WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2014 9 Shifting gears, many of you may have heard of predatory publishing, where journals, usually new open-access journals, will approach academics seeking submission of manuscripts, which often turn out to have significant page or publication charges and lack the editorial and publishing services associated with quality, legitimate journals. A regularly updated on-line report lists nearly 500 such journals and it is inevitable that one or more will encompass the field of aquaculture. I recently became aware of a similar phenomenon of predatory conferencing, with organizations seeking to organize fee-paying conferences, principally for income generation. This is different from the scams many of us are aware of with invitations to bogus conferences that never actually occur. (Most of the invitations that I receive seem to arise from China). These predatory conferences may actually take place if sufficient interest is garnered but are likely to turn out to be something less than they are made out to be. A common practice of predatory conferencing is to seek endorsements from well-known people in the field, who are often not aware that their interest in the conference is being used to promote the event. Senior figures in WAS are prime targets for such practice. So, when these tempting invitations drop into your inbox, it pays to do a bit of due diligence. Things to look out for that might set alarm bells ringing include a lack of any obvious cooperation with local organizations and a lack of organizational endorsement rather than individual endorsement. Fortunately the brand and reputation of WAS is such that, as an organization, our participation in or endorsement of an event can be seen as a measure of its authenticity and legitimacy. I mentioned in my last column about the two important decisions taken by the Board in Adelaide to reinvigorate the journal and to support the development of chapter home offices for the APC and LACC. On the journal, our first step is to recruit an Executive Editor. This process is travelling a bit slower than hoped but we have a number of promising candidates for the position and will soon be shortlisting. Hopefully I will be able to provide an update in my next column. We have made better progress on the development of chapter home offices, with appointments made for both executive officers, who will take up their positions this December. Further details will be provided by the chapters but I would like to welcome Pornnatcha Klinsorn (Genie) and Nashieli Rodriguez (Nash) to the WAS executive team representing the APC and LACC respectively. Genie will be based in Bangkok and will be working full time with the APC while Nash will be based in La Paz, Mexico and will initially be working on a part-time basis. These appointments will enable those chapters to be more proactive and to engage more effectively with their members. Hopefully these executive officers will gain a better understanding of the most effective value proposition of WAS membership in their respective regions, enabling us to better tailor and adapt membership features and services to deliver better value from membership. I would like to end by wishing all WAS members an enjoyable and productive festive season, which here in Australia is a key time of year for the seafood industry, with a major peak in consumption. — Graham Mair, President President, continued from page 2 of Craig Tucker. The aquatic plant management chapter has been completely re-worked. The chemistry chapters of the book conclude with a chapter on trace elements, emphasizing the importance of iron in groundwater. This chapter combined several chapters from previous versions of the book. A chapter on miscellaneous treatments follows, including discussion of biological amendments, microbial and plant extracts, oxidants and disinfectants, therapeutants and other substances. Despite their widespread use, particularly in marine shrimp farming, the authors are rather dismissive of probiotics, although admittedly the evidence for their efficacy is equivocal. There is a new chapter on water quality in low-salinity aquaculture, particularly applicable to the farming of shrimp in inland areas heretofore underutilized for this form of aquaculture. A chapter on pond bottom soil management has been re-worked and is considerably shortened from the previous version of the book. Interestingly there is no discussion of phosphorus dynamics here. On the whole, the discussion of phosphorus is minimal and scattered throughout the book. Phosphorus deserves its own chapter, given its importance to primary productivity and environmental impact (i.e. eutrophication). The Handbook then moves into a group of chapters describing the particular water quality issues associated with various culture systems, including partitioned ponds, lined ponds (including biofloc systems), flow-through systems, cage culture and recirculating systems. A last chapter on effluents provides information on strategies for effluent reduction and summarizes the Best Management Practices available to minimize the volume and impact of effluents. The book concludes with a section on volume measurement and calculations. This section is organized according to the water inflow and loss terms of a water balance and provides good information on measuring water flow. The section also includes information on calculating the proper dose of chemical treatments of culture systems. As in the other books, a helpful reference of commonly-used conversion factors is included. This book will have broad appeal to fish and shrimp producers, students and scientists. It is an essential reference for anyone working in the field of water quality, although the book also represents a key reference for aquaculture scientists working in subfields such as nutrition, reproduction, diseases, engineering, etc. The price point of this book makes it affordable to growers, students and scientists in the developing world. As with previous versions, the book is, at its core, a practical manual for managing water quality in aquaculture production systems. — John A. Hargreaves Editor’s Note: Handbook for Aquaculture Water Quality is available through the on-line store at the WAS website. The book is also available in the US for $49.50 per copy (including shipping by US mail media rate) by ordering from P. Boyd, P.O. Box 3074, Auburn, Alabama 36831. For international shipping costs or other questions, contact claudee39@gmail.com.
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