College of Agriculture
The University of Arizona
Annual Performance Report Calendar Year 1997
Name: Kevin Fitzsimmons Date of First UA Appointment: 7/1/92
School/Department/County: Soil, Water and Environmental Science
Teaching % ___35____ Research %___30____ Extension % __35_____ Academic Support % ______
Please indicate the percentage of your time spent in each of the College Strategic Plan program areas:
Environment and Natural Resources % 20 Family, Youth and Community %
Human Nutrition, Food Safety and Health % Marketing, Trade and Economics %
Animal Systems % 40 Plant Systems % 40
Instructions: Enter information in areas considered relevant to your activities, leaving headings but making no entries for inappropriate areas. Maximum page length is six, with 12 point type font preferred.
1. Position Responsibilities or faculty interest areas (brief comment of 3-10 lines)
My responsibilities are to encourage wise use of water resources through teaching, research and extension. My teaching responsibilities in the last year included SWES/ECOL/WFSc 474/574, Aquatic Plants and the Environment, SWES/ECOL/WFSc 475/575, Freshwater and Marine Algae, and one section of SWES 106. Research efforts were devoted to aquaculture and water quality issues in Arizona, Idaho, Mexico, Jamaica, Costa Rica and Colombia. Extension activities have focused on aquaculture and management of constructed aquatic systems in Arizona and the West.
2. Teaching Responsibilities
A. Formal courses (semester, course no., units, enrollment, percent effort).
Spring 1997 SWES, WFSc, ECOL 475/575 - 4 units, 24 enrolled, 50% effort
Fall 1997SWES, WFSc, ECOL 474/574 - 4 units, 20 enrolled, 50% effort
SWES 106 - 1 unit, 15 enrolled, 100% effort
B. Undergraduate student advising (number of advisees): 0
C. Graduate student advising (list by name, Doctorate and Masters student's committees on
which you are serving. (Underline names of students for whom you are the principal thesis
or dissertation adviser). None
D. List all other teaching activities (e.g., preparation of instructional materials, development of
new courses or programs, undergraduate research programs, postdoctoral supervision,
student recruitment retention and placement efforts, student organization adviser, internship
support).
Taught aquatic animal husbandry certification course for Animal Care and Use Committee, University of Arizona.
Worked with one Professional Internship Program student
Presentation and tour for AGEd 597H
Presentation and tour for class from Rio Rico High School, Chino Valley High, Antelope High
Review aquaculture programs at Estrella Mountain High School and Chino Valley High.
3. Research Activities
A. Research now in progress (title, year of initial award, total funds, other principal investigators
involved, percent effort, source of support, and number and type of employees supported).
1. Solids removal from aquaculture effluents, 1993, $161,000, no other PI's, 5% effort, USDA-CSREES, one technician, one Ph.D. student and one undergraduate.
2. Creation of Urban Wildlife Habitat using Cooling Plant Water, 1995, $41,232, no other PI's, 5% effort, Arizona Game and Fish, one M.S. student and one undergraduate.
3. Development of an intensive production system tilapia farm in Colombia, 1994, $23,000, no other PI's, 3% effort, SAGRO, S.A.
4. Taste and odor problems in Phoenix drinking water supplies, 1996, $188,292, Co-PI w/ Rusin, 8% effort, (CAP, SRP, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Glendale, Scottsdale)
5. Control of exotic plants and animals in the CAP (Grass carp and Zebra mussels), 1995, $28,900, no other PI's, 2% effort, CAP.
6. Use of low cost feed ingredients for tilapia culture, 1996, $75,172, no other PI's, 4% effort, US-AID - Aquaculture/Pond Dynamics CRSP.
B. Research proposals pending (title, total funds, submitted to).
1. Lead institution for cooperative aquaculture research in the Philippines. $100,000 per year for five years. US-AID - Aquaculture/Pond Dynamics CRSP.
C. List all interdisciplinary or team research activities in which you have been involved in the
past year and explain the nature and depth of involvement.
D. Other activities not elsewhere identified.
1.
4. Extension Programs
A. Extension educational efforts
1. Program identification, program planning, and objectives
To work with aquaculture producers, potential producers, consumers, students and others interested in aquaculture in Arizona. Also work with managers of aquatic systems, usually man-made, to control fish and algae populations and water quality. These include managers of irrigation districts, lakes, ponds, backyard fish enthusiasts and the commercial operations that service bodies of water for residential communities and golf courses.
2. Program implementation.
- Work closely with the Arizona Aquaculture Association
- Prepare and distribute the Arid Lands Fish Culture Newsletter
- Prepare Best Management Practices guidelines for aquaculture effluents with industry and AZDEQ
- Work with high school aquaculture programs
- Set-up Aquaculture Field Day in conjunction with MAC faculty
- Maintain and improve Arizona Aquaculture Web Site
- Helped organize Arizona aquaculture industry participation in Congressional Subcommittee hearings on aquaculture held in San Diego
- Took three students to US aquaculture meetings in Texas
- Supplied fish and plants to several school programs
3. Program results.
The Aquaculture Field Day was well attended and the reviews were all positive. Respondents reported that they now had a better appreciation of what the University and the Federal Government were doing to support commercial aquaculture. We assembled an invited panel of speakers representing aquaculture from across the Western US and several people were able to develop business contacts during and after the meeting. Over 100 people attended including one high school class from Estrella Mountain who presented short reports of their projects.
I had opportunities to visit several of the high school aquaculture projects and meet with teachers and students. I also hosted three of the groups who were able to visit the aquaculture facilities at the ERL.
The Arizona Aquaculture Web Site has received 2,500 hits since I added a counter in June of 1996. I have received many comments regarding the usefulness of the information at the site and many other Web Sites have offered to link to our site. I have responded to over 800 e-mail messages regarding aquaculture in the last year. More than half of these requests came from outside Arizona, including one who will be using photos from the site for a new aquaculture textbook. Many of the e-mail requests for information were answered electronically and the rest with regular mailings of reprints. The written and the phone requests for information were usually either answered by phone or with mail packets.
The draft of the Best Management Practices submitted to Arizona Department of Environmental Quality received favorable reviews from the working group. Several of the group members felt we needed to include more graphics in the manual so I am preparing another draft which will include more graphics and additional details on suggested practices.
Several industry members were able to present testimony to the Sub-Committee on Aquaculture at the Congressional hearing in San Diego. Their testimony went into the drafting of legislation for re-authorization of the Aquaculture Act. The legislation did not pass the last Congress, but will be resubmitted in this session.
I was able to visit most of the licensed aquaculture farms at least once during the year. I also attended most of the meetings of the Arizona Aquaculture Association. I attended the California Aquaculture Meeting and prepared a short presentation, along with industry members, regarding aquaculture in Arizona. We reviewed the primary products, areas of production and potential for interstate projects and cooperation.
B. Program grants awarded (title, amount, source).
See above list.
C. Program grant proposals pending (title, amount, submitted to).
D. Other professional programming or team efforts not listed above.
1. Arizona representative to the WRAC Technical Advisory Board. Develop RFP's, review proposals and evaluate research projects supported by USDA-CSREES.
2. Three presentations at the California Aquaculture Meeting in Sacramento. History of Aquaculture in Arizona, Irrigation with Aquaculture Effluents, and a Round Table Luncheon on Hydroponics and Aquaculture.
3. Presentation to the Florida Aquaculture Meetings in St. Petersburg. Comparison of Solids Removal Systems in Several Aquaculture Systems.
4. Serving on Steering Committee for National Meeting of Aquaculture Extension Specialists to be held in Maryland in April 1997.
5. Serve on Advisory Board to Arizona Department of Water Resources, Use and Disposal of Cooling Tower Waters.
6. Chair session on tilapia aquaculture at National Aquaculture Meetings.
5. Service Activities (indicate approximate time).
A. Intramural (University/College/departmental/school/county committees).
1. Animal Care and Use Committee ( 2 hours per month)
2. Joint appointment in Wildlife and Fisheries (8 hours per month)
B. Professionally related service to government communities and public.
1. Serve on Board of Directors of Tucson Zoological Society (Reid Park Zoo) 15 hours per month
C. Professional societies (memberships, offices held, editorships, committees).
1. Board of Directors of US Chapter of World Aquaculture Society
2. Board of Editors for professional journal, Reviews in Fisheries Science
3. Third year serving as Vice President of the American Tilapia Association
4. Conference Coordinator for Fourth International Symposium on Tilapia in Aquaculture and one of four editors of Conference Proceedings.
5. Served as one of three reviewers of aquaculture proposals for the Electric Power Research Institute.
6. Review proposals for NSF, USDA and Department of Commerce.
7. Member of American Fisheries Society
8. Member of World Aquaculture Society
9. Member of Aquacultural Engineering Society
10. Reviewed manuscripts for Transactions of the American Fisheries Society.
6. Publications, Creative and Scholarly Activities (indicate status as published or presented, accepted,
or submitted).
A. Publications (provide full bibliographic citation when applicable)
1. Books, chapters in books, refereed journal articles.
Glenn, E., Moore, D., Machado, C., Fitzsimmons, K. and Menke, S. 1996. Atlas of Gracilaria Spore Culture. National Coastal Research and Development Institute, Portland, OR.
Glenn, E., Moore, D. Fitzsimmons, K. and Azevedo, C. 1996. Spore culture of the edible red seaweed, Gracilaria parvispora (Rhodophyta) Aquaculture 142:59-74.
Fitzsimmons, K., Lovely, C. and Glenn, E. Growth differences among widely separated geographic accessions of Atriplex canescens irrigated with ash pond seepage water in the Navajoan desert, USA. Submitted to Arid Soil Research and Rehabilitation. Received editorial comments and resubmitting.
2. Other published papers (e.g., journal articles, reports, reviews)
Piedrahita R.H., Zachritz, W.H., Fitzsimmons, K, and Brockway, C. 1996. Evaluation and improvements of solids removal systems for aquaculture. pp. 141-150. In G. S. Libey and M. B. Timmons, editors. Successes and Failures in Commercial Recirculating Aquaculture. Aquacultural Engineering Proceedings II. Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service Publication No. NRAES - 8.
3. Abstracts, pamphlets, popular journal articles.
4. Popular press, workbooks, guides, or electronic media (summarize and provide
typical example).
Prepared new WWW sites for research projects, Aquatic Plants course, International Tilapia Symposium. All can be accessed for review at
B. Other. Examples: papers presented, patents, release of new varieties, development of
teaching materials, equipment development, computer software development, slide, video,
or film programs, and innovative extension programs/materials.
7. Professional Improvement Activities (include activities such as sabbaticals, participation in
professional associations, workshops, short courses, or other areas in which you were involved.)
1. Attended meetings of professional societies, chairing sessions and brought graduate students for professional opportunities.
8. Major Commitments and Activities Planned for Next Year (for each applicable area of instruction,
research, extension, and service). Indicate specific nature of activities.
1. Develop Extension fliers on Bird Predation, Overview of Aquaculture in Arizona, and How to Evaluate if Aquaculture Opportunities in Arizona.
2. Continue and improve aquaculture newsletter.
3. Conference coordination and editorial efforts for ISTA 4.
4. Visit aquaculture farms and high school programs I did not visit in 1996.
5. Complete smaller funded projects and continue to develop larger funded projects.
9. Awards and Recognition Received During the Past Year.
10. Problems, uncertainties or other unanticipated events affecting your activities during the year
(including how you dealt with them).
1. I have had to expend a lot of effort in the last year mediating problems with competition between fish production projects at MAC and commercial producers in state. Several of them are complaining that MAC activities are in direct competition with them and have taken away customers. They also allege that MAC personnel have prepared bids or helped to prepare bids for state contracts. I have been unsuccessful in getting the MAC staff to recognize the industry concerns and have suggested that the industry members document the details of their problems and present these in a letter to Dean Sander.
I continue to use my classrooms for office hours and to meet students outside of class time. Lack of an office space on campus continues to be a headache.