WWW.WAS.ORG • WORLD AQUACULTURE • DECEMBER 2016 5 Fisheries and aquaculture remain critically important sources of food, nutrition, income and livelihoods for hundreds of millions of people around the world. Aquaculture in the Asian Pacific region has become the fastest growing food production activity in the world. It is important to plan and develop the aquaculture market and economy in the region. “Transforming for Market Needs” is the theme of Asian-Pacific Aquaculture 2017 (APA17), which will take place from 24-27 July 2017 at the Putra World Trade Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This will be the next great show for the APC after APA16 in Indonesia. The APC has supported events in India (Aquaculture Chennai 2016) and Singapore (AquaSG’16) during August and October 2016, respectively. Aquaculture Chennai 2016 (ACCRRI’16) had the theme “Reflect and Restore the Tempo of Vannamei Shrimp Farming in India” and was co-organized by Tamil Nadu Fisheries University and the WAS Asian Pacific Chapter on 23-24 August 2016. Most of the shrimp industry people flocked to Chennai, where the event was embraced by all the leading industry heads, farmers, academicians and research scholars at the Hotel Green Park, the venue for ACCRRI’16. The event saw record attendance, with more than 250 participants. More than 150 new members joined WAS for the first time at the conference. The exhibition was spectacular and featured many displays of fisheries and aquaculture products. The AquaSG’16 Conference: Innovation and Investment in Aquaculture was organized by Asian Aquaculture Network (AAN) Singapore and the School of Applied Science, Temasek Polytechnics Singapore from 19-21 October 2016. The conference had over 150 participants from several countries. Parallel to the conference, there were also opportunities for exhibitors to present their products and inventions, diagnostic equipment or sustainable practices. The AquaSG’16 conference invited local and international speakers specializing in research, nutrition, farming technology and investment for the aquaculture industry. The internationally renowned speakers Asian Pacific Chapter U.S. Aquaculture Society The end of the year is nigh and we are looking forward to the USAS Annual Meeting in San Antonio, Texas on February 19-22, 2017. Currently we have over 400 abstracts submitted and there will be more coming. The planning committee is still working hard to make this a great meeting. Over the past few years, the Board of USAS has been trying to decide what kind of association the US Chapter should be. What should the Board see as the priorities for moving forward? By and large, most members are people in academia, research, extension agencies and students. Knowledge and information changes at an astounding pace and we need to remain current, and sometimes to brush up on things that we learned years ago but still remain very important. We need to have the knowledge to help industry move forward, and that knowledge isn’t always related to the fish, shellfish or plants that the industry grows. We often forget that aquaculture is a business and if it’s not done as a business it becomes a money-losing hobby. So, sometimes we need to look at the physical problems of growing the crop and sometimes we need to look at the business itself and solve the problems that it brings. To address these needs, there will be two fantastic workshops done during the weekend just before the annual meeting. On Saturday February 18, there will be the LEAN Aquaculture Workshop. Run by LEAN founder and expert Terri Lawrence, the workshop will explore the tools to improve business efficiency. It will help growers identify business strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, understand challenges and solutions. Working together participants will practice problem solving, do brainstorming for lowcost solutions, develop value-chain maps, and create individualized action plans. This LEAN process is a customer-centric methodology to improve the aquaculture business by getting rid of waste and striving for continued improvement. This is a Japanese approach to management that focuses on cutting waste while ensuring quality. Folks who have taken the LEAN workshop have had nothing but great things to say about it. It will improve your business or give you useful guidelines to help the industry people that you may work with. The second workshop will be on Sunday February 19 and will focus on water quality. It will be led by Claude Boyd, who has been teaching classes on water quality and water quality management at Auburn University for 45 years. He is the Yoda of aquaculture water quality. Many people who are leaders in aquaculture in the US were taught by him. The second person running this workshop is Chris Good, Director of Aquatic Veterinary Research at The Conservation Fund’s Freshwater Institute in West Virginia, where he has been for ten years. Chris focuses on enhancing the health and welfare of farmed fish, especially in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS). Workshop participants will learn mainly about water chemistry and the basics of RAS systems. Essentially it will help people understand the environment in which the animal husbandry of aquaculture is done. Bad water quality can lead to bad decisions and then bad returns. CHAPTER REPORTS (CONTINUED ON PAGE 6) (CONTINUED ON PAGE 6)
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