WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • MARCH 2016 7 CHAPTER REPORTS In this column I want to share with you the excitement that our new board is bringing to LACC, to discuss some of the issues currently facing our society, and to report on the progress and intermediate achievements of our committees. Your new board has embarked on a complete overhaul of the chapter, from organizing thematic and regional workshops, to revamping the website, launching a program of country ambassadors, and reaching out to students and other members via social media. We understand the need to improve the chapter’s services and would appreciate any ideas and feedback from the membership. When you read these lines, the WAS triennial convention, Aquaculture 2016, would already have taken place in Las Vegas. Likewise, some of our members would have already returned from LACC’s first Global Catfish Conference scheduled for March 1-2 in Tampico, Mexico. The organizers spared no effort to provide a productive forum for academics and producers. We invited highly recognized experts on different topics relevant to catfish aquaculture, from fry production to product marketing. We hope the workshop was a success and was well attended by catfish producers, headed by the Mexican National Catfish Council, which co-organized the event. Bi-directional exchange of ideas between academics and industry for the progress of the catfish aquaculture industry was the primary goal of the workshop. We thank the Mexican National Institute of Fisheries and its director, Pablo Arenas Fuentes for sponsoring this conference. We also thank CONAPESCA and the State Government of Tamaulipas for their support. LACC intends to organize other species-specific, regional, or special topic workshops regularly in Latin America. Please send me any ideas you may have about such future workshops. You may have noticed that our website (www.was.org/LACC/) has been completely remodeled and updated. Most content is now in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. We thank all the involved under the able direction of publications committee chairman Pablo Gonzalez. Please visit the new site and send your contributions, news, reports, photos and links to our secretariat at lacc@was.org. The student activities committee organized a contest and prize for the best student-LACC poster presented at the WAS convention in Las Vegas. The committee also coordinated the launching of a Facebook page specifically targeting aquaculture students which can be seen at: www.facebook.com/laccWas/. We welcome our new student committee member Pablo Fuentes from Mexico and thank him for his involvement. We still need one more student member, so please volunteer if you want to become involved with the chapter. In March we will start calling for nominations for new officers of the board. This year we’ll be electing a new secretary and one director. The election is scheduled for August and September and the new officers will be inaugurated in November at our annual convention in Peru. Please think about nominating candidates and send your suggestions to committee chair Antonio Garza. Please remember to ask permission from the nominee and make sure they are active members of the chapter. Among all this good and encouraging news I would be remiss if I did not mention that the financial state of the chapter is not good. Conventions are our main source of revenue. When they go wrong, financially the chapter suffers. The current board started its term with savings depleted from LACQUA 14 (Guadalajara, Mexico), which was very good in every other respect, but financially disastrous. The previous board had hoped that results from LACQUA 15 (Fortaleza, Brazil) would help alleviate this situation and put the finances back in order, but the Brazilian financial crisis affected the main conference sponsors and we remain in financial distress. We thank our parent society for providing LACC with emergency funds to meet immediate needs. In the meantime we have reduced short-term expenses and have prepared a plan to overcome financial difficulties. We remain positive and are working diligently towards obtaining good financial results from the upcoming catfish workshop (Tampico, Mexico – Mar 1-2) and LACQUA 16 (Lima, Peru - Nov 28 to Dec 1). We continue to make preparations for upcoming conventions: the aforementioned LACQUA 16 in Lima, Peru this November and our planned LACQUA 17 in Havana, Cuba. I hope to see all of you at these two meetings. Until then, best of luck and keep the fish growing! — Lorenzo Juarez, President Latin American and Caribbean Chapter Our COMPLETE LINE OF AERATORS delivers much needed oxygen for fresh and salt water fish in ponds, lakes, and during transport. Their proven dependability results in better production, reduced loss, and improved growth rate for your fish. Wisconsin • USA 920-208-1500 See our full line at www.freshflo.com Check out our fish grader and feeder too! YOU KNOW FISH WE KNOW AERATORS
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