The Department of Aquatic Resources Management (MSP), Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences (FPIK), IPB University, played an active role in the vibrant activities of Jelajah IPB 2024, which took place over two exciting days at Graha Widya Wisuda on August 31 – September 1, 2024. This event was part of the public relations strategy of IPB University to showcase the strengths and uniqueness of all study programs at IPB University, both undergraduate and vocational. The visitors were high school students or equivalent who were interested in becoming prospective new students of IPB University.

These prospective students were also accompanied by their parents. Hundreds of visitors stopped by the MSP-FPIK booth. Several visitors said some of the displayed samples were very interesting, such as shark and ray specimens, plankton, and benthos kits as bioindicators of river water quality. The MSP-FPIK booth also offered games and cosplay costumes representing water sample collectors and aquatic microbiology analysts.

The Aquatic Resources Management Student Association (Himasper) sent five representatives, namely Julyan, Riki, Adryan, Nadzwa, and Renvi, accompanied by a young MSP-FPIK lecturer, Muhammad Irfan Afif, M.Si., who helped design the booth and promote MSP-FPIK to visitors. The students showed enthusiasm and discovered many new things, such as plankton observation and benthos kits as bioindicators of water quality, which are innovations by Prof. Dr. Ir. Niken Tunjung Murti Pratiwi, M.Si., a Professor at MSP-FPIK, IPB University.

Participants interested in the MSP-FPIK booth are invited to participate in games and get merchandise. Specifically, these bioindicator kits are a simple tool for assessing the health of river ecosystems. The kits consist of a series of sheets equipped with a quick and easy identification method to determine whether a river is polluted based on the presence of benthic organisms (organisms that mostly live on the water bottom) as bioindicators.

One participant, Siti, a 12th-grade student from Tenjo High School, Bogor Regency, expressed her interest in the booth because of the innovations she had never considered before, which sparked her interest in the science of aquatic resources and environmental management. After visiting the MSP-FPIK booth, Siti now has some knowledge about the academic activities and alumni of MSP-FPIK. Similarly, Dimas, a high school student from Jakarta, said, “It would be fascinating to work in the environmental management sector, as well as the management of aquatic resources and the environment, which has become a significant issue and awareness for many people”.

Given the reality of many visibly polluted aquatic environments, the MSP Department’s work is of utmost importance. One of its competencies is to equip skills related to water pollution detection from the perspectives of water quality, bioindicators, and aquatic ecotoxicology teaching, which is a crucial aspect of aquatic ecological forensics. This field, which plays a significant role in assessing water pollution, is one of the specializations of Prof. Etty Riani (MSP Lecturer), who received an award from the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK) in 2023 as an environmental warrior, according to Prof. Hefni Effendi (Head of MSP Department).