Fish scales serve as a flexible natural armor that has received increasing attention across the materials community. Fish scale refers to the flattened rigid plate on the skin of a fish which have various functions and its primary purpose is to give the fish external protection.
Many species lack scales like all the clingfishes which are belong to the family Gabiesocidae that is totally considered as scaleless but their bodies are protected by a thick layer of mucous. Scale sizes vary greatly between species. Some fishes have tiny embedded scales and fishes such as the tunas have tiny scales often found in discrete areas of the body. Many fishes have medium sized scales whereas the scales of others such as the tarpo are large enough to be used in making jewelries.There are also four main kinds of scales and numerous variations of each kind namely, Placoid(shark and rays), Cosmoid(lungfishes and some fossil fishes), Ganoid (bichirs, bowfin, paddlefishes, gars and sturgeons) and Cycloid &Ctenoid (most bony fishes) (McGrouther,2015).
Likewise, tilapia are one of the most widely introduced fish globally that has clearly emerged as a very promising group in aquaculture (Hemanth et al., 2011).On the other hand, every year, various solid wastes in our country have been great problem to our government. One example is the scales of oreochromic niloticus commonly known as tilapia found in markets, fish ports and etc. It makes the surroundings smells bad and can harm to your health. It also serves as silt for reproduction of flies and other oil-causing insects, which are carriers of disease-causing bacteria and viruses.This scales composed of a surface layer containing hydroxyapatite and calcium carbonate, and a deeper layer composed of mostly collagen.
The presence of calcium carbonate would make it an ideal component for tiles.Moreover, fish scales are available in large quantity in the society because it is basically bio-waste component and thrown away in food processing.In connection to this, statistics show that the fish production worldwide came to approximately 174 million metric tons in 2017 and according to the study of Valettini, 2013, up to one fourth of the fish harvested – about 27 million tonnes – is discarded dead into the sea every year. This practice results in a huge waste of marine resources. It also alters marine biodiversity and reduces numbers of adult reproductive fish.
Due to this, researchers have figured out a reason those fish scales might be worth saving and these results to increase in percentage of new innovations and some researches regarding the benefits of fish scales in the society like the article of a new paper out in Applied Physics Letters today that details a method for transforming fish scales into an energy harvester. Researchers processed the raw scales to make them flexible and then attached two electrodes to each scale before laminating it. The resulting cell could then harvest energy from movement around it, including motion as simple as just vibrations or even a heartbeat. This has researchers suggesting that they could one day use it to power things like pacemakers.”The fish scale is available in large quantity in our society because it is basically bio-waste component and thrown away in food processing,” co-author Sujoy Kumar Ghosh told Gizmodo. To get the scales they used, the researchers simply collected them from a local fish market. Not only is figuring out how to use non-edible food waste for other purposes cost-effective, it gives us a way to use even the parts of food we don’t eat.
That particular application is fairly far off, but the research is an important reminder that there may be a better use for the incredible amount of food waste we’re generating —140 trillion calories every year in the US alone. A lot of that wasted food is readily-edible stuff that just gets tossed. But there are also inedible byproducts like fish scales and orange peels that could be put to productive use with a little creativity.
Other researches also uses oreochromic niloticus (tilapia) scales as raw material for ceramic tile making in substitute for the main material in ceramic tile making since building commercial and residential infrastructures in our country is fast growing because there is a demand of ceramic tiles and its industry is booming.The fish scale project enhanced the use of marine fish species that are good to eat but little known and therefore under-exploited. During the project’s campaign, the purchase of the target under-exploited fish species increased, and the supply of such species has increased as well. By promoting the use of under-exploited fish, the project helped relieve pressure on populations of more exploited species, established a more sustainable use of marine resources by reducing the quantity of edible fish discards, and provided economic benefits for consumers because “sustainable” fish are generally cheaper. The project reached more than 100 “fish providers”, including fishmongers, distributors, restaurants and hotels, to facilitate the inclusion of sustainable fish target species among the fish they supply, sell or offer on their menus.
Around 2 000 people were directly involved in the project’s awareness-raising campaign via questionnaires and interviews, which led to an increase in awareness of the issues relating to edible discards by about 27%. The project also participated in 99 events and conducted an extensive media campaign. As a result of its activities, the supply and sale of its target sustainable species increased.The innovative promotion of “sustainable fish” had a good demonstration value, because the sustainable species selected, on the basis of a study during the preliminary phase of the project, could be included in the supply of several “fish providers”. This produced a beneficial “domino effect”, from fishermen to distributors to final consumers, which led to the initiatives on “sustainable fish” being replicated outside the project area. From the socio-economical point of view, the project led, on the one hand, to the possibility of buying good fish at cheaper prices and, on the other, to the selling of a wider range of fish species so providers were not so dependent on over-exploited fish.
The project beneficiaries have committed to promoting the project’s objectives during their ongoing education and dissemination activities, while restaurants, hotels and fish providers seem to be willing to continue to supply “sustainable fish” in the future. Therefore, project sustainability should be ensured, at least in the short term. Direct beneficial environmental effects from the project’s activities were due to the reduction of edible fish waste, and consequent waste treatment. Indirect environmental benefits include the reduction of pressure on some overfished species. All these benefits are in line with EU policy measures, such as programs against overfishing (e.
g. OCEAN12) and the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) that promotes sustainable fishing and fishing practices.Project staffs were invited by the Italian Ministry of Environment to share their experience with national policymakers.
In particular, the Ministry has activated an agreement for qualified analysis and monitoring of real economies in protected areas (e.g. Natura 2000 network sites and protected marine areas), to promote sustainable fishing and to safeguard marine biodiversity. In this respect, the project can contribute to the elaboration of operational guidelines on how to monitor the actual use of sustainable fish and reduce the waste of edible fish. National policy is derived from the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008/56/EC), which aims at achieving good environmental status of marine waters by 2020 and at protecting the resources upon which marine-related economic and social activities depend.
