We joined the 37th IAHR World Congress (IAHR2017; http://www.iahrworldcongress.org/).  Mr. Matsuzawa presented a part of his achievement and I chaired the ecohydraulics community meeting.  It was a great opportunity to learn advanced research as well as basic research topics in hydraulics. 

Opening ceremony

Mr. Matsuzawa’s talk!

Ecohydraulics community meeting

Participants in the ecohydraulics community meeting

A promotion of the sustainable development goals in a shopping mall, which is, to the best of my knowledge, very rare in Japan

As a part of new project, we visited Ho Chi Minh city and Ben Tre province for preliminary survey.  We first had a small workshop in the Thuy Loi University to share research goal and discuss research activities in the target area.

A scene from the Mekong Delta

A rice growing area

After heavy rain, we got soaked on boat

Survey team!

During a coffee break

After a meeting

Isn’t it fun to see hydraulic jump???

In ecohydraulics, we study hydrogeomorphic dynamics to better understand the ecology of aquatic species.  Hydraulics is important when characterizing species-habitat interactions and species’ responses to a given condition.  A deeper understanding is needed!!!

We had the 6th Shichirin party, a fish-only BBQ, to learn more about fish.  It was the biggest party with a lot of fun.  We also celebrated the birthday of a student with a fish-decorated cake. I thank the organizers and participants to make this happy party!

Let’s enjoy fish more!

Next one will perhaps be in August.

Irrigation has started but not so many fish migrated into our target irrigation channels.  We observed some juvenile fish as well as some other animals such as frogs, snakes and ducks. Students are good at finding them. 

Common fish species in our target sites

A juvenile loach

She found a big one

a duck family

We’ll have the sixth shichirin party on May 26, 2017 (from 18:00).  We’ll have some fun!!!

We made another regular survey under fine weather.  Many animals seem to get active now.

a dragon fly

a snake

a student with a snake

There was an event for first-year undergraduate students and the ones who interviewed me and our laboratory won the first prize for their poster!  Congratulations!  We may invite them in the 6th Shichirin-party on May 26, 2017. 

The great team

The poster; Can you find some fish swimming?

It’s getting warmer and fish seems to be active like we are after full bloom of sakura.

They might have started migrating into irrigation system

First time to catch!!!

It’s a lot of work to remove the aquatic vegetation before irrigation.

In the last 10 years, we have been working on improving production and distribution of fresh mango fruit, mainly in Thailand.  It is always great to visit my colleagues in Chiang Mai University.  Our experimental field looks fine now and I am looking forward to our joint experiment in the next growing season.

Dr. Wolfram Spreer

Our mango field for experiment

A mango tree

His greenhouse for experiment

We went to Chiba for a preliminary survey.  It was interesting to see geographic distributions of different fish species there and to meet fish species different from our regular surveys.

A terraced paddy