W RLD aquaculture June 2012 Volume 43 No. 2 WORLD AQUACULTURE •Goldlined seabream • jatropha meal • green sea urchin • marine snow • JUNE 2012 Aquaculture in the Czech Republic
World Aquaculture 1 WORLD AQUACULTURE Magazine World Aquaculture magazine is published by the World Aquaculture Society. The home office address is: World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803, USA. Tel: +1-225-578-3137; Fax: +1-225-578-3493; e-mail: carolm@was.org. World Aquaculture Society Home Page: http://www.was.org WORLD AQUACULTURE SOCIETY OFFICERS, 2011-2012 President, Dr. Ricardo Martino President-elect, Dr. Kevan Main Past President, Dr. Jay Parsons Secretary, Dr. Rebecca Lochmann Treasurer, Dr. William Daniels DIRECTORS Dr. Michael Schwarz Dr. Jeong Yeol Lee Dr. David Little Dr. Yoram Avnimelech Dr. Juan Pablo Lazo Dr. Jimmy Avery CHAPTER REPRESENTATIVES Lucas Manomaitis (Asian Pacific) Gary Fornshell (USAS) Maria Celia Portello (Latin America and Caribbean) Dr. Ik Kyo Chung (Korea) Hiroshi Fushimi (Japan) HOME OFFICE STAFF Carol Mendoza, Director, carolm@was.org Judy E. Andrasko, Assistant Director, JudyA@was.org WORLD AQUACULTURE EDITORIAL STAFF John Hargreaves, Editor-in-Chief Mary Nickum, Editor Amy Broussard, Layout Editor WAS CONFERENCES AND SALES John Cooksey, Director of Conferences and Sales World Aquaculture Conference Management P.O. Box 2302 Valley Center, CA 92082 Tel: +1-760-751-5005; Fax: +1-760-751-5003 e-mail: worldaqua@aol.com Manuscripts and Correspondence: Submit two (2) copies of all manuscripts and one (1) copy of correspondence to Mary Nickum, Editor, World Aquaculture Magazine, 16201 E. Keymar Drive, Fountain Hills, AZ 85268 USA. E-mail: mjnickum@ gmail.com. Letters to the Editor or other comments should be addressed to Editor-in-Chief John Hargreaves, 6950 Boone Drive, Bayton Rouge, LA 70808 USA. World Aquaculture (ISSN Number 1041-5602) is published quarterly by the World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA. Library subscriptions are $50 annually for United States addresses, and $65 annually for addresses outside the United States. Individual subscriptions are a benefit of membership in the World Aquaculture Society. Annual membership dues: Students, $45; Individuals, $65; Corporations (for-profit), $255; Sustaining, $105 (individuals or non-profits); Lifetime (individuals), $1,100; E-Membership, $10 (no publications, meeting discounts and not an active member in last five years). Periodicals Postage paid at Baton Rouge, Louisiana and additional mailing offices. Twenty-five percent of dues is designated for a subscription to World Aquaculture magazine. Postmaster: Send address changes to the World Aquaculture Society, 143 J.M. Parker Coliseum, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803 USA. ©2012, The World Aquaculture Society. ■ W RLD AQUACULTURE Vol. 43 No. 2 June 2012 Cover: Aquaculture in the Czech Republic is characterized by extensive and semi-intensive fish farming in ponds. See page 20. (Continued on page 2) 15 Geothermal tilapia aquaculture — Pushing the efficiency envelope Mike H. Hosford 18 AQUA 2012: Science responds to industry needs 20 Aquaculture in the Czech Republic in 2012: A prosperous and modern European sector based on a thousand-year history of pond culture Zdeněk Adámek, Otomar Linhart, Michal Kratochvíl, Martin Flajšhans, Tomáš Randák, Tomáš Policar, Pavel Kozák 29 Aquaculture in The Gambia Michael A. Rice, Famara Sambou Darboe, Ousman Drammeh, and Kanyi Babanding 34 Spawning and larval rearing of goldlined seabream, Rhabdosargus sarba on Abu Al Abyad Island, United Arab Emirates Omer M. Yousif, Kumar M. Krishna, Bui V. Hung, A-Fatah A. Ali and Do V. Minh 38 Jatropha meal, a promising plant protein source in aquafeed development Vikas Kumar, Olesia Gavryliuk, Amit Kumar Sinha, Debtanu Barman, Eef De Clercq, Apu Das and Sagar C. Mandal 46 Water quality requirements for culture of the green sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus droebachiensis Atle Mortensen, Sten I. Siikavuopio and Philip James 52 Economic fishery from Procambarus introductions into Spain Albert P. Gaudé 57 Lax biosecurity threatens whiteleg shrimp health on small farms: A policy and research challenge to India C. Regunathan and M.R Kitto 59 Marine snow: Its formation and significance in fisheries and aquaculture Pragyan Dash, Dipanjan Kashyap and Sagar C. Mandal 62 Stress and stressors: The role of heat shock proteins Debtanu Barman, Vikash Kumar, Sagar C. Mandal, Suvra Roy and Kundan Kumar
2 June 2012 Editor’s Note – Pangasius in Nigeria There has been quite a vigorous discussion on the SARNISSA listserve recently about the recent introduction of Mekong catfish (Pangasius) to Nigeria. Pangasius was brought to a private farm in Ogun state, southwest Nigeria, and has since been moved to farms in other parts of the country. I will try to summarize the main points of the discussion—paraphrasing, interpreting, or quoting the dialogue. In many ways, it’s the same old story: unscrupulous and self-interested businessman ignores or is in collusion with government regulators and politicians. The story points out how difficult it is to have sustainable development—of any kind—when government institutions are weak and accountability is low. There is great concern about the potential environmental costs of the introduction, with reasonable speculation that the migratory Pangasius is likely to escape and become established because conditions in many river systems in tropical Africa are similar to those of the Mekong River system. Within ten years, it seems likely that reproducing populations of Pangasius in the wild will become a reality. Nigerian participants in the discussion have expressed shame and outrage, calling the introduction a “crime against biodiversity” and “species pollution.” The Pangasius introduction is perceived to have “spoiled” and done a “disservice” to the hard work and investments made by many people over many years to build the commercially successful Clarias aquaculture sector in Nigeria, which is now the leading catfish producer in Africa. The introduction is seen as a distraction from a focus on a single species (in this case Clarias gariepinus), an ingredient in the success of commercial finfish aquaculture sectors in the US, Norway, Chile, and Vietnam. Nigerian fish farmers have a perfectly good catfish, with an established commercial sector, and now “the next big fish” has arrived. The fact of the introduction can be seen as symptomatic of weak governance and an example of a failure of government regulatory institutions. Environmental managers and regulators within government are entrusted to act in the public’s best interest to protect and manage public resources. The introduction, an act driven by collusion between politicians and an economic elite, undermines good governance. An open and transparent process and well-established, internationally approved biosecurity protocols that include a formal environmental risk assessment were not followed. Now that the introduction has been made, Nigerian government resource managers are in a difficult position to manage the consequences. Nigeria does not have the resources in money and manpower to manage the risk of an invasive species introduction. There was a call to eradicate the fish in Nigeria and to bring the responsible parties to account. As is the case anywhere, in assessing the risk of introductions, a prudent and precautionary approach is needed, one that anticipates the worst case: fish will reproduce in the wild, displace native species, and transmit diseases. Some blame for the introduction goes to farmers them- (Continued on page 9) Society 2 Editor’s Note — Pangasius in Nigeria 3 President’s column 3 Awards presented by NAA 4 Susan Ball Chamberlain: A retrospective 6 USAS Conference roundup 7 Ted Batterson receives Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from USAS 8 Student activities and awards in Las Vegas 10 Latin America and Caribbean Chapter President’s report 11 USAS Chapter President’s report 12 Asian Pacific Chapter update 14 Korean Chapter update 45 Australian Aquaculture Award winners announced 66 Book Review 67 Calendar 72 Advertisers’ Index 72 Membership Application
World Aquaculture 3 President’s column Over the last few decades, aquaculture has become an important component of the food production sector. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture published by the Food Agriculture Organization of the United Nations indicates that 52.5 million t of fish were produced in aquaculture in 2008, corresponding to 46 percent of the total fish supply of the world, and representing an estimated value of US$ 98.4 billion. The annual production of fish coming from capture fisheries has been stable at about 90 million t, at least over the last three decades. On the other hand, the demand for human fish consumption continues to grow and must remain on that course for the next decades. Consequently this increased demand must be met by aquaculture, which remains the fastest-growing animalfood production sector. In parallel, the World Aquaculture Society has been playing a very important role in development of aquaculture. Through its missions to a) gather and disseminate technical and other information on aquaculture worldwide; b) hold meetings for the presentation, exchange, and discussion of information, findings, and experiences on all subjects and techniques related to aquaculture; c) encourage aquaculture research, development and education activities by international, national, and private agencies, among others, it has been contributing to the progressive and sustainable development of aquaculture throughout the world. The Society is represented in more than 80 countries and the number of members exceeds 2800. However, in considering these statistics, the number of WAS members might be considered unsatisfactory. To increase the number of members, the WAS Board of Directors and the various committees have been updating and implementing new programs and benefits to attract more members. However, from my perspective, the participation of our current members in recruiting new members is essential. If each current member convinces one person to join WAS, in one year the number of members would double. Let’s do it! Before finishing, I would like to give my impression about the USAS Chapter conference that was held in Las Vegas from February 29 to March 2. The conference was very successful, and the number of attendees from different countries exceeded 1,100. Several world-renowned participants from academia and the commercial sector were present. The technical sessions, which covered a wide range of aquaculture topics, were well attended and they served as an excellent forum for discussion. The trade show was also great and it was nice to see the interaction between academic and industry participants. I would like to express my congratulations to all those people involved in the organization of this successful conference. Moreover, during the conference in Las Vegas, the contract for World Aquaculture 2015, which will be held Jeju, South Korea, was signed by me and the governor of Jeju Province, in the presence of several South Korean dignitaries. Finally I hope to meet all of you at our upcoming annual conference that will be held in conjunction with the European Aquaculture Society and other associates in Prague, Czech Republic, later this year (September 1 - 5). More information about the conference can be found in this issue of World Aquaculture magazine or obtained from the WAS website (www.was.org). — Ricardo C. Martino President Awards presented by NAA President of the National Aquaculture Alliance, Mike Freeze, presented two awards at Aquaculture America 2012 in Las Vegas. The McCraren Award, in memory of Joseph P. McCraren, was presented to Bob Robinson, in recognition for his Outstanding Contributions in Promoting the Growth of Aquaculture. Betsy Hart received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the NAA.
4 June 2012 The holiday letter from George and Susan Chamberlain, no doubt written by Susan, overflowed with chatty updates about their children, all grown and pursuing their careers and, typical of Susan, few details about her own activities. A few days after receiving the letter, we learned that Susan had passed away. It was heartrending news that came as a total shock to the hundreds of people around the world who knew and cared about her. I met Susan while teaching aquaculture in the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences at Texas A&M University. One fall semester in 1976, a lovely young woman and a rather scruffy-looking graduate student Susan Ball Chamberlain: A retrospective Susan’s interest in aquaculture endured throughout her life, as did her interest in George. When they met, he was driving a beat up white Jeep, formerly used by the Postal Service for mail delivery, with the steering wheel on the right. I never knew if it was his good looks, engaging personality or that distinctive old Jeep that first attracted Susan. In any case, their relationship blossomed into a strong marriage, a loving family with four fine children, and an energetic partnership that contributed to the robust growth of the aquaculture industry and its voluntary adoption of needed environmental protection standards. Over the years, Susan’s contributions, though usually behind-the-scenes, were critical to the success of many projects. In 1994, when the World Aquaculture Society’s magazine was running far behind schedule, George, as WAS president, volunteered to take on the issue. “It meant recruiting and editing articles, selling advertising, finding photos, preparing layout, and arranging for printing and distribution,” he recalled. “I quickly got overwhelmed and would have failed if Susan hadn’t stepped in. She reviewed previous issues for fonts, formats, headings, etc., adopted the style, and set a target content. After a couple months of gathering articles and selling ads, she discovered that we exceeded our goals for advertising and articles and had enough content for a 128-page issue.” A potential failure turned into an outstanding issue that reached 8500 readers including participants at the World Aquaculture ’95 conference in San Diego. It leapfrogged the magazine ahead by three months, and the extra content helped expedite subsequent issues. As Director of Aquaculture at Ralston Purina International, George saw an opportunity to connect Purina’s aquaculture feed customers with the excellent information presented at WAS conferences. He arranged an incentive travel program, where customers who purchased enough feed could qualify for a free trip to the annual meeting. Customer travel arrangements became a huge challenge due to the individual changes that each country requested almost daily. Again Susan took over, making travel arrangements for about 150 customers from regional offices in six countries and coordinating registration of all participants at the WAS meeting. After the trip, she finalized the accounting details and arranged for billing or reimbursement of customers and countries as needed. She finished with a complete, auditable accounting record of detailed reports and spreadsheets. According to George, “Susan was the real unsung hero of the conference for many international participants who could never have attended without her help.” Susan sorting benthos at the Texas A&M University Aquaculture Resesrch Center in 1977. showed up for my aquaculture class. It soon became clear that Susan Ball and George Chamberlain were more interested in each other than in my undoubtedly stimulating lectures, yet somehow they managed to get high grades for the course. Susan produced a solid undergraduate research project, “Density and Temperature Effects on Overwintered Tilapia aurea,” and I eventually hired her to work in my laboratory. She was tasked with sorting, counting and identifying benthic organisms collected for a project that involved establishing a salt marsh on dredge material. Susan’s job was boring, repetitive work, but she was tenacious, efficient and precise.
World Aquaculture 5 At the opening ceremony of the 1995 WAS conference in Bangkok, a thousand delegates patiently awaited the arrival of the Royal Princess of Thailand. George was ready to give her a polished fossilized nautilus on a small stand with an engraved plaque expressing the Society’s appreciation. “Her motorcade pulled up to the VIP entrance, and I was whisked down the hallway to greet and escort her to the stage with a large entourage of Thai government officials. However, the person holding the fossil had set it down on a chair, where it tipped over and fell to the floor. The plaque bounced off, and the nautilus rolled away! As the royal procession got to the stage and I was introduced to present the gift, I was amazed to find the nautilus and engraved plaque re-assembled like new by Susan, who happened to have superglue in her purse.” At the World Aquaculture ’97 conference in Seattle, a group of 56 stakeholders from 12 countries unanimously agreed that an international aquaculture trade association was needed to counter attacks from environmental groups and help guide commercial aquaculture toward a sustainable future. This led to the formation of the Global Aquaculture Alliance, an international non-profit trade association that began its journey with donations and passionate volunteerism. George served as the unpaid president, while Susan managed administration, finance, and communications with members. Operating out of their living room, she published a 16-page black-and-white newsletter, soon expanding it to a 90-page color, bi-monthly magazine, the Global Aquaculture Advocate. She took responsibility for layout, advertising, printing and distribution. As the GAA grew, she oversaw the move to a professional office in 2000, and assisted with hiring, training, and supervision of additional staff. In 2001, Susan began organizing annual GAA conferences that were held in Singapore, Indonesia, Mexico, Thailand, Chicago USA, Vietnam, Miami USA and Spain. She established and administered the startup of a separate non-profit trade association to administer GAA’s Best Aquaculture Practices (BAP) certification program. George and Susan Chamberlain in Bangkok for the 1995 World Aqujaculture Society conference. The GAA is now a well-established, internationally-respected organization with strong and growing support, but it traces its roots to Susan’s dedicated work behind the scenes. Never seeking recognition, Susan exemplifies the lesson that each of us can make a difference, even when it seems that our work is not important or visible. ______________ Susan K. Bell was born in Berkeley, California. She spent her early years in Utah, Texas and the country of Iran, where her father worked for the Chevron Oil Company. After graduating from Texas A&M and marrying George, she worked for the Forest Oil Corporation in Corpus Christi, Texas, during which time their four children were born. Once the family left Texas and became established in St. Louis, Missouri, they remained in that city on the Missouri River except for two years in Mexico. Susan is survived by her husband George; children Brian and wife Erin, Jordan, Sarah and Kassie Chamberlain; mother Patty Ball; a brother and a number of nieces, nephews, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, along with many hundreds of us who had the opportunity to know and love her. Susan was 55 years old when she passed away. She made many valuable contributions during her relatively short life – only a few of which are provided here. — Robert R. Stickney, Ph.D. Susan Chamberlain at the Global Aquaculture Alliance booth during the recent WAS meeting in Natal, Brazil.
6 June 2012 USAS Conference roundup Aquaculture America returned once again to Sin City in early February, this time to the impressive Paris Las Vegas Hotel and Casino. A replica of the Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe are among the notable architectural features of the resort, taking their place near the Bellagio and the Venetian at the heart of the Strip. The Paris is a sister property to Bally’s, where the Society has met previously. Indeed, several pre- and post-conference meetings took place in Bally’s, which is connected to Paris by a mall-like passageway. The conference facilities were conveniently located near these two hotels. It was high season for tourism in Las Vegas and the Strip was choked with people day and night. In the passageway near the conference facilities, you would occasionally catch a glimpse of people you know amid the throng of tourists, gamblers, and quite possibly small-time con men. More than a few conference participants took advantage of the broad range of entertainment options available in the city, including myriad shows by the likes of Cirque du Soleil and Blue Man Group. The conference opened with the traditional plenary session. Chair of the conference steering committee Jeff Silverstein began the plenary by making reference to the conference theme of “bringing all players to the table,” saying that this is a pivotal time for animal agriculture and that all parts of the value chain need to work together. Jeff and technical program chairs Steve Rawles and Betsy Hart did an excellent job of putting together a comprehensive program on traditional and timely topics. Mike Freeze gave a brief industry update from the perspective of the National Aquaculture Association and then presented the McCraren Award to Bob Robinson and a Lifetime Achievement Award to Betsy Hart on behalf of the NAA. President of the USAS Michael Schwarz presented the Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award to Ted Batterson. Details about this award and Ted’s career are found elsewhere in this issue of World Aquaculture. The Spotlight Award presentations were next in the plenary. This is a recent innovation at USAS conferences, highlighting the work of graduate students. Each student has a few minutes to summarize their research and the plenary audience is then asked to rank the presentations. The quality of this year’s presentations was truly impressive. The Spotlight Award winner and runners-up are identified in the article on student activities. The plenary lecture was presented by Patrick Dempster, the general manager of AquaGen Chile. The presentation was full of good lessons for modern commercial aquaculture sectors around the world. The lecture covered three topics: value chains and the Chilean salmon industry, the ISA outbreak, and genetic selection programs. Look for at least one article on these subjects in a future issue of World Aquaculture. After the plenary, there were essentially two and a half days of concurrent sessions, with twelve concurrent sessions most of the time. As a measure of self-organization, there were more than 18 special sessions assembled for this conference, including sessions on marine ornamentals, tuna aquaculture, integrated molecular and cellular approaches to stock improvement, and using distillers dry grains with solubles as a feed ingredient, among many others. Feed got deserved attention in a number of sessions and fishmeal replacement continues to be an active line of research. It’s always a challenge to get the most out of what the conference offers. There were sessions for students on professionalism and another on women in aquaculture. There were several sessions oriented towards producers and others with a direct role in various parts of the value chain. The major US trade association for various commodity fish—trout, hybrid striped bass, and tilapia—also hosted sessions. The zebra fish session has really come of age in the last five years and once again was well attended. Biofloc technology and aquaponics were among the novel culture systems that received attention at this year’s conference. Perhaps my most favorite session of the conference was the “Stories of Aquaculture Pioneers,” organized and moderated by Dave Conley. This was the latest in a series of sessions (and a book) on “post-retirement careers in aquaculture” begun by Michael New more than ten years ago. Scientific aquaculture is relatively new in the context of the long history of practical aquaculture but many of the scientists, active at a time when aquaculture science and global production were taking off, are now retiring and taking their collective wisdom with them. This session was a great opportunity for people with long careers to reflect on their accomplishments and provide lessons to those of us who follow behind. The session (and conference) ended with the presentation from a young pioneer aquaculture businesswoman from Burma who wowed the audience and earned sustained applause for her story of personal fortitude, persistence, and ultimately success. We intend to have an article from her
World Aquaculture 7 in the next issue of World Aquaculture. The trade show was well attended, both from the perspective of the number of commercial suppliers with booths and from the foot traffic of conference participants, many of whom took the opportunity to wander over to the nearby poster area. Feed companies seemed particularly well-represented at this meeting. Novus Aquaculture was a Premier Sponsor of the conference. Along with Novus, the Gold Sponsors— Aquatic Eco-systems, Firestone Specialty Products, Aquaculture Systems Technologies, Empyreal 75, Innovative Heat Concepts, and Kasco Marine—generously sponsored the numerous coffee breaks and late-afternoon happy hours. By the number of intense conversations going on during those occasions, it was clear that these opportunities for networking and information exchange were valued by conference goers. Of Ted Batterson receives Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award from USAS lect and real-world understanding. He was a skillful consensus builder, with the ability to turn a broad vision into a set of ambitious but achievable goals. He has provided the leadership in building the team responsible for molding the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center into a successful and well-recognized program. He was responsible for developing much of the original vision for the NCRAC and is commended for his wisdom in relying on and involving his colleagues and co-workers to assist him in making the vision a reality. These characteristics have translated into a positive impact on the continued development of the aquaculture industry in the Midwest over the past two decades. His dedication to US aquaculture can also be demonstrated by his participation on countless panels and review committees as well as his service to numerous professional organizations and workgroups. While serving as USAS President his plan for USAS was forward thinking and methodical and the policy and procedures that he outlined for awards, as well as the roadmap he co-developed through the Five-Year Strategic Plan, will allow the Society to not only maintain the status quo but to advance in a way that benefits not only the US Chapter but the entirety of US aquaculture through the goals and benchmarks that he defined for both. One of his greatest legacies is the growing list of professionals on whom he has left his mark. They have learned many things from Ted, not least of these is the power of process and group consensus on the development of effective research and extension aquaculture programs in the Midwest. The Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes an individual who has made contributions and broad impacts throughout their career to aquaculture in the United States through research, education, extension, and/or industry development. This award recognizes a long-term commitment of service to aquaculture that is deemed highly significant and enduring. For more than 20 years Ted Batterson has energetically supported aquaculture development in Michigan, the North Central Region, and the U.S. He has been an active member in a number of professional aquaculture organizations including the World Aquaculture Society, United States Aquaculture Society, Fish Culture Section of the American Fisheries Society and the Michigan Aquaculture Association. In 1997, he was received a Leadership Award from the Michigan Aquaculture Association for outstanding service, leadership and promotion for aquaculture in the state. Through exceptional personal effort and initiative for over 20 years, he has directed a nationally respected research program that has supported a diverse array of topics and has never lost sight of the need to connect research to stakeholders. The level of organization with which he managed the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center (NCRAC) pays testament to his driven personality. His talent for building effective collaborations among a variety of academic, federal and aquaculture industry personnel allowed the NCRAC to leverage its limited funding and help maintain the fledgling Midwestern aquaculture community against long odds. He was an administrator who exhibited a rare combination of research intelcourse there were a number of additional scheduled opportunities for socializing, including the President’s Reception, the always-rollicking NAA auction, and the increasingly popular Closing Happy Hour. Between the solid offerings of the conference and the entertaining attractions of Las Vegas, every conference participant was dealt a winning hand. — John A. Hargreaves Editor-in-Chief
8 June 2012 Student activities and awards in Las Vegas Student activities in Las Vegas were highlighted by a free field trip to the Mandalay Bay Aquarium and Shark Reef, coordinated by Aaron Watson. After lunch, the students took a tour of Acrylic Aquariums. The field trip was sponsored by ten suppliers to commercial aquaculture in the USA. These include Aquaculture Systems Technologies, MDM Inc., Polytank, Inc., R&B Aquatic Distribution, Inc., AquaLogic, Aquatic Eco-Systems, Inc., Performance Pro Pumps, Emperor Aquatics, Inc., Hydro Composites, LLC and RK2 Systems. The students were extremely grateful for the generous support provided by these suppliers. As is custom at US Chapter meetings, the USAS presented student awards at an early-evening dinner function for students. The Spotlight Award was very competitive this year, with three excellent short (3-min) presentations given in succession during the opening plenary by graduate students of their research, truly a high-pressure moment. These three students were also selected as winners of USAS Best Abstract and Travel Awards. The Spotlight Awards give prominence to up-and-coming scientists. Brought to the Chapter by Wendy Sealey, the feature continues to be tweaked but is rapidly becoming yet another good reason to come to the plenary. This year’s Spotlight Award First Place went to Joshua T. Patterson of LSU for his work with gulf killifish (Intraspecific variation in reproductive potential with body size in female gulf killifish Fundulus grandis). Fernando O. Mardones, one of the Spotlight Award finalists, received recognition for his modeling of disease transmission (Modeling transmission of infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus in juvenile Chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). The other Spotlight Award finalist was Chris G. Hooley of USFWS, Bozeman, Montana, who presented his work on tilapia diets and stress (Examination of the effects of dietary protein and lipid levels on growth and stress tolerance of tilapia Oreochromis niloticus). Other awards presented at Aquaculture America 2012 include: • Carlin M. Fenn of Illinois University at Carbondale received the Best Student Abstract award from the US Aquaculture Society and the American Fisheries Society - Fish Culture Section for “Efficacy of Aqui-S® as a sedative for handling and cortisol suppression in pallid sturgeon.” • Blake Hauptman of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bozeman, Montana was awarded First Place for Best Presentation for “Evaluation of the ability of ethanol From left to right, USAS President Gary Fornshell, Joshua Patterson, WAS President Ricardo Martino, USAS PastPresident Michael Schwarz. From left to right, USAS President Gary Fornshell, Fernando Mardones, WAS President Ricardo Martino, USAS PastPresident Michael Schwarz. yeast to replace fish meal in the diets of juvenile rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss.” Receiving the award for runner-up for Best Presentation was Noel Novelo of Louisiana State University for “Formulating an ultrasound imaging classification system for the channel catfish ovarian cycle.”
World Aquaculture 9 • Maritza Anguiano of Texas A&M University received First Place for Best Poster for “The effects of dietary nucleotides on growth and immunity of Nile tilapia Oreochromis niloticus.” The award for runner-up for Best Poster went to Courtnay Janiak of Delaware State University for “Direct delivery of VP19 double stranded RNA into the gut of Litopeneus vannamei shows protection against white spot disease.” • Mike Timmons and Jim Ebeling presented RAS “Yellow Book” Undergraduate Student Travel Grant awards to Shawnee Gehrig of Iowa State University and Nathan Wallace Herring of Mississippi State University. The USAS Student Activity Committee presented appreciation awards to: • Matt DiMaggio for serving as USAS/WAS student liaison and for coordinating the session “Tips for the Young Aquaculture Professional.” • Karolina Kwasek for coordinating the session on “The Impact of Women on Aquaculture.” Charles Brown for coordinating student workers at Aquaculture America 2012. • Curtis Crouse for coordinating the Student Quiz Bowl. • Jason Broach for coordinating the roommate service. • Aaron Watson for coordinating the student field trip. • Chris Hooley and Blake Hauptman for coordinating the Student Questionnaire. From left to right, USAS President Gary Fornshell, Chris Hooley, WAS President Ricardo Martino, USAS Past-President Michael Schwarz. • Michele Thompson for serving as student subunit coordinator. • Christine Savolainen and Bonnie Mulligan for serving as prize coordinators. selves, specifically to an attitude common to farmers everywhere. Farmers commonly believe that new or exotic fish species other than the local, endemic stock they are growing now performs better and they want it. One participant said that a common view in Nigeria is that imported things are better than indigenous things. Furthermore, Pangasius culture is being actively promoted, stimulating interest, but farmers are naïve to the potential consequences of the introduction beyond the farm. The discussion veered toward a comparison of the relative merits of Clarias and Pangasius. Clarias appears to have many advantages over Pangasius, including greater growth rates, higher stocking densities, better feed conversion, and simpler spawning. However, Pangasius can use a lower, or more properly, a wider range of dietary protein concentration than Clarias, which only grows well at a relatively high level of dietary protein. Also, differences in relative performance vary by system density. The existing Clarias catfish sector in Nigeria is supported by imports of costly high-protein feeds. Importing Pangasius does not change this dynamic and only exacerbates the situation. The greater concern is the development of commercial aquaculture based on a fed species in countries where hard currency (foreign exchange) must be used to purchase imported feed to sustain the sector. Furthermore, achieving full production potential of the existing fish species in aquaculture in Africa is not constrained by characteristics of the species. Indeed, the full growth potential of most species in aquaculture in Africa is rarely realized because growth and production are more often constrained by the availability of suitable inputs. Bringing in a new species does not address this constraint. Nigerians should take pride in the development of a successful commercial sector based on an endemic African species. The focus should be on improving the performance of existing Clarias stocks rather than bringing in another species. Also, investments in adding value to products, product diversification, and addressing other issues associated with seasonal oversupply can further advance the sector. Successful commercial aquaculture is not just about a species, it includes investment in all parts of the value chain, including hatchery, nursery, grow-out and all associated technical inputs. It requires the combination of genetic resources, water resources, technical inputs, and human resources. It includes running a farm like a proper business. How fish are grown is more important than what species is grown. Bringing in a new species does not change the fundamental limitations associated with production, especially in Africa. Focusing on locally available species and then implementing a program to avoid inbreeding is a much more sensible approach than bringing in new species. — John A. Hargreaves Editor-in-Chief Editor’s Note (Continued from page 2)
10 June 2012 Latin American and Caribbean Chapter President’s report Since assuming the LACC presidency during World Aquaculture 2011, I have been working closely with all members of the Board of Directors to organize the chapter and give more visibility to its actions. Our highest priorities and challenges are to contribute to the strengthening of aquaculture in the region and the establishment of linkages and communication between the countries of Central America, South America and the Caribbean. Currently the LACC has 281 active members: 88 from the USA (the majority!), 76 from Brazil, 30 from Mexico, 10 from Colombia, 9 from Peru, 8 from Chile, 6 from Argentina and 5 from Ecuador. Other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have 1 or 2 members (Cuba, Panama, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Guadeloupe). We also have members from around the world, including distant countries (e.g., Vietnam, Micronesia, New Caledonia, Australia, the Philippines, Iran, India and several European countries). From this picture we can see that, in several LACC countries where aquaculture is developed, the number of members is low, demanding actions to improve their participation in the Chapter. Communication within the chapter was greatly improved in our term. In April 2012 we had a mid-year meeting in São Paulo, Brazil, and four of seven members were present. During this meeting we discussed the possibility of developing a Country Ambassador program, following what is done by the Asian-Pacific Chapter (APC), aiming at to help the LACC recruit members and identify aquaculture organizations/expertise and national and regional issues. If you would like to apply for this position, please contact me (portella@caunesp.unesp.br). We are also working hard to improve communication to Chapter members as well. The LACC website is being revised, updated and will move soon to the was.org domain. A web designer in Brazil has been specifically hired for this purpose. I hope to set up the new website soon and make it more useful for our membership. It is critical to count on membership contributions to constantly improve the website and I request that members send us information about aquaculture activities in your region, events, and job and training opportunities. This collaboration will strengthen communication among the various segments that comprise aquaculture in the LACC region. As soon as we have the website ready, we will post two books (Patologia e Immunologia de Camarones Peneidos and Manual de Buenas Practicas de Manejo para el Cultivo del Camarón Blanco Penaeus vannamei) for free-of-charge download for LACC members. We thank LACC Past President Juan Pablo Lazo and WAS Past President Craig Bowdy for their efforts to have these books reviewed and made available for LACC members. The student representative on the LACC Board of Directors, Marcelo Shei, is very dynamic, and is actively giving special attention to the WAS page on Facebook (www.facebook. com/groups/73133442568/), posting news, announcements of scholarships, educational opportunities, job vacancies, conferences and more. I invite all members, especially students, to visit and join the LACC student Facebook page. Considering the importance of scientific and commercial conferences to disseminate aquaculture-related information and to increase the visibility of the chapter, we are working in support of three events in 2012: 1. The South American Symposium on Microencapsulation will be held in Limeira, SP, Brazil (impascience.eu/ bioencapsulation/2012_Limeira/) from April 30 to May 2; 2. The International Mariculture Seminar: Science and Technology for Sustainable Mariculture, organized by Ricardo Martino (WAS President), in Angra dos Reis, RJ, Brazil, from November 6 to 9. This conference will be the official LACC meeting in 2012; 3. The III AquaPesca Brasil 2012 – International Fishery and Aquaculture Fair, planned for November 7 to 9, at Bahia Convention Center, Salvador, Brazil (aquapescabrasil.porta80.com.br/index2012.html). The LACC Board of Directors is also exploring other opportunities to give institutional support to future meetings in Latin American and Caribbean countries. If you are organizing an aquaculture conference and want LACC participation, please contact us. The Board welcomes the opportunity to evaluate any possibility of joint events, interaction with colleagues and contact with commercial sectors. At last but not least, two other points were subject of profound debate by the LACC Board members: elections and the two-year period for LACC Officers, following the tendency adopted by other WAS Chapters. Currently, the LACC Board is not complete: there is no President-Elect and a Director (at-large Board member) must be elected because the term has already expired. For this reason, the Past President is organizing elections to reconstitute the full Board as soon as possible. Taking the opportunity (Continued on next page)
World Aquaculture 11 USAS Chapter President’s report Thank you to all members of the United States Aquaculture Society (USAS) for your support and confidence in me to lead the Chapter this year. I am deeply honored to represent such a fine organization and its membership. Fortunately there is a strong foundation within USAS to rely upon. I have the support and guidance of the 2012 Chapter Officers and Members at large, the Home Office, pastpresidents committee, and of course all my friends and colleagues within the Chapter. I wish to welcome incoming Vice-President Mike Denson, Board member at large David Cline and Student Liaison Aaron Watson. The 2012 officers and members at large are: Past-President: Michael Schwarz (mschwarz@vt.edu) President: Gary Fornshell (gafornsh@uidaho.edu) President-Elect: Kevin Hopkins (hopkins@hawaii.edu) Vice-President: Mike Denson (densonm@dnr.sc.gov) Secretary/Treasurer: Reginald Blaylock (reg.blaylock@ usm.edu) Member at Large: Rick Barrows (Rick.Barrows@ars. usda.gov) Member at Large: David Cline (clinedj@auburn.edu) Member at Large: Andy Lazur (lazur@umd.edu) Member at Large: Steve Rawles (Steven.Rawles@ars. usda.gov) Student Liaison: Aaron Watson (aaronwatson05@ gmail.com) From 2011, I wish to thank outgoing Past-President Wendy Sealey, Board member at large John Scarpa and Student Liaison Matthew DiMaggio for their dedication and service on behalf of the Chapter. Outgoing President Michael Schwarz’s service during his Presidency was commendable and as a result the Chapter is in very good standing. Treasurer Reginald Blaylock reported total Chapter assets of $215,435.19 at the annual Board of Directors Meeting in Las Vegas on February 28, 2012. In addition, we have a good operating budget. Moreover, in spite of the current economy, there was good participation at the Aquaculture America 2012 meeting in Las Vegas. It was a very good show due to capable individuals such as Conference Chair Jeff Silverstein, Technical Program Chair Steve Rawles, John Cooksey, Carol Mendoza, Judy Andrasko, and all other supporting groups and individuals too numerous to mention. The USAS presented several student awards, including the Spotlight Award and a Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award, all of which are highlighted elsewhere in this issue of World Aquaculture. USAS will continue to focus efforts on student services and awards. Students are our future. USAS will also update and redesign the website. Social networking and other online services are becoming ever more important in how people interact, communicate and acquire information and as such, the new website will be pivotal in maintaining good services for the membership. An area that the Chapter will explore is the development of research-based educational materials about U.S. aquaculture. I believe most everyone involved in aquaculture—be they from academia, industry or government—is aware of the lack of knowledge about aquaculture and misinformation about it throughout our society. This lack of knowledge and misinformation can result in poor decisions at a personal level, where, for example, someone does not eat certain cultured seafood because of the mistaken belief that dyes are used to color the flesh. Poor decisions can also be made at the societal level, where funding for research and development in the sciences may be viewed as nonessential. Research-based information can empower people to make informed decisions. This is not lobbying. It is making available research-based information on a topic for people to use as they wish. The Past-Presidents Committee will work on this issue. Planning for AQUA 2013, the Triennial meeting of the Fish Culture Section of the American Fisheries Society, National Shellfisheries Association, and the World Aquaculture Society is well underway. The conference will be held in Nashville, Tennessee from 21-25 February 2013. If you are interested in volunteering to organize a special session, or if you have any ideas for topics that might be included for this conference, please contact Dr. Sandy Shumway, Chair, Program Committee: sandra.shumway@uconn.edu. An organization is stronger and healthier when its members are engaged. I urge and plea with everyone to become involved and connect with the Officers and Board members at large. Let us know how we can better serve our membership, our parent society the World Aquaculture Society and our industry. — Gary Fornshell President USAS presented by the upcoming election, in the same ballot to select Board members, the LACC membership will be asked to vote on proposed changes in Chapter Bylaws. So, be prepared to nominate your candidates and vote when asked! I also urge all members to keep your membership in WAS and LACC current. If you are not yet a member, please join our Chapter. — Maria Célia Portella President LACC LACC chapter (Continued from previous page)
12 June 2012 Asian Pacific Chapter update I write this as we wrap up the 3rd AQUATECH: Aquaculture Expo & Convention Philippines 2012 at the Lewis Hotel in Angeles City. The APC was an organizing partner of this event and there were two APC Board members in attendance, Mark Oliver, the student Director, and me. This conference was sub-titled “Profitable Aquaculture: Supporting Sustainable Practices” and drew almost 150 participants from around the Philippines, greatly exceeding the level of participation anticipated by the organizers. Local and internationally based speakers spoke to the Philippine audience about the importance of responsible and sustainable practices in aquaculture. Participants were very happy with the quality of the speakers and materials presented and planned to bring the messages and ideas learned to others. We are now preparing for the next big event, AustralAsian Aquaculture 2012, which will take place from May 1-4 in Melbourne, Australia. By the time you read this, the event will have happened. The conference will have many other associated activities, including a simulated seafood health scare that will be a “Trial of a Seafood Incident Response Plan,” funded by the Seafood Services Australia (SSA). The conference itself will have two Chairman’s Lunches to bring together influential stakeholders to discuss issues of importance to the aquaculture and seafood sectors. The conference will also feature the inaugural Australasian Aquaculture Awards (The Blue Thumbs). Following the conference, there will be interesting field trips and the AquaEd program, which is supported by NMIT and sponsored by AgriFood Skills Australia. The APC Chapter met virtually through Skype in March and passed a framework for the creation of an Executive Advisory Council and the Country Ambassadors Program and started vetting both EAC representatives and Country Ambassadors. In addition, dramatic changes to the APC website were implemented. Although the website remains primarily text-based at present, we have added a lot more material and welcome APC members to provide more. We can add these to the new APC National Information section. We also started initial Arabic, Chinese and Japanese sections, the latter to benefit new members that joined the Chapter from the ongoing merger of the APC and Japan Chapters into a broader Asian Pacific Chapter. In May and June, Roy Palmer will travel to Japan to meet with the new APC members there to discuss the potential for a Japan Symposium. I will also travel in June to Myanmar, where I plan to discuss the possibility of a symposium there with the new APC Myanmar Country Ambassador Kyaw Tun Myint and the Myanmar Fisheries Federation. Looking westward, the APC has had its first strategy meeting with APC members in UAE to plan for an “Arid Aquaculture Symposium” that is targeted for January 2013. We hope to bring together people that live in arid land areas to discuss the current status and future potential for aquaculture in arid areas. This effort is was conceived by Roy Palmer, our immediate APC past president, and the strategy meeting included APC UAE Country Ambassador JeanYves Mevel, Prathapchandra Shetty and me. We are also looking forward to the next APC meeting in 2013 in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. The Steering Committee will be chaired by APC President-Elect Amrit Bart, assisted by Allen Wu, an APC member from Taiwan, and Program Chair, the APC Secretary-Treasurer, Wayne O’Connor. It is expected that this event will occur at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center on 10-13 December 2013. This event will be held in conjunction with the International Oyster Symposium (IOS5). Plans are proceeding for World Aquaculture 2014, which will take place in Adelaide, Australia, on 7-11 June 2014. At least two APC members, Mark Oliver and Gay Marsden (who are also Board members) will be on the Steering Committee for this event. This will be the de facto Asian Pacific conference for 2014 as well. I was present at Aquaculture America 2012 in Las Vegas and participated in the signing ceremony for World Aquaculture 2015, which will be held on Jeju Island, South Korea in May of 2015. Several APC members will participate on the Steering Committee for this event, which will also be the de facto Asian Pacific conference, similar to the WA2014 event. We are now seeking nominations for two APC Board positions that are opening for election. If you would like to nominate someone or nominate yourself, please send an email to APC and include a short biographical sketch. Please make sure you are a member of WAS APC first! Two of our APC past presidents are running for positions on the WAS Board, Graham Mair for WAS President-Elect Almost 150 participants from around the Philippines met in Angeles City for the 3rd AQUATECH: Aquaculture Expo and Convention. (Continued on page 14)
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