14 MARCH 2017 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG TOWARD THE PROFESSIONALIZATION OF AQUACULTURE To continue the discussion that started with the publication of an article on the professionalization of aquaculture in the World Aquaculture magazine in 2015 (World Aquaculture 46(2):22-23), I invited Patrick Patrick Sorgeloos to share his thoughts on the subject. Patrick Sorgeloos has been involved in fish and shellfish larviculture R&D in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa ever since the mid-1970s. In 1978 he established the Artemia Reference Center and in 1986 he became the first professor of aquaculture at Ghent University until his retirement as emeritus professor in October 2013. Under his guidance, more than 250 Masters of Science from more than 50 countries and 70 PhD students from more than 20 countries graduated from Ghent University in aquaculture. Patrick is a strong promoter of international networking in aquaculture and was/is involved with the World Aquaculture Society (serving as President from 1999-2000), the European Commission (chairman Thematic Network Aquaculture — AquaTnet; member Advisory Group DG Research FP7 theme 2 “food, agriculture and biotechnology”; chairman ASEM Aquaculture Platform) and the European Aquaculture Technology & Innovation Platform (founding member). He was co-founder of the Ghent University spin-off company Artemia Systems (1983), now operating as INVE Aquaculture and belonging to the Benchmark Holdings plc. He has received honorary awards in Belgium, China, Egypt, Greece, Malaysia, Thailand, USA, Vietnam and Ecuador. Below is the quintessence of the conversation, which was held on 22 November 2016. Rodrigue Yossa: Why have you chosen to work in aquaculture? Patrick Sorgeloos: It was a succession of pure coincidences. Early in my career, I did not know the word aquaculture. I started working on brine shrimp, Artemia, not from an aquaculture prospective, but because at the time the late Professor Fautrez at Ghent University was using Artemia as a model organism in cancer research. My thesis aimed at helping this professor develop a standard culture technique that will prevent Artemia from dying after just two weeks of culture. Upon graduation, I received a scholarship to pursue postgraduate studies at the marine station of Duke University in North Carolina, USA. Another coincidence, Professor Bookhout, former Director of the Marine Institute at Duke University and a very famous scientist on the biology of crabs, was using Artemia to feed crab larvae throughout all the molting stages. Professor Bookhout told me that the Japanese were using Artemia in aquaculture. That is how I got familiar with aquaculture. Following my return from the US in 1972, I discovered that the Japanese were very active and advanced in aquaculture hatchery research and production with shrimp and seabream. Following the Japanese experience, we started hatchery aquaculture activities in Europe, and then followed the USA and the rest of the world. So, when I started working on Artemia for aquaculture, the global annual consumption of Artemia cysts was a few hundred kilograms, and today it is close to 4 million kilograms. So, I am fortunate to have had the unique chance to see the development of hatchery aquaculture basically from scratch at the very beginning in Japan to a global business of several billion dollars. Rodrigue Yossa: How would you describe the ideal aquaculture scientist? Patrick Sorgeloos: Aquaculture is very dynamic, and there is currently no ideal aquaculture system; therefore, it would be difficult to describe an ideal aquaculture scientist. However, a good aquaculture scientist should be very open-minded. Aquaculture is a very complicated science where we are dealing with hundreds of species, physico-chemical parameters of water, engineering, microbiology, diseases, nutrition, etc., so a good aquaculture scientist should be ready to knock on doors and seek collaborations with scientists from other scientific disciplines. In addition, a good aquaculture scientist should be willing to share their knowledge with other scientists, to set up a winwin relationship with them. Willingness to share scientific knowledge and ideas goes with being open to taking some risks, trusting other people, and willing to motivate other colleagues and train students. Rodrigue Yossa: How would you describe the ideal aquaculture producer? Patrick Sorgeloos: An ideal aquaculture producer should be openminded for new ideas and be willing to share experiences with other producers and scientists. An ideal aquaculture producer should be receptive to students seeking internships on the farm because students come with access to recent knowledge in the field. Farmers who are secretive somewhat also hide their problems without knowing. A Conversation with Patrick Sorgeloos Rodrigue Yossa (CONTINUED ON THE NEXT PAGE)
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