Habte-Michael Habtezion, an Eritrean scientist completing his Ph.D. in
Fish Nutrition at one of China’s preeminent aquaculture universities
has been named as one of China’s Outstanding International Students.
This award is given to only a handful of the many thousands of foreign
students studying in China and “Habtet” is the first Eritrean student
to be awarded such.
Habtet, who upon graduation will be highly sought after by both
academia and the aquaculture industry has a dream, to return to his
motherland Eritrea and help kick start the Eritrean aquaculture
industry.
Towards this end he hopes to help start an Eritrean government
Aquaculture Corporation and begin to develop the tremendous potential
the Eritrean near shore coastal waters hold for this industry.
Eritrea has some of the best conditions in the world for aquaculture
with some of the worlds highest marine metabolism rates due to the
high water temperatures and salinity levels. The near shore coastal
waters from Massawa to Tio are fed by 5 highland origin rivers that
during the rainy season pump hundreds of thousands of tons of silt
into the Red Sea, silt that is food for algae and phytoplankton,
making the near shore coastal waters rich in food for marine life. On
top of this the Red Sea lacks major storms such as hurricanes or
typhoons which can wipe out aquaculture infrastructure.
Eritrea’s near shore coastal waters include as much as 4,000 square
kilometers of potential aquaculture sites and in the future could well
become one of if not the biggest contributor to Eritrea’s economy.
To give you an example, a one hectare square fish “cage” extending 10
meters deep can produce up to 300 tons of fish in one year. 1,000 one
hectare fish cages could produce as much as 300,000 tons of fish a
year, and Eritrea has 4,000 hectares of near shore coastal waters
ideally suited for such use.
Hopefully our leaders here in Eritrea will recognize and support young
Eritrean scientists like Habtet who can begin to help transform our
country into one of the worlds leading aquaculture centers and, as our
Presidents says, “build a rich Eritrea without rich Eritreans”.
Thomas C. Mountain has been living and reporting from Eritrea since
2006. He can be reached when he is away from the internet via mobile
phone at 2917175665 or via email at thomascmountain at gmail dot com.
Received on Mon Mar 30 2015 - 08:00:33 EDT