6 JUNE 2016 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG The Asian Pacific Aquaculture Conference and Exposition (APA16) took place from 26-29 April 2016 in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia. The event was held at the Grand City Convention Center, which was a very welcoming venue for the conference and trade show. APA16 featured ten concurrent sessions including technical sessions and a Shrimp Farmers Day. During the event, more than 450 oral presentations and posters were made. The trade show had over 220 booths that attracted over 4,000 attendees. APA 2016 had over 1,500 full conference attendees which made the record-breaking attendance for a WAS event at over 5,500 people from over 75 countries. In addition, the day before APA16, special annual Indonesian meetings, namely the Forum on Innovation of Aquaculture Technology (FITA) and Indonesian Aquaculture (Indoaqua), were held. Among the sessions of APA16, the special session of the Shrimp Farmers Day organized by the Indonesian Shrimp Club had the biggest attendance, with over 370 people. This can be understood because Asia is the largest producer of farmed shrimp, but it is still facing the problem to increase production, which is generally constrained by disease outbreaks. Therefore, Shrimp Farmers day in APA16 was attractive for many shrimp farmers to attend. They learned from invited speakers how to successfully farm shrimp, from hatchery to grow out. Invited speakers in this session were Dr. Craig Browdy, Dr. Farshad Sishehchian, Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos, Dr. Albert Tacon and Dr. Antonio Casia. Asian Pacific Aquaculture 2016 was a great success, with record-breaking attendance for a WAS event, so discussions are already underway to hold the international meeting, World Aquaculture 2020, in Indonesia. Our next Asian Pacific Aquaculture Conference and Exposition will take place in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia on 25-27 July 2017. — Endhay Kusnendar Kontara, President There was a changing of the guard at the annual board meeting of the Asian Pacific Chapter in Surabaya. The incoming President, Dr. Endhay Kusnendar Kontara, is a Senior Researcher at Research and Development Center for Aquaculture, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF). He has held several important positions at the Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries (MMAF) during his time there and continues being a person of influence within Indonesia. Recently he was SEAFDEC Council Director for Indonesia and currently is actively involved as member of the Indonesian National Research Council, Ministry of Research and Technology, and Geographical Indication Expert Team, Ministry of Law and Human Rights. He is one of the founders and Vice President of the Indonesian Aquaculture Society (IAS) and is joined by new President-Elect, Dr. Guillaume Drillet. Dr. Farshad Shishehchian moves to PastPresident, having been the major driver of many facets of the APC for the last period. Roy Palmer retires from the board after involvement in many achievements since 2008. Guillaume Drillet received a Young Elite Scientist Award from the Danish Ministry of Independent Research and is now based in Singapore working for DHI Water and Environment where he supported the development of the Ballast Water Technology and Innovation Center as well as the DHI Environmental Laboratories. He is currently Chairman of the important International Maritime Organization (IMO) committee on Ballast Water. Dr. Patrick Sorgeloos (University of Ghent) and Dr. Endhay gave keynote presentations to the packed Grand City Hall at the Conference opening which followed the Welcome to Indonesia activities held on the previous evening. — Roy Palmer, Director – APC Asian Pacific Chapter CHAPTER REPORT USAS, continued from page 5 and Allen is working hard with the Promotion and Membership Education Sub-Committee on webinars which USAS is sponsoring with the National Aquaculture Association. The last area that should be mentioned deals with the transfer of information in a more social way. Bill Walton from Auburn, Dennis McIntosh from Delaware State, and Josh Patterson from University of Florida are working to boost the social media platforms for USAS. They are taking over USAS Facebook postings as well as starting up our Twitter (twitter.com/usaquasoc) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/usaquasoc/) accounts. Dave Cline is working with Mike Denson and me to make the new USAS website a better place to find information about aquaculture and the Society. We would greatly welcome any photos or content that you might want to share going through any of the social media outlets or onto the website. To finish, the opportunity for me to serve as President of USAS is literally a capstone to my career of service to the commercial fishing and aquaculture industries. At this point in time, I’m supposed to have a vision for USAS. I do and it’s very simple: to have our members participate, one way or another, for the benefit of other members. I have worked in Extension since 1978 and have met thousands of great hardworking people from all sectors. But the dedication I see and hope to continue to see with those coming through their professional careers and USAS gives me great hope that aquaculture will continue to grow in the United States. — Gef Flimlin, President
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