6 JUNE 2013 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG Asian Pacific Chapter I am beginning to finally see the end of my term as president of our chapter and it reminds me to remind you that elections will be coming up soon. New APC board members are needed to replace quite a few of our current board members, whose terms will end after our upcoming Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2013 event to be held in Ho Chi Minh City this December. If you have an interest in volunteering your time to better international aquaculture, please nominate yourself or have someone nominate you by sending a message to apcwas@was.org. If you are a dynamic person, we are a dynamic chapter. Join us! Starting in December, after APA2013, our chapter will be led by Dr. Amrit Bart, Director of the Asian Institute of Technology in Vietnam, a very good friend of mine and someone with a long-time involvement with Asian and international aquaculture. In fact, the process of shifting responsibilities to Amrit began at the WAS conference in Nashville this past February, when our chapter brought both of us to the event so Amrit could begin to learn about WAS Board meetings. (Chapter presidents serve on the general WAS board). It was a timely decision because I had to rush back to Bangkok after the first day; my second child simply could not wait one more moment before leaving her aquatic environment. Luckily we had a plan and I have an understanding wife! Hopefully everyone has been paying attention to the fact that the APC is trying new things to make membership in WAS and APC more relevant. This past March we held the first of what we hope will be many such events, the Arid Land Aquaculture 2013 Symposium and Workshops (ALA2013). The idea of symposia is to bring a more targeted focus to specific regions and specific topics, something that our annual regional WAS meetings cannot do. The idea is to create several smaller events, between 100-300 people, that will be held more often to allow our members to gain knowledge and network in their region. The ALA2013 event was the first time we have done such an event and, athough it was quite a lot of work (here I give specific thanks to the Steering Committee and especially the Program Chair, Dr. Imad Saoud), it was very successful. Participants expressed their interest in seeing this type of event again. We would like to sincerely thank the conference host, United Arab Emirates University, and the sponsors, Pentair/ Aquatic Eco-Systems and Blue Aqua, all of whom were critical in making this event a success. From our Steering Committee standpoint, we learned how much work Executive Director of WAS John Cooksey does in preparing for conferences and meetings. So, if you enjoy the annual WAS conferences, be sure to thank him and his team! Speaking of organizing events, we have a new position in our chapter, the APC Events Manager. Roy Palmer, who is also our immediate Past-President, was chosen from several candidates to be the point person for future APC events, like the recent symposia and workshops. If you have ideas of places and worthwhile topics for a symposium supported by APC, or would like to sponsor such an event, please contact Roy through our chapter email. For future events, APC is a sponsor of the Biofloc Technology Course which will be held from 27-28 September in Singapore. This course is being organized by Venture Farms and Temasek Polytechnic, and the event planning is being led by Mr. Jimmy Lim, who is also one of the APC Executive Advisory Council (EAC) members for the Southeast Asian region. Plans are ongoing for a High Value Marine Finfish Aquaculture Symposium in cooperation with Professor Koshio Shunsuke (who is the APC-EAC representative from Japan) and Kagoshima Fisheries University. This event will be in conjunction with the Kagoshima Sushi Festival on 16 October 2013 and a highlight will be ‘Aquaculture Sushi 101,’ a half-day workshop to highlight aquaculture’s link to sushi. The next two days will be for a symposium and field trips. This symposium is also in recognition of the importance of the recent merger between the APC and Japan Chapters. The Japan event will be a precursor to the Asia Pacific Aquaculture 2013 (APA2013) meeting in Ho Chi Minh City from 10-13 December - “Positioning for Profit.” I hope chapter members have been submitting abstracts; if not, please do so immediately. For this event we also plan two associated events: • ADIOS — Aquatic Disease Incident Outbreak Simulation. When the aquaculture industry has an aquatic disease, usually there is very little done to prevent its spread. Think of KHV in Indonesia, or perhaps even more relevant the recent AHPNS spread through the shrimp industry. This one-day event prior to APA2013 will build on LEFT: Visiting the largest cage grouper producer in Cambodia.RIGHT: Part of the Steering Committee for the Arid Land Aquaculture 2013 Symposium and Workshops in Al Ain, UAE March 24-27, 2013. From left – Lukas Manomaitis (APC President), Jean-Yves Mevel (APC UAE Country Ambassador), Roy Palmer (APC Past President), Imad Saoud (APC Executive Advisory Council – Middle East Region). (CONTINUED ON PAGE 8) CHAPTER REPORTS
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