2 DECEMBER 2014 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG President’s Column As I write this, Christmas decorations are starting to appear in the gardens of Adelaide and what looks like being a long dry summer is about to descend on us as the year spins by. South Australia is the driest state in Australia and yet, along with Tasmania, has the greatest aquaculture activity. It’s somewhat counterintuitive to think of aquaculture expanding in dry areas but here at WAS we are seeing a significant growth of interest in aquaculture in arid areas, particularly in the Middle East. A reliable source of quality water is a pre-requisite for any aquaculture operation and a basic fact is that our animals live in water. Thus, as aquaculturists, we treasure that water and invest heavily in conserving it and maintaining a quality conducive to profitable production. Aquaculture is actually one of the most drought-resistant forms of primary production! The Asia-Pacific Chapter organized an Aridland Aquaculture Symposium and Workshops last year. Also, our immediate Past President Michael Schwarz is heavily involved and formally representing WAS in the Global Forum for International Agriculture (GFIA) initiative, which is emphasizing climate-smart agriculture with a focus on the Middle East and Africa, and also in the upcoming Middle East Aquaculture Forum (MEAF). The second GFIA meeting is being held next year on March 9-10 in Abu Dhabi and the first MEAF meeting follows in Dubai April 5-6. These are meetings towards which WAS is contributing and sponsoring and, in the case of GFIA, ensuring that aquaculture has a profile as an important component of climate-smart agriculture. Shifting attention farther south, and a development that I am following closely, we are moving forward in the planning and organization of our first WAS conference in Africa. This will be held in Cape Town, South Africa from June 26-30, 2017. I signed the agreement for this conference with Roger Krohn of the Aquaculture Association of Southern Africa during the conference in Adelaide earlier this year and the first steering committee meeting was held last month in Cape Town. The conference in South Africa will represent an exciting opportunity to bring together the global aquaculture community with aquaculturists throughout Africa to discuss the latest technologies and opportunities for aquaculture development. The conference theme is Sustainable Aquaculture - New Frontiers for Economic Growth. My personal interest comes from having spent some considerable time in the region working on an aquaculture development project with the University of Stellenbosch in the late 1990s. In addition to the interest around this being our first meeting in the region, this happens also to be a spectacularly beautiful part of the world with plenty to interest delegates outside of aquaculture. Nonetheless, the conference will have a significant challenge in encouraging and supporting participation from aquaculturists throughout the subcontinent, in particular, which includes some countries that remain among the least economically developed in the world. Contents (continued) Society 2 President’s Column 3 Editor’s Note 4 USAS Report 4 Asian Pacific Chapter Report 5 Korean Chapter Report 5 Latin American and Caribbean Chapter Report 69 Financial Report 70 Conference Calendar 71 Future Conferences and Expositions 72 Advertisers’ Index 72 Membership Application (CONTINUED ON PAGE 9) YOU COULD BE MISSING OUT ON IMPORTANT INFORMATION Please take a moment to add wascommunication@was.org and judya@was.org to your approved sender’s list so that you do not miss out on any important information regarding the World Aquaculture Societay and your WAS membership. Many of you may not be aware that your email is not being received due to a permission or security issue. It may have been rejected by a moderator, the address may only accept email from certain senders, or another restriction.
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