20 DECEMBER 2012 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The joint meeting of the World Aquaculture Society and European Aquaculture Society was held in Prague from 2-4 September with the theme “Securing Our Future.” The Chair of the Steering Committee was Michael New and the National Organizing Committee was led by Otomar Linhart. The Program Committee CoChairs of Marco Saroglia, Jose Fernandoc Polanco, and Zdeněk Adámek put together an excellent and diverse technical program. One plenary lecture was presented by Petter Arneson of Marine Harvest, who highlighted advances in selective breeding of Atlantic salmon and the intensification of production as recent important trends. The development of commercial Atlantic salmon farming has taken place in the context of partnerships among the private sector, research institutes, and government agencies. Suppliers of feeds, fingerlings, cages, and barges also made important contributions. Petter encouraged the audience to “tell the fantastic story” of aquaculture, starting in the classroom. He said that we face a challenge to communicate successes and change negative public perceptions of aquaculture. The second plenary lecture was presented by WAS Past-President Geoff Allan from the Department of Primary Industries, New South Wales, Australia. Geoff provided an excellent overview of the current situation and outlook for global aquaculture, systematically working through the most recent FAO statistics. Picking up on the statement by Petter Arneson about communicating success, Geoff called attention to a new guide for seafood marketers called “What’s so healthy about seafood?” Clearly both plenary speakers understood the role of aquaculture in “securing our future,” setting the stage for the technical program. To summarize the technical program: • Three full days of presentations on genetics (including biotechnology and genomics), nutrition (including feeds), and health (including immunology), indicating the high level of ongoing research addressing these critical areas. The session on probiotics — linking nutrition and health — was popular and well-attended. • Three days of sessions on environmental effects, including a day about IMTA. The Standards and Certifications session was in high demand, with standing room only throughout. • Many designated species sessions, including carps, tilapia, sturgeon, pikeperch, barramundi, trout, salmon and cod, other marine finfish, ornamental fish, mussels, oysters and other shellfish, and seaweed. Sessions covered most culture systems, including ponds, cages (including offshore cages), biofloc systems, and of course, RAS. • Sessions on regional aquaculture, including the Mediterranean and Central and Eastern Europe were organized. There was a farmer’s day, with presentations geared to local producers; Czech farmers were an obvious presence at the conference that day, conspicuous in their distinctive felt hats. The value-chain perspective is becoming ever more embraced by aquaculture. Although the emphasis of the WAS conference has been and will continue to be about production, there is a need to think holistically and overcome bottlenecks in the value chain. One of the most thought-provoking sessions of the conference was about the SEAT program. The Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade program is an EU-funded collaborative research project that is evaluating the cultured fish value chains for tilapia, catfish, and shrimp from China, Vietnam, Thailand, and Bangladesh. Among other objectives, the project team is trying to develop an Ethical Aquaculture Food Index to measure sustainability. Many of the same participants in the SEAT session attended the Development, Welfare and Poverty Elimination session the following day. Sessions on marketing and food safety, normally part of the big seafood shows, also found a place at the conference. As is always the case, this conference presented ample opportunity for informal interaction and networking. As part of the conference packet, a city transit pass for the duration of the meeting was provided. This came in handy to reach the site of the President’s reception, the Sasazu nightclub. The food was excellent, especially the duck terrine. Before the night ended, the dance-floor was filled with (mostly) students jumping to the thumping music. Everyone I talked to made time to enjoy the city and tour the sights, especially the medieval astronomical clock in Old Town Square, the Charles Bridge, and Prague Castle. AQUA 2012 in Prague The beauty of Prague was strongly alluring to all conference participants. Photo: Joe Tomasso. Conference Report (CONTINUED ON PAGE 19)
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