On behalf of the organizers of the MFA Internet Conference, I like to
welcome Dr. Paul Adler and the audience to the discussion of Dr. Paul R.
Adler's paper entitled "Phytoremediation of aquaculture effluents". I am
your chairman and the co-chairman is Dr. Asifo O Ajuyah.

When I attended the 1996 Beijing International Ecological Engineering
Conference, I bought a book "Recycling the Resource Ecological Engineering
for Wastewater Treatment", Proceedings of the Second International
Conference on Ecological Engineering for Wastewater Treatment, School of
Engineering Wadenswil-Zurich 18-22 September 1995. Dr. Paul Adler et al.'s
paper "Evaluation of the Effect of a Conveyor Production Strategy on
Lettuce and Basil Productivity and Phosphorus Removal from Aquaculture
Wastewater" attracted my notice. I also introduced this paper to my friends
in Zhejiang University and CNRRI. Aquaculture effluents are one of
components which cause cultural eutrophication of rivers and lakes.
Aquaculture effluents are diluted and purified by self-purification of
natural waters around fishponds. In general, the effluents should not
exceed one eighth of a receiving water body, or they will pollute it. If
the natural water around fishponds has already been eutrophicated, it is
impossible for rivers and lakes to purify the aquaculture effluents. Then,
eutrophication is getting worse. On the other side of a coin, aquaculture
effluents are resources. We should utilize the nutrients contained in them.
So we can learn something from this paper.

The author - Dr. Paul Adler - received his Ph.D. from Purdue University,
where he was trained in plant and soil biology. He is presently a scientist
with the United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research
Service where his research program focuses on aquaculture, sustainability,
and the environment. His research focus is on using ecological and resource
recovery approaches to enhance sustainability and reduce the environmental
impact of aquaculture production. His research interests include integrated
farming systems development, agroecosystems, effects of agricultural
practices on soil phosphorus and surface water quality, wetlands for water
quality improvement, use of ecosystems services for on-farm byproduct
recovery, and phytoremediation.

The co-chairperson of this paper discussion is Dr. Asifo O Ajuyah from the
University of the South Pacific in Western Samoa. He was graduated from the
University of Alberta Canada, where he obtained a PhD in Poultry Nutrition.
Currently he is a Senior Lecturer in Pig and Poultry Production. His
research is on local feed improvement and development for commercial pigs
and chicken in the island countries. Dr. Ajuyah is also interested in the
application of integrated bii-systems in islands and particularly in the
use of anaerobically digested effluents of animal wastes.

Allow me to declare the opening of the discussion session.

Li Kangmin
Chairman
Asian Pacific Regional Research and Training Center for Integrated Fish
Farming