4 DECEMBER 2013 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG I am really excited about recent events that have happened in the Chapter. The Latin American and Caribbean Aquaculture (LACQUA) 2013 meeting in Villavicencio, Colombia, exceeded anything we could have ever predicted. During this first LACQUA event there were more than 500 participants from 23 countries; including approximately 200 producers. This event was the most important meeting in Spanish ever organized by the World Aquaculture Society, and one of the most significant in the region until today. Having the meeting with all presentations in Spanish is the most practical and simple way to integrate the industry by bringing together producers, academia and decision makers. This is the way the LACC can contribute to the real development of aquaculture in Latin America and the Caribbean region: putting all the stakeholders at the same table to set goals and discuss the structured development of the region. Before the conference the first meeting with the new members of the Board of Directors was held. The Board discussed the importance of continuing and strengthening LACQUA events, promoting and increasing membership and improving services to our members. To achieve these goals, it was agreed that LACQUA should be a meeting that emphasizes Spanish and/or Portuguese as its official language. We should become a more modern, organized and participatory chapter overall. During the meeting, chairs of the Elections, Rules and Regulations, Publications, Student, Awards and Promotion and Membership committees were appointed. Please get in touch with any member of the Board to participate on any of these committees. The Board also approved the budget, so we can offer to our members an online Spanish version of World Aquaculture magazine. The Chapter will be represented at the WAS mid-year board meeting in Vietnam, where specific proposals will be made, including creation of a regional secretariat position and restructuring of the affiliate agreements. I am sure everyone that took part in the LACQUA event was impressed by the quality of the presentations, the producers’ participation and the magnificent closing ceremony, which took place in a typical Colombian maloca. After the closing ceremony dinner, the LACC Chapter acknowledged the efforts of Pablo Emilio Cruz Casallas, Yohana Velasco Santamaría and Mauricio Medina Robles, the local organizers of the event who made everything possible, by awarding each with a 3-year membership to the World Aquaculture Society. We thank you and will be forever grateful. Hopefully you find what is happening as exciting as I do and decide to become an active part of the Chapter. To get involved please contact any of the Board members. I am really looking forward to see LACC grow; with your help and participation we will make this possible. — Antonio Garza de Yta, President The last two weeks have made me question why would anyone remains a fish farmer once they really know what it demands of a person and their family. The proximate cause of my funk was losing 1/3 of the sturgeon broodstock that we have been developing over the last two decades because of a pump failure, followed a week later by a power surge that destroyed the control systems for our back-up water supply. But a news story showing farmers in the Philippines already starting to rebuild their farms just days after the farms were destroyed by Typhoon Haiyan answered my question — we continue to farm because that is what we do. We are farmers (and I include all of our members, even those not directly on the farm). The satisfaction we get from growing things more than offsets the knowledge that we have as much chance growing rich from aquaculture as we do of winning the lottery. This is the time of the year that your Society’s officers and volunteers are working hard to finalize plans for our upcoming meeting, Aquaculture America 2014 in Seattle from 9-12 February 2014. We will have an excellent program in a beautiful city. The only real downside is that you will probably gain a few pounds from the amazing array of food options there. Details about Aquaculture America 2014 can be found on the WAS website. I hope to see you all in Seattle. In addition to the upcoming meeting, USAS has been working to make the Society more useful to current and potential members. Among other efforts, we have joined forces with AquacultureHub (www.aquaculturehub.org) to increase our presence on social networks to make useful aquaculture information more readily available. We are also starting the process to completely update our “traditional” website. If you have suggestions about materials that should be posted on either AquacultureHub or the USAS website, please let us know. I have been in the US aquaculture industry for many years. At the start of my career, the industry was primarily family farms (catfish, trout and crayfish), a few larger corporate operations, and hatcheries for restocking public waters. Education, research and development was almost totally dependent upon the largess (and forward thinking) of the federal government. We are maturing as an industry. Production has expanded, the number of species has increased and we are finally taking some of the responsibility for education support and our R&D needs. I am particularly happy that both the Soy Aquaculture Alliance and Novus International have joined Drs. Jim Ebeling and Mike Timmons (authors of the “yellow book” on Recirculating Aquaculture) on our roster of private firms supporting student travel. Industry support for education and research will need to increase because government support will, in all probability, continue to decrease. See you in Seattle! — Kevin Hopkins, President Latin American and Caribbean Chapter CHAPTER REPORTS U.S. Aquaculture Society
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