culture VII: Trout feeds and feeding, formulation, production and storage of feeds. Feeding rates, practices and machinery. Conversion efficiency
Afternoon: Practical class in which trainees used oxygen meters in the laboratory and in fish ponds
Friday, 27 October
Morning: Trout culture VIII: Genetics and disease factors in trout farming
Afternoon: Examination
Saturday, 28 October
Dr Edwards
All day field trip to a commercial rainbow trout farm close to Lanzhou City, Gansu Province
Monday, 30 October
Mr Qiu Benchen and Dr Edwards
Morning: Discussion of the objectives of project CPR/88/077: Fisheries development in Qinghai Province, in the light of the knowledge gained from the course. Discussion, followed by the award and presentation of certificates to trainees and the official closing of the course
Tuesday, 31 October
Trainees return home
Fig. 1 Diagram of proposed layout of the hatchery and concrete raceway unit for trout production below Nanmenxia Dam, Huzhu County
Fig. 2 Overview (Site Plan) of proposed hatchery/raceway trout farm at Nanmenxia Reservoir, Huzhu County (Scale approximately 1 cm = 4 m)
